Last Thursday morning, Barry Hathorne and both Camerons did round-up duty for Alan Cooper's cattle. Bracing weather, wonderful sun, great time yodeling and thrashing through woods. Discovered a brand new heifer calf, black with white face, born shortly after Thanksgiving. I've suggested calling her Katy Rose after my granddaughter.

Joan Taylor, Edgecomb artist on the Mill Road, is exhibiting and selling her Meditations in Ink at two branches of the Androscoggin Bank in Brunswick (one on Main Street, the other at Cook's Corner). She uses the Chinese calligraphic brush stroke technique to create evocations of bamboo, flowers, fish, other oriental themes. "The brush is the dancer, the strokes are the choreography," says Joan. These works are on display through January.

Old Edgecomb Schools, Chapter VI: On the Cross Point Road, of course, west side, about 3/4 mile south of the Mason Road/Eddy Road intersection, is our beloved old Eddy School. Ruth Bryant has contributed a number of photographs of children posed beside the building. Their clothing makes me think 1920s or very early ‘30s.

Remember, the Town Hall will be closed on Tuesday, Dec. 24 and Tuesday, Dec. 31, will be closed; however, the Tax Collector's and Town Clerk/Treasurer's office will be open as usual on the Monday evenings, 7-9 pm, and on the Thursday afternoons, 1-5 pm. And in view of the deepening winter, any day the weather is so bad that school is cancelled, figure that the Town Hall is probably cancelled too. Call 882-7018 before venturing out. If the answering machine answers, then no one is there!

To Everyone, Have a Fabulous Christmas! And let 2003 see an end to national and international (and personal) anxieties, to usher in an era of peace and friendship. That's an order. From the Tsarina 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.