To King's Landing with Bridget and Jessica

We have had an incredibly busy past two weeks, and we will share the highlights of it here. As you can see in the photo, we visited the Mt. Katahdin lookout with Bob, Bridget, and Jessica. Bob and Jessica came to visit for four days and Jessica met them in Bangor to help with the ride. here we have Gary holding Bridget as Jessica look on.

On Friday of last week we visited King's Landing on a beautiful fall day. Here you can see the serenity and beauty of this village.

The village was in the height of their fall preparations, with the Canadian Thanksgiving just a week after we were there.

We rode on this wagon to get back to the Visitor Center. Jess had an allergic reaction after the horse ride, we suspect the horses set it off.

The store was well stocked with vintage items, and a shopkeeper to talk to the visitors.

We ate dinner at the tavern. Here you see Jessica and Louise looking over the menus. We were disappointed that the choices on the menu have been reduced to two.

Here we have Bob and Bridget. Bridget is inspecting her grilled cheese sandwich. She had a great time in the dining room with two other little girls, one of them named Bridget!

Later in the day we returned home by way of the pumpkin farm in Presque Isle. Bridget enjoyed a ride on the toy tractor.

Bridget enjoyed her trip and is seen here having a story with Grampy.

Massachusetts Sojourn

Last weekend was spent with our little granddaughters. First we have a picture of Emily with her parents. We stopped to visit them on our way to and from Massachusetts. What a nice little family they have become.

We went on to Massachusetts and spent two days with Bob and Gina and Bridget.

Here she is playing with her kitchen, serving tea.

We visited the mill at the Wayside Inn where Gary took many pictures of the scenery. It was a lovely day and this is one of Bridget's favorite places to run and play.

We also visited the playground where Bridget plays and the Honey Pot Hill Farm where there are animals, apples.pumpkins, and cider doughnuts. Above Bob and Bridget enjoy the day.

Bridget picked her special pumpkin to take home.

We had a very special weekend and loved getting to spend some time with Bridget. She is a very special little girl. Her cousin Emily is just an adorable baby, so we look forward to many future trips to visit these girls.

Family Excitement

We have a new granddaughter! Here you can see us visiting with her yesterday. She is a wonderful baby, and Jon and Erin are very happy with her. They are such a perfect family and we are so happy for them. She is a good baby and we haven't yet seen her with her eyes open.

What a precious little face!

Bridget Comes to Maine

Bridget ventured north this past week to visit her grandparents. What an adorable little lady she has become! Having just reached the age of two, she acts twice her age and keeps her parents on the move!

Here we have Bridget playing on the beach at Portage Lake.

A paddle boat ride with Daddy.

With Mama and Dada on the wharf.

Having a piece of chocolate birthday cake!

Bridget has conquered another piece of her world. Three days in Maine created new adventures and created fans of everyone she met. What a girl she is!

August and the Museum

So much has been happening in the Cole world this past month. The Salmon Brook Historical Society has taken a prominent place in our efforts. Painting the shed and replacing the roof on the barn have been two big projects this month. Here are a few pictures of this activity:

Ryan pitched in, scraping and painting. Here he is working on the cupola. Gary redid the horse atop it. The place was at its best for the August Festival thanks to lots of volunteer hours.

July Happenings

We have had a nice summer so far, so this post is a catching up on what we have been doing. First of all, Louise wants to catch everyone up on the sweater knitting. She just finished # 8 of the 12 for the year, so we will share pictures of the last few. We left off back in the winter with sweater #3. The next one is a sweater for Jon and Erin's expected baby.

Number 5 is also a baby sweater, knit for a friend from Florida who is having a granddaughter:

Next is another one Louise made for herself, an orange kimono:

Number 7 is a new sweater for the new granddaughter who is due soon:

Finally Louise finished a sweater that has been in her closet for years waiting for a little sewing:

That's a lot of knitting done. There are two more sweaters on the needles at the moment, and more planned to meet the challenge of knitting 12 in a year.

We have spent much of the past two weeks at Portage enjoying the quiet life at the camp and some great summer weather, without bugs! One interesting thing of note is that Gary found the sailboat again that he painted a couple of years ago. It is directly across the lake from the camp.

We also enjoyed the loons. There seem to be more of them this summer and we have one good picture of one.

Gary has been doing much work on a rock wall, but we have no pictures of it yet. We did gather a few pictures of the canola and potato fields in Mapleton on one of our trips back. Also a picture of Beaver Brook when we traveled that way.

This is a canola field with Haystack in the background.

Potatoes in blossom. It is a very pretty time of year in Aroostook County.

Here is Beaver Brook from the bridge.
We are getting ready for another art display at the August Festival and are busy working with the museum. We still have not found a new rental place in Florida for the winter. We never expected that "our" house would be put up for sale.

Amazing Day!

Yesterday Gary had his first art show, in front of Cole's Shoes in Houlton. It has been a very busy couple of weeks getting ready for it. Matthew and Gary built 7 foot folding walls, covered in green felt. They are really ingenious as they fold up to be transported. Then Matt built two tables to fit in front of the walls for display, also covered in felt. This is a photo of the walls in the garage with some of the paintings on them.

Twenty-four of Gary's watercolor prints were framed and mounted on the walls for display. For several days Louise ran off prints to sell while Andy and Gary mounted them on foam board that Matthew had cut for the purpose. We made at least one trip a day to Staples for paper, ink, or foam board.

Here you see Gary and Andy at work.
Yesterday morning it was all transported to Houlton and assembled in front of the shoe store.

Here you see Gary hanging the prints.

Here we see the cashier, also known as Louise, trying to knit a mitten. She made a mistake on it, had to tear it out, and never had a chance to knit another stitch all day.

The people came! Friends, relatives, and Gary's classmates from the Houlton class of 1962 all came by. It was wonderful to see so many people and get a chance to talk and visit with them. Most important to Gary, they liked his work and they told him so. It was a day that lifted his spirits and gave him new desire to keep painting. We never stopped until after 2:30 when we tried to begin taking it down. Even then people came at the last minute.

Finally we closed after 3, and Andy took the displays home while Gary and Louise went to the class reunion. Gary had a wonderful day!