Jackeroos is what they call cowboys in Australia! So what are Australian cowboys doing in Edgecomb, Maine? Just inside the Edgecomb boundary from Newcastle on Route 1, on Station Road, I happened on Jackeroos, a fascinating emporium devoted mainly to clothing, gifts and decor from Southeast Asia or better, the Pacific Rim. The proprietors are Jack and Kathleen Kennedy. Jack Kennedy grew up in the region, his father a physician who took his family through various Pacific islands when Jack was five years old, intending to spend only a couple of years. Instead they all fell in love with the area, so Dr. Kennedy went back to school to study tropical medicine, sent his four children to school in Australia, and settled in as Director of Medical Services on the island of Pilau. Jack fondly remembers his first outrigger canoe.
Jack and Kathleen met and married in Connecticut and opened a clothing manufactory there during the 1980s and ‘90s, importing outdoors clothing from Australia, or designing clothing utilizing aboriginal art. Seven years ago, when their youngest child graduated from college, they made the decision to move to the sea, and wound up in Nobleboro.
The Jackeroos building used to be the Edgecomb Methodist Church from the 1860s until 1965, a good hundred years of service. It has had a disappointing history since then, briefly an antiques store, then auto parts, otherwise just standing abandoned. The Kennedys found it perfect for their collections of clothing, jewelry, home and garden wares, "nice things for not too much money," explains Jack. Slapped up on the building's side these days is a mighty dragon kite from Bali. A number of big metal herons from Zimbabwe grace the approach to the store.
Jackeroos will shortly be featuring its fall and winter clothing line. These are not limited to Southeast Asia! No, they come from all over: Iceland, Nepal, I admired a fitted Canadian suede jacket. After Christmas, the Kennedys will hold a big post-holiday sale. The store will close on January 15, to re-open April 1. Meanwhile, Jack and Kathleen will be searching out new Pacific Rim delights to dazzle and allure us!
The Edgecomb Congregational Church invites you to its third Summer Supper of 2005! Come Saturday, August 20, from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m., to a lavish spread of lobster or chicken, corn, salads, baked beans, blueberry cake (dietetic alternative available) and beverages. This supper benefits the self-help programs of HOME in Orland, Maine. Adults $6.00, children under 12, $3.00. For anyone who wishes to help out with preparation or clean-up, call Gail Boudin, 882-7972, or the Church office, 882-4060.
Monday evening, Aug. 22, 6:00 to 7:00 p.m., the Bigelow Laboratory's Café Scientifique lecture at the Boothbay Harbor Opera House will be presented by Dr. Colleen Roesler, "Mysteries of the Gulf of Maine as Revealed by the Gulf of Maine Observing System" (GOMOS to its friends). Cash bar; no admission, everyone welcome! Next week, Thursday, Aug. 25, 6:00 to 7:00 p.m., Bigelow's Dr. David Fields will speak on "The Amazing World of Copepods."
Ninety-nine Bottles of Beer in the Bin: If you want to recycle your beer, wine, soda bottles and cans in a good cause, here are two: The Edgecomb Fire Department has a collection basket at the corner of the station's driveway; proceeds go to the Fire Department Auxiliary to buy equipment and supplies not covered by the Town's EFD budget. Also consider the Edgecomb Congo Church which has just started a collection site to help out their many beneficent projects.
A loud huzzah from Edgecomb's deer and moose for Val and Bobsy Thompson, who have donated an easement on their Spring Hill Farm Road property to the Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association! Eventually, a hiking trail will link Dodge Point Preserve and the Schmid Preserve, thus continuing the extensive wildlife corridor which is a long-term goal of the River-Link program
Meanwhile, Boothbay's Maine Coastal Botanical Gardens has been given 120 additional acres, making it the largest outdoors botanic facility in New England! And in Bristol they have recently celebrated the success of the Pemaquid Salt Marsh Restoration Project at Fish Point in New Harbor! So many of these environmental advances are the result of inter-local cooperations and partnerships.
On the downside, Wiscasset's selectmen have re-opened the possibility of a "southern route" for the Bypass, across Westport Island and bisecting Edgecomb roughly 1/3 to 2/3. Why, for heaven's sake?
In other nature news, Edgecomb's porcupine population has been beating a path to the free midnight snacks at the Cameron garden! I wonder why they are so fond of members of the cabbage family? Our kohlrabi have struggled valiantly, and despite repeated depredations, were beginning to form the bulges in the stem which is what you eat. I doubt if they can recover from this latest onslaught. Our broccoli rabe, dead issue. Tenants' broccoli? Forget it. I would welcome advice on surefire porcupine discouragers, short of killing them dead, which has happened in the past. There was a carcase on the River Road, aimed in our direction, and evil me, I gloated!
Balancing my environmental sympathies against my human greed, and guess which is winning? At 234 River Road, 633-2978, bonesukl@midcoast.com. This column appears in several local papers, and at www.Edgecomb.org.