Bonjour les Americains:
“Endless is my vow under the azure sky boundless autumn” ……………………………………………….Soen Roshi
“Master your instrument, Master the music, and then forget all that bullshit –and just play!” ……………Charlie Parker
“I started a joke……………. that had the whole world laughing” ……………………………………………………………Herman
Though tempted to let this week’s dazzling photo array stand on its own and speak for itself…. a few, just a few… words might be prudent………
The Queen capped her Cider Daze extravaganza last Sunday as a massive success; over a 1000 people per day, many sheckles for the Association coffers, and busloads of happy leaf peepers from the burbs….and don’t forget……The Cow Plopped this year….so a success by all standards……went over on Sunday just to hang for a bit with the Jewish Pig Farmer…. but not nearly as nice a day and came home to nap out the afternoon………….
When my niece and nephew were here, we found a new dirt road to meander- Packard Road – with a wonderful 1700’s family cemetery. While in the midst of nowhere, Papi had to go…. really had to go……so off to the fields he went to plop with the cows……Fast forward a week……and TQ takes da Lucy up for a walk…..now, being a relentlessly devoted roller, what does she find?………….TQ had to go to the to nearby farm for a hose down….. needless to say, to allow stinky admittance to the car……A man and his dog…….
Car drama in the Greens continued this week, when I dropped my car off for body work last Friday and been without ever since….my kingdom for an available rental car, sire……one car in The Mount, less than ideal………
But for Wednesday through Friday- was irrelevant, as we packed up for annual Mainer jaunt. …holy cow……72 degrees, bright sunshine, cloudless sky…. For the magnificent drive across Live Free or Die, and on to the Coast……hit several old forts in Kittery, then on to Wells for luncheonette fish sandwiches….and the tedious late afternoon drive up Route 1 to our motel cabin, which Papi booked thinking it was a different one…about 30 tedious miles south…are we there yet?…………..settled in quaint knotty pine cabin with the three of us immediately eying the limited bed space and assessing the likelihood of taking over the bed………………………………
Has anyone watched Derry Girls on Netflix yet……the nonstop muttering uncle, guaranteed to put any reasonable person to sleep, is worth the admission price.
Oops, got distracted………found Old Orchard Beach with its empty tourist streets and ghost of an amusement park…and its legendary AAA minor league baseball team since the 1950s…who can resist major resort areas in no man’s off season. Back to cabin and across Route 1 to little Thai joint………………………………with absolute best duck dish of all time, in drunken noodles…. CRISPY……yes, yes, yes, yes……
And, is anyone keeping up with the baseball playoffs?………….Go politically incorrect TRIBE….and the Paradise Padres……. whoda thunk?…….
Day two of Papi’s Big Adventure involved 7 hours of striving in circles up and down the southern Maine coast-mostly in futile search for the perfect Lobsta Roll……which we did not find…… but hit the animal sanctuaries, wooded sunlight walks, the ancestral Winslow Homer digs…. and the coming first wind wave of the approaching nor’easter (foreshadowing here) ……in amazing breakout, we had three restaurant meals in one day……eclipsing more than we have had in a given month since The Plaque arrived…..breakfast Diner hash…..unlikely Mexican Tacqueria for shrimpy lunch…..and classic fish house for din-din…all allowing us to freely cavort with the many maskless of our tribe….no Plaque here, my friends…..
Friday arrived with the promised rain and bluster….and oh, those Maine winds…all we could do to move the car away from the coast, and into the safety of the mountains…with a Live Free or Die- Claremont stop for shop and the world’s best subs….here I found the holy grail Lobsta Roll, masquerading as lobster salad…..back in our woods, we hit glorious sunshine and got in a walk in the perfect light of fall afternoon fade at the Ludlow cemetery, with the flaming colored ski slopes of Okemo in the vista…and then home to rest period. Saturday chore day- last mow of the season…and more cardboard yard murder by TQ……with late day walk up lovely dirt road and first trip in ages to beloved East…but skipped DA Duck……did not want to compare with Maine-Thai perfection……
May be a late edition next week as Tess, Sloane and Lena-BoBeema are all arriving Friday for last of fall weekend…makin’ al list –checkin; it twice…and the Big Girl hits the big 4 Y/O today…. WOW…….
Dats all folks, Papi
