It’s September 2nd and we’re packing the car up to return for a few weeks to hot and sweaty Philly. We snapped this shot of our new used Subaru, the unofficial car of Maine. Note the plates, and of course, our sweet little cabin tucked amidst the embrace of a looming oak, sapling maple and a full cadre of the ubiquitous pines of our little slice of paradise we’ve named Wild Air.
It’s been one of the most hectic, productive and honestly exhausting periods of our combined lives. In May we came up to Union, finished updating our 175-year-old cottage for selling, listed it, showed it and amazingly sold it in just under 2 weeks! Meanwhile, we found the little patch of earth and sea we’ve been dreaming about, offered, closed, moved in and it’s almost like the past two months since then have also been a dream as it’s difficult to imagine all we’ve done and made come true this summer of 2023.
A short list of the moments and stuff of this epic season of love –
Sandy made, painted and installed a bunch of bird houses, on poles but mostly hanging from branches amidst the paths amongst the pine woods connecting our cottage to our cabin and our cabin to our own private quarry from which Thom has been mining granite to make a seriously DIY walk outside the cottage leading to the outside shower installed earlier in the summer.
Thom has carved a few openings amidst the fringe of woods between the cabin and the winding dirt road, one with all-weather Adirondack chairs for us to watch the cove-side lobster pier of our lobsterman neighbor, Nick, and the other making room for our half-cord of seasoned wood we’ll burn this fall and winter.
Other highlights include Sandy molding clay works for one of her planned art installations, her amazing staining of the new bookshelves our guy Ben built for us before we moved fully in, interior design updates — lamps, rugs, benches, bedshelves, bureaus and dressers, tables, chairs et al!
We’ve managed to install two water heaters, a bacteria battling UV light, new heads on our water treatment system which includes a radon bubbler and freshly tested – we passed! – radon air samples.
Thom’s been writing (volume 2 of his Big Leap series, due out by January 2024) and teaching online the whole summer. Sandy is almost done with her summer-long rug-hooking piece, due out this fall!
Among one of the biggest surprises of the summer are the new friends we have made here on our wild and rugged peninsula . A wonderful cast of characters and personalities.
Neither of us can fully grok the fact that by tomorrow, Sunday nite, we’ll be away – in our Philly loft from which to stage our Fall campaign: doctor appointments, friend reconnecting, much teaching for Thom and art-making for Sandy and most importantly, hanging with our various and sundry kids and family who still call various parts of away home.
We, of course, still do too. Sort of. For now. Ish…
But Maine – specifically here on the pine dense sea shores of the St. George Peninsula – is in our bodies and here is where it stays, even and especially when and while we head back to away for now.
PS – We’ll post soon the story of the kayaks, but meanwhile, here’s a shot of them by our little beach of ledge, watched over by Pete M’s gift of Circe of the Cove. xo S&T
Here From Away 