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!

June is Flying By

This month has been busy with visits and activities. Jon and Erin came to visit over Jon's birthday. Erin made a chocolate cake for him, complete with peanut butter frosting and Reese Peanut Butter Cups on the top.

Erin started knitting some toy animals for the little one while she was here. This one is a turtle.

This past weekend we traveled to Warren where Louise had a 50th high school reunion.  The class graduated 16 people in 1962, and eleven attended the reunion. Here we have a couple of pictures.

A cook-out at the lake and the alumni banquet, along with a tour of the old school made up the activities.

 The class of 1962 of Warren High School, 50 years later.

Family connections were renewed as well. Here is Louise's brother Fred, and cousin Tobey.

Louise, Fred, Tobey and Gary pose for the camera. After a couple of days at home, another trip is planned this week that will take us to Massachusetts.

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Rowing the boat was just one of the activities at camp over the weekend. Gary and Andy took the boat up Fish River and had a great ride as you can see from these pictures.  Here is Andy as they start out on their trip. Gary is running the boat as they travel along.  As they start back, at the top of the lake, the motor dies and they have to paddle back, the whole length of the lake.

 

Here we see them rowing back, close to their destination.

Besides rowing,  Louise had a birthday this weekend. Andy came up Saturday and brought a birthday cake. A good time was had by all.

 One of the highlights of the weekend was a great campfire Saturday night. We have some nice photos of the campfire and the lake at night.

Here Andy tends the fire.

Gary worked on the rock wall again, and here he is with Andy placing rocks. Of course he brought a few more in the truck.

Life at the lake is good, as you can see.

We hope for a long, warm, sunny summer season at the lake.