The power is back on (though it went out every day since Monday!), the house is warm, Christmas was glorious, and Maine continues to be beautiful in even the most wicked weather.  MAJOR KUDOS to the electric crews, not just from CMP (Central Maine Power) but from neighboring states; they gave up their Christmases at home to restore our power!

The river birch is a goner. Sigh. When we cut it down in spring (well, when Max cuts it down) I’m going to see if I can harvest some of the bark to keep and use for mixed media. So beautiful…..

News stations are saying this is the worst ice storm to hit Maine since ’98.  Outages covered from the midcoast to central Maine, with 87,000 without power–that’s about 7 percent of the state population!  Our electricity went out Monday at about 2 pm and stayed out until about 6:30 pm Tuesday (Christmas eve).  It stayed on several hours during which we all quickly took showers, washed dishes etc. (need elec. to run the water pump).  As soon as we went to bed, though, it went out again.  At 9 a.m. Christmas morning, though, the power came back on a full day before they expected!

The lowest portion of our drive way this morning while on dog-walkies. Notice the trees bent into upside down “U” shapes on the left.  Those are not “weeping” trees; they are totally bent over trees.   Chances are good, though, that once the ice (under last night’s snow) comes off, they will straighten back up (more or less).

Additional freezing rain led to significantly more damage on our property.  The gloriously lacy and beautiful river birch (above) bit the dust, splitting completely down to about 6 feet.   The big, robust maple also had significant damage, and at least a dozen trees on the edges of the woods surrounding us have broken-off tops.

The maple at the top of the driveway took a bit hit, too. The leader (main trunk, at the top) broke off about 20 feet down and fell uphill. More branches are bent, and many broken.

Paul and Eli pulled downed branches and Eli even climbed up a little ways into the tree to saw down some small, easily-reached branches so they wouldn’t break more branches and also to get them out of the place where Alex needs to plow the snow-heap!

A day or two ago (they are running together already!) Paul and Eli (the latter in jammy pants, flannel shirt, new heavy boots and Elmer Fudd hat) moved broken branches so Alex’s plow won’t have trouble.  We’ll deal with cutting up and tossing the branches (kindling?) in spring!

Morning walkies, as usual, offered great photo ops:

Tree bent over! Temps are supposed to go above freezing (a little) this weekend, so maybe some of the ice will melt.

Looking towards Appleton Ridge over the neighbor’s house:

From the top of the drive. On the far left are two trees next to an arbor that allows passage from the downhill meadow to the large meadow. We think the top of the second (rear) tree broke off, but snow is too icy to try to get over there right now.

Remember those chopped off willows I shared a short while ago…another photo, thinking Thermofax screen!

Looking up the driveway. The maple is right at the top of the drive, the birch just to the right (between the drive and hour).  Good news:  house doesn’t need painting.  Bad news:  house is hulkering brown.  When it DOES need painting it will be gray with white trim like the garage!

And the river birch (SOB), looking uphill with the house behind it. Got a good close up photo of the tangled branches that may also become a thermofax screen.

After shoveling the walk and sweeping the deck, found Pigwidgeon footprints on the deck…love this!

And then the sun came out:  can you say GLORIOUS MAINE?

From the living room porch, with deck roof and icicles overhead, shadow of house in the foreground.

Next post:  Christmas!

Then

One of the small buildings that flank the steps up to the amphitheatre, where the Library has a summer movie series, weddings happen, and teenagers hang out when they should be doing something better but don’t.  That elm is a living sculpture–I ADORE that tree!

I’ve been busy with a watercolor class and working on a quilt that I can’t share (oh the pain!) until after jurying is done–which means not until early APRIL!   So instead I’ll entice you with today’s beauty.  I have no idea how I have been so lucky to live in such beautiful places, including here.  The snow started drifting down about breakfast time today.  It is also exam week, which means the high school lets out early.  We went to pick Eli up then have lunch in town before his orthodontist appointment, so we ate at our favorite diner in town (Marriner’s) and then picked up a book at the library.  How gorgeous is this place?   The photo above is the building at the entrance to the amphitheatre park next to the library–that elm is gorgeous at any time.

When I visited Camden for the first time, coming to buy our house here in 2004, I fell in love with the library, and the love continues.  Here’s the main entrance, but you can see the original building on the green above.  When they did the big expansion in 1996, the literally “dug deep” but you’d never know it when you are inside. That wall on the left is where the first crocus–warmed by the south-facing view and the stone wall–come up in spring, usually 3-4 weeks ahead of anywhere else.  So wonderful:

The main entrance to the Camden Public Library

Here are the rugosa roses clothed in thorns and snow,

I love the look of stone tracery when the snow clings to bare branches.

And the harbor, with the schooners shrink-wrapped for winter:

The harbor, looking over harbor park (which in July is the best fireworks-watching spot in town). I love the way the sky and sea disappear into one another without a horizon.

I’ll share some of the watercolor class exercises once I take photos!

Just a quick pop in to say hi and share two photos.  I didn’t know we were going to be getting any weather in, and look what a beautiful sight I woke up to this morning:

A lovely surprise this morning

And here is where we’ve been the past two days:  the Sanford Invitational wrestling tournament.  It is in southern Maine, an invitational of top teams from New England from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine.  The competition is probably at the highest level you will see in Maine.  One of our state champions from last year who IS a really good wrestler didn’t even place!   The meet last weekend at Noble and this weekend at Sanford are so competitive, that they award medals to the top six, not the usual top 4.

Usually, Camden Hills is among the top 3 or 4 teams at Sanford, but we lost 7 of 13 starters to graduation last year, and two of the remaining varsity wrestlers were unable to compete due illness/injury.  That meant we had a whopping 4 kids of 13 who had competed there before.  Still, FIVE managed to place:  four came in 5th:  James Archer, Chris Weiss, Connor Winchenbach and Jared Gilbert, (Connor is a Junior, the others are sophomores), and ELI came in 6th!  Yes, as a Freshman he PLACED at Sanford!   So we are popping proud of our boy, of all the kids who wrestled, and the entire team who came along (even the one with a bad stomach flu came down with his mom to cheer on the team as best he could) to support the wrestlers.  Way to go CHills! (short for Camden Hills Regional High School).

The critical win: the other boy was in the lead by 8+ points, a “major decision,” when Eli realized well into the final period that is was do-it-or-die. He DID it! And here is the result… Eli has the kid in a pin, and the ref is down looking to see if both shoulder blades are on the mat for one second. DONE! It is remarkable for any Freshman to medal at Sanford, and especially not in one of the major competitive weight classes (it is still difficult, but not as bad, in the extreme upper and lower weight classes as there are fewer wrestlers in the 220+ weights or the 106 and 113 pound classes).  That’s the sound of mama’s buttons popping with pride!

And if there are any other wrestling moms out there, here is an article in the PenBay Pilot, a local online newspaper.

And a PS:  thank you Dorothy for asking what a Freshman is!  We have kindergarten (usually age 5), then eight “primary and middle school” grades starting at age 6.  High school is grades 9-12, and Freshman is the 9th grade, followed by Sophomore, Junior and Senior.  I’ll add that to the blog!

Well, it is clearly winter in Maine!   Now that Eli is in high school, wrestling begins around Thanksgiving and winds up in early February (in high school it began late January and ended the very end of March), just in time for the coldest and snowiest weather outside.  Currently we have warmed up to 21 F, with a wind chill of 7.  Hmmm.  Good day to stay indoors!

About 11 a.m. this morning. Notice the plow pile that is taller than the car and about 35 feet wide?  The snow on the walk is more than knee-deep!  When Eli shoveled them later, he measured:  24 inches deep in spots!  We didn’t get that much in snowfall, but it blows like crazy on our hill.

This is the view out the door this morning….that is hubby’s car and the snow plow pile.  We have received all that snow since the 26th!  Sheesh!  Snow is still coming down.  Well…coming down sideways with the wind!  Our drive wasn’t plowed when I got home last night and I slid sideways into the plow mess on the side, so will call AAA later this morning to pull me out!  Our wonderful neighbor and plow guy came when I called about 7:30 to plow and put down sand for me, but no luck getting out on my own.  So he drove me up to the house (a quarter mile from where I was stuck) and then finished plowing.  Then Paul got home several hours and inches of snow later, and he got stuck, too!  He got his car up this morning though, so only I need AAA!

So why were we out in this mess?  Well, this weekend was the Noble Tournament, the biggest, most competitive high school wrestling tournament in Maine.  There were 41 schools and over 400 wrestlers!  That’s a lot of sweating, mostly male, bodies <grin>! Eli did well for a Freshman, and came up against some serious competition.

The Meet is large: four mats going at once to get through the 400+ wrestlers on Day One.  PS:  Eli learned that Noble (the high school) is an acronym for North Berwick and Lebanon, the two towns!  Cool!

Eli’s first match again a kid from LaSalle in Rhode Island he lost by just two points.  He was seriously irked with himself, as he felt he could have wrestled better, but he worked hard and never gave up!  It was hard for Eli because in all of 7th and 8th grade, he lost a grand total of ONE match!  Welcome to high school and the big leagues and being the youngest again.

Eli is in red. The LaSalle boy has his arms in control, so Eli is arching up to keep from getting pinned. He managed that, losing only 5-7.

Alas, it ended this way, but still Eli didn’t let the kid pin him, despite being there:

Eli got out of this scrape…you can see the ref’s hand on the left where he is down on the mat looking to see if Eli’s shoulders are on the mat. Fortunately not!

On the way down to the meet earlier in the day, I pulled over in Appleton, about 3 miles from home, to snap this picture of the valley looking east–this is for Debby H. and all of you who prefer your snow vicariously:

The view from Route 131 over the valley; Sennebec Lake is down below the crest of the near hill.

Back to the meet:  Eli won his second match (also on day 1) handily:

Eli dominated in this match. Here he has his right are wrapped around and under the opponent’s right arm, with one hand on his neck to then lever and turn him over on his back.

And another move: grind your opponent into the mat so he can’t move. Erk! Here Eli is  doing that under-over-twist thing again.

For his third match on day 2, Eli  lost 11-0, his first shut-out in about three or four years!  They had removed one mat and opened up more bleachers, which made seating more spacious.

Despite the fact that the Massabesic kid (who was in the State finals last year, meaning one of the top two), Eli was able to be in control for a bit of the match, and there were several times where the ref called a “stalemate” and had them get up and return to starting position. On the lower left you can see Asst. Coach True Bragg in the black shirt.

Most of the match, though, the boy in green dominated.  He looks like a Junior or Senior.  My personal theory is that boys grow like dog years.  For every calendar year, they get 7 years of growth/strength.  If you take two boys of equal skill and weight, but one is two years older, the older boy will absolutely be stronger.  So Eli did a great job NOT getting pinned and taking him to stalemates.

About 2:20 pm after Eli was out of the matches, Paul came and suggested that, since Eli was out, I might want to head home as the storm was coming.  I decided that I could wait until it was all over at 8:30 and drive home tired, in the dark, in the driving snow, or I could be sensible.  For the first hour on the way home I regretted leaving, but the more I drove and the more it snowed, the happier I was that I was that much closer to home.  A two and a half hour drive turned into four hours.  The interstate speed limit is 65.  They had a storm speed limit up of 45.  Everyone was driving about 30 MPH!  At least here in Maine, folks are sensible and go only as fast as conditions allow even if the limit is higher.  I got to the bottom of the drive at 7.  Finally got to the house (3/10 a mile uphill) about 40 minutes later.  Thanks again to Alex!  Paul, Eli and the schoolbus got back to the high school after midnight and to the bottom of the drive at about 1 a.m.  I finally got back up and watched a Project Runway episode while I waited and worried.  It took them over half an hour to try to get up the driveway, then walk!

So that’s it for now!  I hope to finish a book about some people called the Red Paint People who lived in Maine 4000 (yes, four THOUSAND) years ago today and tomorrow, then start a quilt for a juried invitational exhibit.  It’ll be good to get back to fabric and thread!