At night, you can see the stars and airplanes reflected in the water.

Autumn Dappled Granite

From our entrance to the lake, taken to remind me how quickly progress the seasons of our lives. Placed in the 60's, it looks like it has remained since the last ice age, ca. 13,000 years ago here.

The autumn has rapidly advanced. Swamp maples are past their peak, while more upland deciduous trees are drying and dropping. The excessive rain this summer has something to do with it, but I'm not sure exactly how it translates to dull, dry leaves.

Hunting season opened about ten days ago, so most of the waterfowl have already come through. There is something special about being awakened by goose guns going off at sunrise just outside the window. That warm feeling from puddling piss, for instance...

equinox

Autumnal Equinox
Comes rushing in with a vicious rattle,
Icy pellets awaken me, alarmingly.
Fear of dying as Death roars by,
Leaving leaves and limbs akimbo.

"Fall Is Arrived! Behold the glory,"
roars the wind Northwest.
Harbinger of the roiling death
so close around the corner
lurks the ultimate foe...
Winter.

Everybody’s Heard, About The Word…

[Sorry about the title, a take-away from the chorus of “The Purple People Eater”]

Life continues apace here in Maine by the lake. Leaves are starting to turn, while the ten days of rain have convinced the super-early swamp maple that turns a month ahead of everything else in the cove to drop its crimson leaves in disgust. The Arctic Snow Geese have been through and got out just ahead of the bad weather when it was still hot, muggy and 90 freaking degrees out the first week of September. That was when our second generator died, preventing parallel operation which translates to no air conditioning. The Canada Geese have been bitching and moaning at night in their little floating rafts out in the middle of the lake while awaiting a return of good flying weather. And of course, yours truly has got itchy feet without the means to go.

Came across these in my memory the other day while standing in six inches of water refueling the Honda e2000i generator. Thought I’d share…

The one thing that the Autumn brings to these parts – most of these are grounded:

As one wag put it, they come with FAA-issued tail numbers, too.

Wicked. No, really.

In a copyrighted story in the Bangor Daily News back in April this year a collection of words that may crop up here on occasion and their meanings. I don’t even think about them, but some may cause shaking of heads and furrowed brows atop wrinkled heads. So be it…

About a month ago, we ran a story on the Dictionary of American Regional English, a collection of the colorful and varied words used in Americans’ everyday lives, across the country, organized by region — including Maine and New England. We included a short but eclectic list of some of words specific to Maine, and asked readers to submit their own suggestions for Maine words.

We received an excellent response, and have since compiled them all and done a little research (to the best of our ability) to weed out the words used elsewhere in the country from the more strictly Maine ones. We’ve come up with our own, revised list of Maine vernacular words and phrases, a little dictionary containing words ranging from the obvious, well-known “dooryard” and “wicked” to lesser-known gems such as “laury” or “sprills.”

 

See y’all on the flipside.