On my way out McKay Road onto Rte. 27, I was distracted by a sign, "Damsel Fly Gallery." Its owner, artist Ramone Hanley-Warren, has lived since November in what we oldsters know as the Inez Sherman place, with her husband Mark and Eddy School 6th grader "Gabe," short for Gabriel. Daughter Tara is in the Coast Guard, stationed at Corpus Christi TX, while Brittany lives in Seattle. Mark is the training supervisor for the game wardens' service of Maine's Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

The gallery itself, at the back of the house, is very small, a single room opening on Ramone's studio. All the works are her own. Most are meticulously realist watercolors of local landscapes. I enjoyed a lean horizontal Southport scene, the shapes of the two ledges repeated in the roofline of a house barely visible beyond the bank's rise. Another, from Ocean Point, showed rocks from boulders to gravel, in the soft greys and blues, even the gentle red revealing the iron content in our granite. Ramone also paints florals, was working on a group of daylilies when I arrived. She will also take commissions. The Damsel Fly Gallery is open Wednesdays through Sundays from noon to 5 p.m., or by appointment. Call 882-4014 for information.

Pat and Bob McNeill were here for a brief visit at their summer home, the Lockers' place on the River Road. Veula Reed remembers its earlier owner, George Wakefield, who used to enliven Town Meetings with his fiery rhetoric. A loner, Vi remembers that he accepted her mother's nursing assistance during a severe bout of pneumonia.

Friends of Fort Edgecomb will be holding a business meeting at 5 p.m. during the Saturday of their August 10-11 encampment at the Fort. If you plan to come, please let Fred or Sara know so they can plan their communal meal.

Okay, listen up! Ye Crosse Pointe Road Giant Five Mile Yard Sale is 'rarin' to go, Saturday, August 10, rain date August 17. Mozey on over and watch them all shuffle the contents of their respective attics! Dive in and help them unload! What's one man's cryptic Christmas-gift gizmo may be another man's just-the-thing-I-need!

Last week I ended the column with my sister's husband buzzing up the driveway. Later, he returned with his elder daughter Kendra and her friend Erik Kirst. Such a lovely visit! Great to get re-connected with my far-flung niece. We traded recipes and reminiscences of her stays in Edgecomb as a child.

Wednesday we had our first mess of "early" peas. I'm waiting for your hoots of derision, oh, peas are done and gone! We also had our first summer squash. The mint and marjoram are like armies advancing against one another. 'Way back in the spring, when we were still having freezes, I planted out some tomatoes and also some fancy hot peppers, cherished from seed in the house, and just at the blossoming stage. Wrong! The Planting Moon had not yet come. They were frozen back to nothing. But they revived! And now one of my Manzana peppers is blossoming again! How long until we get any peppers is hard to tell. The other Manzana and the Red Habanera look healthy but have a long way to go. Meanwhile, tomatoes are coming.

Tearing up the pea patch (old Red Barber line) at 234 River Road, 633-2978, bonesukl@midcoast.com. This column appears in The Boothbay Register, The Lincoln County News, The Wiscasset Newspaper, and at www.Edgecomb.org