Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Gifts - family, friends and health!

What a beautiful day today on Chemo Pond! I want to share a simple message of gratitude that is filling my heart.  We are here with Katrina, Mike and Torrey and Cammi and having a lovely visit. Katrina always spoils us!


We spent the early part of September with Carrie, Jay and the girls. We were able to celebrate Carrie's birthday while we were there.  How fortunate to be 72 and to still have a chance to celebrate life events with both my mother and my daughter! I love my daughter and am grateful for our shared moments.


   In addition to his gifts for her, Jay did a lot of nice things around the house, and his mother Jackie, came to share the day as well.  We had a real celebration!


     One thing we did, was to create trails through the woods for the girls to ride their bikes.


                          


And we played with the chickens! They are all different breeds so they look very distinct.



   
Even the cat enjoys the chickens'


Guess what! Now they are laying eggs too! Four months to the day of hatching themselves!

                                    
     
After our visit in New Hampshire with part of our family, we headed to Blackwoods Campground in Acadia Natioanl Park.


It was time for for our Third Annual Reunion with friends from Big Pine Key Fishing Lodge.
Each year, some friends return, while some are not able to do so. We missed those who could not attend this year, but we had a festive time with the gang that showed up, and hope that all can attend next year.

Here is the group enjoying our special dinner together!


It is amazing to know that all of us met on one small piece of real estate in Florida and those moments created our friendships! Here we are, along with Tone and I.


                                     
    
           
   

             
     
When we share this time, everyone does whatever activities interest them, and then we join up for campfires and snacks and the main dinner event.  We shared some hikes with our friends - one along the Ocean Path, and one over Gorham Mountain, and one around Jordan Pond.

Ocean Path


From Gorham Mountain


And Jordan Pond.  (We were treated to Popovers on the lawn of the Pond House before we hiked.😍)



After we said goodbye, we went to spend the weekend with our long term friends, Joan and Lucille.
They include us in the family early Thanksgiving celebration. We always love it and feel honoured, and special to spend time with them and the children and partners.


We followed all this celebration with family and friends with times of medical appointments. We both got a good bill of health from our annual checkups, and I had one more experience to tolerate. I had a small skin cancer to be removed.  So I went from this...

                              
  
To this, in a few days, the cancer gone from my face. 


We will soon be planning our trip south, but as always we are overflowing with images of happy moments with family, friends and health. Thank you Lord for ALL the blessings!

Thursday, September 3, 2015

What a wonderful month!


It seems that the posting schedule has shifted from weekly to monthly. Sometimes there doesn't seem to be much to share and then other times there is an "over the top" group of special moments. Today, it will be challenging to hit some of the highlights since we have experienced many wonderful and valuable moments in August.

Happily, we have spent time with Katrina and family at Chemo Pond, took a hike with Torrey, and saw how much the loon babies are growing...


We visited with Phillip and his family, and he took us on the boat for an evening in Bar Harbor where we joined Latona's brother and wife for a fun Friday night. Picture from phone not great!


Now, we are here in New Hampshire, with Carrie and her family. We are celebrating her birthday along with the full moon, and a feeding frenzy and gathering of a flock of nighthawks.


All the little dots in picture below are Common Nighthawks.


We participated in an Upward Bound Reunion that celebrated the 50 year history of UB at the University of Maine. This was a student inspired event.


    You can see all the Gray hairs in the former staff members. 😍


Visits with friends were another special part of our month.  Two nights at the Little Red Camp with Janice, a revisit to recently-widowed neighbour Joan, and an overnight with Joan and Lucille, still bring smiles.  

And a week-long visit to Baxter State Park was a highlight!

Gabe and Marcia are friends who took over for us at Daicey Pond when we took an absence to hike the Appalachian Trail in 1991. They each have continued in a variety of capacities in the park since then. Gabe is a seasonal ranger, now at South Branch Campground, and Marcia a recently retired Interpretative Specialist.  We shared meals, chats, hikes and a day at Daicey Pond.

The Niagara Falls 



Ebony Jewelwing


Daicey Pond with Katahdin in Background



We even had a chance for a little volunteer project with Gabe.


And hikes with Marcia.


And added gift during this time was a visit with other friends, Deb, Ing, and their children Vanny and Linh.  We shared a day hike to Howe Brook Pools.


This is a special surprise we found at our van the day they left.




Of course the special star of everyday, no matter where we are, is this one!


How blessed!