The Miss Portland is re-Born!

Back in 2005 I blogged a post here about the Miss Portland Dinner being run down and closing her doors. This last summer, the Dinner was reborn just a few thousand feet down the street on Marginal Way from where she had thrived for so many years previously. She now sits with an expanded kitchen and dining room right next to the new Student Housing complex for my alma mater, the University of Southern Maine...

The new exterior...


The warm and inviting original dinning car...


Happy to report that the food and atmosphere is just as wonderful as it used to be.

Family Time

Mom's Birthday...






and Thanksgiving...

Pepere and Charlotte making some music...


A very long Turkey Day for Nana...


PWCA doing what the PWCA does...


The Boo following suit...

PAW 2008 - Sebago Lake

The several acres of cattails which grow near the boat landing on Sebago Lake in Raymond, Maine have always impressed me. The light and foliage with the cattails in the foreground on this day demanded that we stop and I make a photograph.

Haiku from The PWCA

Fall Haiku for Dad's Birthday
by Nicole Caitlin Berube (at 11 years old)

Crisp, red, autumn leaves.
A sunset, filled with orange,
Night drives it to fade.

Long strands of color,
Dissolve into the darkness,
Is not forgotten.

Inside, the wood stove.
Flames dance, lapping at the wood.
The warmth is cherished.

Stars glow, signaling
The night, as if to begin.
The cats purr softly.

Comfortably happy,
They both drown out the silence,
With their content song,

They all flex their claws,
As if to beckon comfort.
Supportive creatures.

Contently staring,
They bob their heads lazily,
Welcoming a nap.

September Sunset

Saw this on the way to band practice and took a bunch of photos. This is one of my favourite from the bunch. The sky was very "Maxfield Parish" I only PhotoShopped this to get back close to what the sky actually looked like.

New photo of Nicole

By candle light at our Alban Elfed celebration.
(not bad for 6400ISO available darkness.)

Pub Portraits

Went out in Portland last Tuesday instead of practice with the band. Kevin, Shanon, Mayleen and I went to see some singer songwriters at The Empire. Prior to that we had a meal at The Brian Boru pub. The light was great in the pub so I made some portraits. I've been trying to replicate the look of early 20th C. camera work for a while. These shots gave me something to practice with. My new D700 fitted with a 28-70/2.8 Nikkor gave me enough light to work with even by low candle light in some of these. Selective soft focus and quadtone techniques in PhotoShop allowed me to get closer to the feel of the early 20s portraiture I think...


This is a great image that Kevin made of me...he's a very good shooter in his own right.


Kevin looking roughneck with a pint.


A more realistic look for him.


Kevin & Shanon together.


Shanon looking pleasant and contemplative...


and more characteristically mischievous by candle light.


Mayleen and Shanon mostly by candle light.

PortCon with PWCA

The PWCA and I went to PortCon Maine this year. We had fun and she got to check out all of the artwork that she aspires to create. She bought this very nice Kimono with her own money. It is one size fits all and should last her for many many years as she grows into it. We went out for sushi as Fuji in the Old Port. She posed for me at the restaurant....

Wyatt turns 1!

My sister's boy Wyatt, the only baby grandSON, turned a year old on the 23rd of May.
There was a party. He seems to have had fun and enjoyed his cupcake.

Some Houses

Playing with the new Nikon D60 and shooting some houses that I've always thought were unique...

This Victorian is right on the main drag in the center of No. Conway, NH. Very pretty in the spring.


This one is right near where Rt. 35 and Rt. 114 intersect in Standish. Hyper-Patriotism at its finest! (To keep with the Memorial Day theme.)

Maple in Spring

The last few years I've been making photographs of the maple at the top of the hill at various turns of the seasons. This is my latest shot of it in Spring all newly budded...

26th Popham Beach Beltaine!

Once again it was time to gather at Popham Beach State Park to celebrate our community (somehow) maintaining our sanity through the long dark VERY snowy winter.

This year Beltaine too was cold, windy and it rained on us and the mighty Atlantic has changed Popham Beach drastically from last year, but the 100 or so folks who showed up braved the weather, no access to Fox island, the smaller beach and eroded dunes and we all had much fun and great food anyhow.

I've a more complete photo essay of the day that you can check out by clicking on this first photo of the May Pole, but if you are bandwidth deprived, here are my four favourite photos from the day:

The larger of our two Maypoles this year (...click on this to get to the photo essay.)


Happy drummer and dancing daughter in the GROOVE!


With this third win in a row, Lestat of Clan Samhain Dell is now Thrice Fleet of Foot and Beloved of Pan.


Victorious runner of the under 13 class receives his Necklace of Honour.

SPRING!!!

On the way home from the 26th Annual Beltaine Celebration at the Beach this afternoon (next post), I saw this beautiful tree in full bloom in Portland near the Whole Foods Market and had to stop and smell the flowers (and make a few photos)...





While we may still yet see some real snow (it was spitting snow at the beach with the cold rain), the blooms whispered to me that Spring has finally arrived in Maine!

Our Walks and Talks

We've all been trying to walk the two miles out the road and back every day for the last few weeks while the weather is ok and the bugs aren't out bad yet. It has been fun. For Earthday we picked up all the cans and trash that somehow find their way onto our backwoods road.



We also got to go to Seanachie Night at Bull Feeny's Pub in Portland the other night to hear some tails of Celtic heritage (after a nice meal.) Seanachie are basically Irish Bards. It was well done.

Sheepfest 2008

Sheepfest 2008.
It seemed late this year, but the snow has just started to leave. I've much more extensive write up of Sheepfest from years past. Enter Sheep in the search block at the top of the page to check it out.

Tracey's Gargoyles

They kept her company all winter long...

Shadow Portrait

I got some real wood and hide snow shoes from the Corn Shop in Bridgton. Took a walk in the very deep snow in our woods. Made this 'self portrait.'

Wol

A very nice owl has greeted us lately from one of our neighbors' trees as we proceed down our increasingly muddy road to our little cabbage in the woods.



Quite often we hear the owls hooting to each other in the woods at night along with the coyotes hunting, rabbits having been caught by said coyotes, raccoons copulating, etc... but it isn't often that we get to see the owls up and about in the middle of the daylight hours.

Moon for Mom

My mom emailed me this morning...Time to change your blog... check in everyday and need to see something different!

OK...Here is a photo that I took on the way in the road this evening of the Full Moon of the Vernal Equinox rising over our land on Good Friday. As an eFriend pointed out to me...that doesn't happen all that often!...

Denmark Democratic Caucus, 2008

The Denmark Democrats Caucused at the town's wonderful library on the 9th of February. Obama 30, Clinton 23, Edwards 2, Gravel not even mentioned or brought up. Each of the two leading candidates will receive one of the Denmark Democrats two Delegates votes.

All in all a better turn out than the Republicans managed for a town with slightly fewer registered Democrats that Republicans. Of course, like most rural Maine towns, Denmark has more registered voters who are not affiliated with any party than we have Republicans, Greens and Democrats combined.
I was allowed to make photos before the actual voting took place. Click on the photo of Dick Hook (here making a successfully impassioned speech for Sen. Obama whose father Dick worked with abroad) to see the other photos...


I just LOVE the smell of participatory democracy and toll house cookies on a bad weather day!

My Artists

Had I mentioned that I have two brilliantly artistic daughters lately?

While Nick (10) continues to astound me with her graphics ability (which is far beyond my own), Beth (9) is starting to show much promise in 3 dimensional work...

(tux the Linux penguin)


(a random chicken)

Dr. Ron Paul Visits USM

Republican Presidential Candidate and Congressman Dr. Ron Paul gave a rousing speech today at the Hannaford Lecture Hall at the University of Southern Maine. To a crowd of hundreds, he espoused a nearly pure libertarian and Constitutionalist philosophy that I'm convinced our Nation is in dire need of re-acquiring at all strata, but more especially in the Executive Branch of our Federal Government. Time will tell if the American people agree with me or if they will continue to be scared into relinquishing even more of their Individual Liberty to the Corporations and Government for some small (ultimately false) sense of security.

If you'd like to see the rest of the photos I made for the campaign, just click on the thumbnail above and a new web gallery will open.

Our First Snowman of 2008

We built a snowman. The grrrls started with a good base...


We added a body...


and finished with a head and the trim...


A top hat to finish the job of course...


The way that the snow is still coming in, this probably won't be our last snowperson for the season.