Today was Memorial Day.. a strange concept when every day is a memorial day of sorts. Today I actually took some time and thought aout the real meaning of the day.. OI considered all the men and women who’d died for our country.. then my thoughts turned to their families, their parents.. and my hear went out to them in a way it never could before Sam died.. If more families shared our experience of loss, war would have to come to an end.. because no one would be able to bear letting their kids go off to kill or be killed.. … Even so.. .. no even more so… I honor the soldiers and their families who made this sacrifice on either side of a weapon
We had a quiet day today … which is what I needed.. Diane and I went with Tim,Jen and all of our dogs on an explore from their house through the woods to some cliffs overlooking Gillette pond.. we’d always known there was a way up to these cliffs.. but none of us had found our way there.. Today we did.. it was a fun hike. Lots of bushwacking .. We found many trees that had come down in the last big windstorm.. here’s a blowdown with a whole in the roots..
We came across a rare lady slipper flower n the trail.. .. I haven’t seen one of these in years..
Finally we found the cliffs.. here’s our first view of the pond… and this is about a mile from our house ! . It’s about an 80 foot sheer drop to the shore of the pond from here..
This poitn is what the boys and I called ‘dead beaver island’.. not really an island.. but a cool point out in the lake.. most accessible by canoe. We used to camp there… one time Sam and I found a dead beaver there.. hence the name.
We hiked back the easy way.. you could tell this land had been farmed at soem point in the past.. That’s amazing given how stepp and craggy it is..
All through the walk we were commenting on the acrid/sweet smoke that was in the air.. it made everything look hazy.. it wasn’t till we were don from our hike that we learned the smoke is from a Quebec wildfire nearly 300 miles away !.. The smoke was so thick down on cape cod that they had to close their regional airport for a while ! You can see the smoke here..
After some gardening, Diane and I went down to Homer’s to his memorial day party.. I had put a new remote control in the model of the time cycle and wanted to drop it off.. I also wanted Diane to see Raye and her friends the ‘fat kids’ .. Not sure why they call themselves that.. . but they’re about 10 hippie kids camping in Homer’s backyard.. They’re converting an old school bus to travel around in. Their mission is to cook for whomever needs food. They travel and cook these amazing meals for folks who need food. They’ve fed thousands around the US.. . It’s such a cool idea. ! .. Check out their website at
http://fatkidskitchen.org/ They could use donations of food, money or ‘stuff’ to help in their mission.. so please check them out.
Here’ their bus ‘Miss Yes’ .. it’s really coming together.. they now have a giant gas range and a wood stove in there !
Here’s some of the kids .. awesome, awesome people .. hard working and full of love for the world.
We headed home around 6 in order to meet up with Tim and Jen again.> This mornign’s walk to the cliffs over the pond gave us the idea to do a sunset cruise.. We mounted up the canoe and headed back to Gillette ponsd..
Here are the cliffs of this morning as viewed from below.
Jen and Tim were in 1 person kayaks..
We all brought snacks.. Tim brought mango margaritas ! Yum..
I loved the way the late sun looked on the water..
We made 2 stops on land.. 1 to view the small longhouse someone had built in the woods.. very cool.. Then one small pilgrimage for me.. I stopped at ‘dead beaver island’ .. I wanted to place a SamStone there..
By around 9 the light was fading.. so we paddled back to the car.. it was a beautiful night out..
OK.. it’s about midnight.. and I have some work to do for tomorrow.. so I better sign off.. Night all.. night Sam..
-me
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