May vanished

May vanished into grayness, even as the traps and buoys waited on the shore in Lobster Cove. My birthday is in May, and I can remember planning and hoping as a young girl, that I could have an outdoor birthday party at someplace like Sand Beach in Acadia Nat'l Park. But it never happened when I was a child and it certainly didn't happen again this year. Not until the last day of May did we see spring time temperatures, even as approaching thunderstorms threatened to cool us off again.

But today is another month, and hopefully another start to spring and summer. Windjammer Days are coming, and that means all sorts of things to do. Priscilla will go in the Antique Boat Parade again this year, with Jack and Holly and others as crew. Then on Wednesday, the Land Trust will sponsor a boatbuilding tent for kids, and a float in the parade which will be pretty special. We're building an osprey nest on a boat trailer, and will fill it with stuffed baby ospreys. A child will wear an osprey costume and fly around the float - catching fish???? or distributing them, I'm not sure yet.

Traps and buoys are finally beginning to accumulate in the River, though Priscilla is hardly ready for a cruise yet. Other boats are, and I went for my first row yesterday- just out around the shipyards, but it was a lovely feeling to be floating and moving around on the water again. If only the temperature will remain above 60, I will be happy to get going on the water.

The garden remains in a bit of limbo, growing like mad, but because it's been so chill, it has been discouraging to try and weed. So I've mulched the tomatoes and lettuces, peas and cucumbers, but not the corn, and I don't have straw yet for the asparagus. Still, the first asparagus was really tasty, and the rhubarb terrific. Perhaps this weekend it'll warm up again so that people will want to weed!

The General Store opened in the middle of May, and all the town is glad to have them back. Lobsterman's Wharf is open now, too, usurping the Post Office as the place to be.

Most of us are dying to know how the new Bigelow Lab is coming along, but a big gate keeps us locals away for the moment - except if you know where the back trail is, or if you can get out on the water. But for the moment, we leave them alone. Windjammer Days are coming, and there's a lot to do.