MaryAlice Musings and More

  Last night the winds starting blowing, by early this morning the wind was really on a tear, and around 8:00-8:30 a.m., after one brief power out experience, the winds seemed to die down.  We were still in a wind advisory, that is expected to last until 8:00 pm tonight, but it seemed like I could do my planned trip to Millinocket to meet with the Outdoor Sports Institute (OSI) board for a morning session.  There were people that I was looking forward to seeing as well as promised great soup and fancy coffee drinks.  I decided to make my way to Milly.   It was a fun, interesting, mind expanding session and right on schedule I headed for home at noon.  The sun was out as I started toward home, with a pit stop at Peddler's Hill, where I bought fresh tuna from the mid-coast supplier that comes to Millinocket.  How lucky,  meeting new and very interesting people, a really good latte, Polish Cabbage-Sausage soup, and sushi grade tuna.  All good with the world.  While I was checking in

  I have definitely moved into fall preparation mode.  The weather has been cool in the mornings , the evenings cooler yet, and when the sun comes out it is a lovely light and warms both my cheeks and my heart.   I am in the queue for a heat pump and hope to have it installed next week.  A shed is being built for my generator, so that is will be easier to use if necessary.  Elle has dug out two of the three flower/herb beds and she is bringing beauty and design to my wild, weed filled beds.    And I am cleaning out shelves and sorting through papers.  I am canning.  I am making soups.  I am baking Galettes.  The latest inspired by the lovely cherry tomatoes still ripening every day.  So very very good and I shared with friends, who were very appreciative!   Yum yum,  fall harvest, equinox light.  Salve and balm in these days.  The light and dark in balance, the angle of the light so very exquisite in the autumnal equinox.  The light and dark in balance, and I am finding my way to balan

This morning I put myself, the Apple Galette I made and a small container of water in the car and headed to Houlton for the Unitarian Universalist In-gathering Service.   The Sunday after Labor Day is the beginning of a new UU year.  This congregation is uninterrupted in its service and commitment to the community for two hundered and twelve (212) years. Two Hundred and Twelve Years, that's a long time.  I felt the presence of those who sat I sat in the  Midcentury Arts and Crafts Sanctuary with it's huge beams and wonderful light. This is only the third building of this congregation, my congregation, where I got to participate in the Water Communion Ceremony today.   It seemed poignant that now is the time of the water communion,  people bringing water from special places, sharing about their summers, coming together as we begin fall.  A lovely clear cut glass bowl on the altar ready to hold all of our water, mingled and mixed together.   I brought water from my tap, Patten To

  As summer has been winding down it seemed as if the clock had been speeding up! My calendar was very full and too often scrambled and incorrect.  All those "things" on calendar, and the one's I forgot to put in, were all good.  It was also a lot!  Blogging went by the wayside,  not enough just being time which is the time that I need in order to put any words out in the world.   Today,  I took things off the calendar.   I had a "niggle" last night that I was paying attention to, it said: "just do what serves you best tomorrow".  This morning the niggle was still gliding right at the edge of my consciousness - and here I am mid-afternoon feeling quite content and very happy.   I organized, had no idea that would be what felt in service of myself but it seems to be in rhythm with the fall weather we are experiencing now.   My spice list is updated, and extra's are organized and ready to go to the basement pantry.  My food cabinet has been gone thro

  A former colleague and a long distance friend posted a photo and linked to this article on Komorebi . Komorebi is one of many Japanese words that have no translation, the closest we come is "dappled sunlight".   I love that feeling when walking in the woods or out in the open when the trees and the sunlight dance and hold each other in ways that create such a beautiful union.  I found this definition on a page for the company called Global Translations  Business Services - Komorebi is an untranslatable word, which eloquently captures the effect of sunlight streaming through the leaves of the trees. The shadow created on the ground, or even in our curtains, describes this everyday beauty. It is the interplay of the aesthetics between the shadows and the leaves, and the shape of nature’s wisest earthly existence –  trees. To equate the powerful beauty projected by this word with “sunbeam” or “sunshine” would be an injustice to nature’s landscape – our magnificent per

  Today was a day with not one "anything" on my calendar.  There were tomatoes calling from the porch and while I listened to Andrea Mitchell on my Alexa speaker and started the satisfying process of canning tomatoes.  I started with the quick dip in boiling water and then plunging into the icy cold to take off the skins.  Then I cut out the cores (there was not one blemish on any of the tomatoes, Ada's tomatoes are the best) and started cooking them up.  Meanwhile jars were washed, lids and rings in the hot water, and my favorite glass funnel ready to fill the jars.  The kosher salt and lemon juice waiting.   I don't remember if I really watched my great grandmothers can food. I do remember watching them open the jars that they were using for a meal.  There were always canned pickles and maybe pickled watermelon rinds at most if not all meals.  I remember the sauerkraut crock at the bottom of the very small steps down to the cellar.   "Putting food up" was