Praeterita

If you click, it WILL be bigger. What have I seen during my week in Maine? Acadia National Park. The sea-food restaurant in Bah Hah-bah which now has a sign outside saying 'President Obama ate here'. Lobstah ovens firing up at six in the morning against a backdrop of water and mountains. An osprey swooping down into the water at Boothbay Hah-bah only ten feet from me, then lifting off with a wriggling fish in its talons seconds later. The sun setting slowly over  a crowd of boats. Things I didn't see: whales, despite going out on a three-hour whale watching boat trip. Moose, despite the fact that Wesley's cabin usually offers several sightings. Art, except for the low-grade 'crafts' that afflict most seaside resort towns (though last year we did visit the Andrew Wyeth collections in Camden). A decent cup of coffee. Minor drawbacks, really. We're already talking about returning next year and maybe renting a house for a week.   Subscribe to Praeterita ...

Patty and I have been in central and coastal Maine this week. We stayed for a short time with Patty's brother Wesley and Wesley's wife Diane at their summer cabin on a lake. Or as they say in Maine: their camp on the pond. Above is my beautiful wife P. having, as she called it on seeing the photo, "a pond-gasm" on the deck by the lake at about 8 in the morning. Wesley McNair, Patty's brother, is what I would call a SAP, or Significant American Poet. In addition to many award winning books of poetry, Wesley has published anthologies on Maine writers, a book of essays, and I think is due to publish a memoir. He's been honored by the Library of Congress and all kinds of official ways. He's also extremely fond of, how shall I put it, "ribald" humour. I'm hoping to get him to agree to an interview for this blog at some point. The Boston Review had a good sampler of Wesley's work at the following link: http://bostonreview.net/BR14.3/mcnair...