Keep your eye on Mars! It is coming closer and closer! Just now, Mars will rise in the east at 10:00 p.m. and reach its highest point around 3:00 a.m. On August 27, the Red Planet will be the nearest to Earth that we know about for over 5000 years.
Heigh ho! We are back from California, full of wine and wedding! My niece Kendra Black, my sister Anni's elder daughter, was married to Eric Kirst on July 23. We had a wonderful time, although everyone could have done with 30 degrees less heat and several gallons less humidity! Poor Eric, in a tuxedo, and while the service was brief, the round of obligatory photographs was not, finally announced that he, for one, was changing into shorts, and advised everyone else to do likewise!
The wedding was held in the town of Napa, on the grounds of the Churchill Manor, a stately home cum B&B, wonderfully set up for both casual noshes and splendid light supper. The high point was the wedding cake. No, I mean it! Designed by the couple themselves, it was three layers by Dr. Seuss out of the Yellow Submarine, an extraordinary confection of lemon pound cake with raspberry dividers and electric green, blue and red fondant icing punctuated by circles, arrows, flowers, you name it, and a big butterfly!
Before the festivities, Bruce and I and our younger daughter Bisi Yee drifted through the wineries of the Napa Valley. Afterwards, we trended into the Sonoma Valley with the same object, and fetched up at Anni and Henry Black's home in Larkspur. I must confess, it's a bit hard to settle down to our usual routine!
So what's been going on while my back has been turned? Lots of public meetings and other functions, I see. Sunday, August 7, is the second annual Boothbay Boat Builders and Seafood Festival in East Boothbay, sponsored by the Boothbay Region Land Trust. Exhibitors will include Edgecomb professional Michael Maynes' Edgecomb Boat Works, who specializes in restoring and maintenance of classic wooden Lyman boats, and amateur Jim McQuaide who will display the 14-foot skiff he built in his basement!
Wednesday, Aug. 10, the Cabin Pottery on the River Road will be doing another outdoor open-to-the-public raku firing! Call 633-9966 for details or www.cabinpottery.com.
Come to Café Scientifique! These Bigelow Laboratory lectures at the Boothbay Harbor Opera House are presenting topics vital to those who live around the sea. Thursday, August 11, from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m., Dr. Michael Sieracki, an Edgecomb resident on Cross Point Road, will talk about "Plankton in Boothbay Harbor: A Lot is Happening Right Under our Noses!" The public is welcome, cash bar, no admission charge.
Over 100 people filled in the Coastal Community College survey, including at least 5 Edgecombites. These results do not include high school students, whose surveys are yet to be analyzed. Over half of the respondents said, "If there were courses, we might be interested in taking them." Meanwhile, only a short time is left to get information and register for the three college-level courses to be offered in the Boothbay region, starting the last week in August: English Composition, College Algebra, and Introduction to Psychology. They will meet on weekday evenings at 6:45 p.m. at various Boothbay Harbor locations. Courses are open to all area residents for tuition, but, but remember, they are totally free to eligible high school students! Learn more at 633-0570; call 386.0013 to register.
Blissfully munching fresh garden lettuce at 234 River Road, 633-2978, bonesukl@midcoast.com. This column appears in several local papers, and at www.Edgecomb.org.