This is Maine

2009-07-19T06:42:00.000-07:00

This swimming hole has been home to a few memories this summer. It's been a great place to cool off and the culvets are the best to scream and run around in.

-Jill Schnorr

Wow...the rain in Maine!

2009-06-29T11:46:00.000-07:00

Seems impossible to grill out when we have had such insane amounts of rain.

I heard at the bank in Farmington that July was supposed to be "wicked hot".

With that in mind, the theme for July is "swimming holes".

This is my favorite place to swim, up home--Talmadge being home--this spot is found near West Musquash lake, and it is known as the road to Patten Pond. We call this place the bridge. It's been my favorite swimming hole for as long as I can remember.

2009-06-29T11:44:00.000-07:00

I know it's not "from the grill" but it's from the pan. This is taken at one of my favorite restaurants in Farmington called the Harvest House.

Submitted by Jill Schnorr

June theme: from the grill!

2009-06-01T12:29:00.001-07:00

The theme this month is from the grill, merely because I am so excited to cook outdoors again.

I've seen some pretty impressive grilling operations in my lifetime, having grown up in an area where the Rod and Gun Club frequently put on dinners as benefits for those in need. Watching those camp cooks at work was amazing.

Personally at this time of year I am liable to grill just about anything.

I have so many pictures of grilled food, it's probably bordering on an obsession with camp food and summer food and the fact that I love to cook out.

It's simple....pictures of grilled food is all I am asking for this month!!

2009-05-19T17:53:00.000-07:00

These little bluets are my favorite flower ever. I love how they spread across a field, in little clumps of color. I have loved them since childhood. Sure, a field of dandelions makes me happy, and a wall of creeping phlox is stunning, but these little flowers are my sign that spring truly has arrived.

submitted by Rachel Buck

2009-05-18T05:08:00.000-07:00

Who really likes dandelions, anyway? They are poster child of weed management. Luckily bumblebees like them. As much as the ubiquitous yellow blossoms scream "out of control" to us, the bumblebee needs this early shot to launch the crucial pollination season. As long as we need bees we need to appreciate the dandelion. I didn't say love it, now did I?

Submitted by Paul Beane

2009-05-13T17:10:00.000-07:00

This is the time of year in Maine when I want to just be home with time to work in my gardens and watch the birds return. Here is a picture of one of my favorite places, my rock garden. From here I can watch the hummingbirds, baltimore orioles, bluebirds, swallows, and so many more.

submitted by Dorothy Small

2009-05-13T16:37:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken in my backyard. I was taking pictures of flowers, and I thought to myself, everybody takes pictures of flowers from the top but I have not come across a picture from a bug's eye view. So... I placed my camera under the flower, this is what came out--and I love it.

Submitted by Lindy Curtis

editor's note: Lindy was an award-winning photojournalist in my class at Woodland High. As you can see she has not lost her touch. --ab

May's theme: Flowers

2009-05-01T15:11:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, almost too easy an assignment. However, everyone loves it when the flowers start to pop in May. Just yesterday I was walking in the woods and noticed several dozen trillium plants that were not there a week ago--the heat made them pop out of their winter slumber! Don't worry if you see a picture that looks like the one you want to submit. There can never be enough flowers after a long Maine winter has passed.

Submitted by Amity Beane

2009-04-30T17:31:00.000-07:00

WELCOME TO LETTER E. I went to visit my very good friend A. in Byron, Maine. Up until this point, I had never been to Byron, Maine. In fact, I had never been to Roxbury, Maine either. So in a span of about 18 hours I went from Dixfield, Mexico, Roxbury and then to Byron. However, to top it all off... I actually took three steps into the Township of "E". Now I am lucky enough to live in a state that has small, rural towns that choose not to govern themselves but let the state handle everything. Since my name starts with an "E", I of course had to take my picture with sign for the LETTER E.

This picture is the old gate to a tree farm in Byron. Its important to preserve the state's resources. Logging and the paper mills are major industries . However, whatever is taken needs to be replaced. It's all about cycles.

Okay, this one I took for A. I loved the Celtic design though in the middle of the sign. A. loved the story behind it: "Most people think of loggers as weekend drunks and hell-raisers and this program is to prove we are masters of managing the forest." A. grew up in the woods of eastern Maine so she knows that good loggers are worth their weight in gold. Or, in pulp.

This was the best part of the day. We drove up to our friend J's house. We visited J for awhile and then decided to walk up to a maple syrup farm. We trek up this huge hill. I went to take a picture of same beautiful running water when I fell hip deep into some very soft snow. Thank goodness that I had the camera and A. did not--otherwise there would be evidence of the debacle. When we got to the farm we stopped at a little house and knocked on the door. Mrs. Maple Syrup gave us the go-ahead to go down to the "shack" to check out the whole process and to get a pint of fresh maple syrup. While checking out the equipment, Mr. Maple Syrup and his nephew showed up and took A. and I all through the "shack" (which by the way was huge!) and explained the whole process of making maple syrup. It was great. After that, I picked up some syrup to bring home to my dad. We stopped back in to pay Mrs. Maple Syrup and to visit for a while. She was a great hostess!

Submitted by Erin Leathers

2009-04-13T06:20:00.000-07:00

It's taken long enough, but the season has finally sprung. April showers bring May flowers. Here's to a great season!

Submitted by Jill Schnorr

2009-04-10T14:08:00.000-07:00

At the Greek diner. In the middle of a long hot sticky summer. We were watching the parade for the Fourth, and this sign just caught my eye.

submitted by Amity Beane

April theme: Signs

2009-04-02T04:49:00.000-07:00

This is a theme I have been looking forward to. Signs in Maine come in all varieties. Something about this one in Rumford struck me: not only can you get your plumbing needs taken care of, but also purchase quiet outboard motors. This is a sign designed for a man, I think. No offense to lady plumbers or fisherwomen everywhere.

Submitted by Amity Beane

2009-03-30T11:36:00.000-07:00

Wrapped in a blanket, hammock-ing in a sunbeam filled snowbank. My hubby has hope!

Submitted by Rachel Buck

2009-03-23T09:39:00.001-07:00

Blank space. So much possibility found on blank canvases. The ‘Mona Lisa’ started as a blank space and it now sits behind inches thick protective glass and is arguably the most recognizable image in the world of art.

I could bill this as a finished minimalist work called: “Rum-fid in a Blizzid.” I will not however. Instead there will be a large scale landscape on this three panel triptych. I’m going for a dramatic image with very undramatic landscape, which means there will not be snow capped peaks or a colorful sunset. Simple but dramatic.

Blank canvas represents hope just as it does confusion, pressure, freedom, and excitement. It can be the foundation of beauty, horror, humor, or controversy. Hope lies within all of those reactive emotions as well. Beauty can inspire someone who’s down. Horror and controversy can sometimes call attention to an evil in the world than needs attention. Blank space can be powerful.

Submitted by Joe McLaughlin

2009-03-18T06:38:00.000-07:00

Hope is a fern unfurling in spring. I transplanted this moss and fern clump last fall, not knowing if it would have the right environment to flourish. Lo and behold, it does.

--Submitted by Amity Beane

2009-03-16T05:43:00.000-07:00

You can't always plan for what the future holds,
but you can plan on how you're going to handle it.

I have hope for his future, and that his son will walk an easier path.

I will be there for it all, cheering them on, from the sidelines.

Isn't that hope in a nutshell?

Submitted by Rachel Buck.

2009-03-10T16:48:00.000-07:00

Half winter; half spring. This state makes me so excited. The air is warmer; the snow is disappearing by the day and the smile is glued on my face. Everyone in this little town seems to be waking up and going out for a run or walk.

[also can be seen on my Flickr]

-submitted by Jill Schnorr

2009-03-04T15:11:00.000-08:00

May God bless and keep you always,
May your wishes all come true,
May you always do for others
And let others do for you.
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung,
May you stay forever young,
Forever young, forever young,
May you stay forever young.

May you grow up to be righteous,
May you grow up to be true,
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you.
May you always be courageous,
Stand upright and be strong,
May you stay forever young,
Forever young, forever young,
May you stay forever young.

May your hands always be busy,
May your feet always be swift,
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift.
May your heart always be joyful,
May your song always be sung,
May you stay forever young,
Forever young, forever young,
May you stay forever young.

-Bob Dylan "Forever Young"

submitted by Laura Mazzola

March theme: Hope

2009-03-03T07:46:00.000-08:00

February was fun! So much snow...a lot of people were out playing in it and enjoying winter!

As I pondered the next theme, I really wanted to do something that was open to interpretation and didn't have to do with the weather as much as the character of the people who put up with it.

See, we here in Maine ENJOY the weather...up until a certain point...and then it starts to affect our mental faculties.

One of the things that give me hope, personally, is starting seeds. I have lived in Maine longer than any other place and know the cycle of the seasons intimately. Having grown up on a farm, the month of March is always tremendously hopeful...because this is when things start to grow again, even if inside.

Now, hope can take many forms, not just the promise within a tiny seed that needs light and heat to grow. Remember, this is about Maine. Where have you seen hope? In the hands of a grandmother? In the face of a child? In the new bud of a tree? In the cracking of the ice or a patch of dirty snow with a bit of brown earth beneath? In an Easter sunrise?

Here's to Hope in March, that all things will begin anew.

2009-02-26T05:12:00.000-08:00

Three friends make the most of winter at the rink in Dixfield.
submitted by Tia Dakin

2009-02-21T17:54:00.000-08:00

Ben, skiing behind our house in Peru. He's oblivious to my camera, or maybe just used to me constantly shooting. He loves this shot, too.

submitted by Rachel Buck

2009-02-11T12:52:00.000-08:00

Dixfield, circa 1895. Photographer unknown. Courtesy Dixfield Historical Society.

2009-02-10T05:20:00.000-08:00

These are from when I went for a joy ride solo on my snowsled the day before I turned sixteen. I rushed out of my house after I got home from school so I could catch the sun setting.

Submitted by Jill Schnorr

2009-02-10T05:16:00.000-08:00

Playin' in the snow on a February afternoon. On Webb Lake in Weld.

Submitted by Karolyn Buotte

2009-02-03T05:50:00.000-08:00

Icefishing in Washington County. Nothing finer.
Submitted by Paul Beane

2009-02-03T05:18:00.001-08:00

Slower than snowmobiling yet quicker than your average stroll, strapping on the cross country skis is a great way to get a workout and a breath of fresh air. This shot was taken last winter in West Farmington on a bridge that use to carry trains but now facilitates skiers and sledders. These petrified tracks serve as the approach to the sweet trails of Titcomb Hill.

Like a gymnast or a champion jockey (or even a mediocre jockey) I do not have the body type to be a professional cross country skier. But that is fine. My body type suits me just fine for teaching and creating art, as well as playing sloppy, awkward pickup basketball games with other sloppy and awkward people. A few minutes into the ski trip it is apparent why cross country skiers are so fit.

Also, when you go at a slow pace you really soak up the pristine Maine woods. You notice the snow hanging on for dear life onto branches and meandering of small animal tracks through the trees. We live in a beautiful place, but even when the weather tries to beat you back it is still important to get out there and realize the beauty.
submitted by Joe McLaughlin

February Theme: Winter Recreation

2009-01-30T05:34:00.000-08:00

Mainers have to get out in the winter to ward off cabin fever, to get fresh air, and of course to enjoy the crystalline days of sun shining through icicles in the pines, and diamonds glinting on a field of fresh snow begging for tracks. Anyone who has skiied fresh powder, snow-machined across a frozen bog, skated on a still pond (better by moonlight!), or caught a fish through a hole in the ice knows the thrill of winter recreation. There are many types of winter rec, so put your thinking caps on and send along your favorite shots!

Submit your photos, poems, essays to me at amity.beane@gmail.com. Put "This is Maine" in the subject and be sure to include the location of your winter recreation.

2009-01-21T20:11:00.000-08:00

Our House

I remember how we came

with the excitement of explorers,

the wild high pitch of our elation

echoing through each empty room.

There were spaces we could fill:

the root cellar, the attic’s secret passage,

the upstairs closets,

narrow and useless as they were.

It has no secrets left to yield, this house

we once inhabited. Now abandoned,

chilled walls cracked,

penetrated by silent frost.

Outside, blank windowpanes reflect

the sky’s striations.

The frozen fingers of the lilacs reach,

expecting nothing.

Carla Ganiel

2009-01-21T20:08:00.000-08:00

Not only does this abandoned house have an abandoned boat in the front yard, so too does it have the small, graphite colored satellite dish perched on the roof of the barn. Peru.

submitted by Karolyn Buotte

2009-01-21T20:06:00.000-08:00

After the atomic bomb exploded at a test site just outside Talmadge, Maine military scientists in charge of examining the remains of the various structures found near total devastation and destruction of the area. Appliances evaporated into thin air, the trees outside stood like frail blackened skeletons, and the porcelain bathtub was reduced to a pile of fine grain powder on the bathroom floor. All that remained intact was the family television. Kill your television? Good luck.

photo by Joe McLaughlin

2009-01-16T09:51:00.000-08:00

As I was going for a "run" late fall 2008, I stopped to look at this barn that has always been a few hundred feet from my house. I decided to investigate. It wasn't as raggedy as I expected, but the boards on the outside are beginning to become inutile. This moment went from a run to get back into shape into a Maine wilderness adventure.

Submitted by Jill Schnorr

2009-01-15T05:23:00.000-08:00

This one is at least 100 years old and located in North Bridgton. Abandoned? Well, sort of, for seven months of the year. The rest of the year (June-October) we are delighted to be in residence.
Photo submitted by Peter McClelland

2009-01-15T05:20:00.000-08:00

This 1880s picture is of the "Stone Farm" site in Andover, Maine, one mile or so up the road to the right of the Ethan Allen mill. The Poor family is shown with Lister Poor sitting in the chair. The house seems to have been built on the site of a barn, given the heavy granite slabs sloping up under the porch. One of Poor's ancestors helped bring the railroads to Maine and another became the "Poor" in Standard and Poor's. His descendants were guides in the Rangeley Lakes during the heyday of the out-of-state "Sports" trekking to Maine for some of the world's best fishing. The appellation "Stone Farm" was given to a successor house on this same site, made of granite, still standing today.
photo submitted by Peter Stowell, courtesy of Archer Poor, Jr., Andover, Maine.

empty

2009-01-13T16:40:00.000-08:00

The house is empty. It has a lot of life left in it, it looks like someone loved it and kept it.
There is a cord of wood stacked behind the house. Someone plows it out.
But it is empty for sure.
Byron.

the attic window

2009-01-13T16:35:00.000-08:00

Winter at the historical society. This was the attic, where I could see my breath. Everything was as still as a Wyeth painting.
Everything in this house was old.
Dixfield.

litte red house

2009-01-13T16:25:00.001-08:00

Once upon a time a very tidy red house in a very tidy little town.
Used as a shed or a playhouse maybe.
Obvious needing new paint.
Dixfield.

this is me

2009-01-13T10:33:00.001-08:00

My name is A. and I started this site because everyone seems to have their own Maine.

My take on the state varies from jaw-dropping natural beauty to heart-aching poverty. There is fun and work to be had in the woods, in the fields, on the lakes and streams and mountains, and on the coast.

Maine has it all. It can be tacky,it can be elegant, it can be old-fashioned, it can be cutting edge, it can be damn Yankee frugal and crafty and hand-made. It has agriculture and regular culture. It has immigrants, it has the ancient ones, it has native plants and rocks and soil.

Maine is a wonderful place to live and visit and everyone is welcome to submit their "This is Maine" photo and essay. Or poem!