I hope you all had a glad Christmas! By this time, Santa Claus will have scrambled down all our chimneys, stuffed all our socks so they'll never fit our feet again, and left us with fruitcake crumbs on our faces. Why, I wonder, does fruitcake have such a bad reputation? I love it! My sister Anni makes a wicked chocolate/cherry version, and sends us a couple each year. I lace them generously with rum or brandy and put them down for future eating after they've matured.
Still relaxing from holiday excitements, no one will be at the Town Hall on Monday, Jan. 2, 2006! No Town Clerk, no Tax Collector, no Selectmen. Tuesday, Jan. 3, the Town Office will hold business as usual, 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. Call 882-7018 to make sure.
"We need a genealogist!" cries the Edgecomb Historical Society. EHS has a small but valuable collection of genealogical records, but they need examination and organizing into a resource that people questing for ancestors can use. At present, our materials are stored at the Edgecomb Eddy School, a small space, but arrangements can be made with the School to spread out in the Library after school hours. Please call or e-mail me or Sue Carlson, EHS President, 882.8155, krosspt@lincoln.midcoast.com.
The Morris Farm's trio of workshops on "Dish Making" will meet on Sundays January 8, 15 and 22, from noon to 3:00 p.m. Led by staffers from the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, participants will use locally harvested, food-safe clay to produce one-of-a-kind plates, or perhaps a whole set of them! All tools and methods introduced are do-able at home, for future ceramics productions of your own. Each of the three sessions will have a different focus, but will build on the previous workshops. Pre-registration is required. Call Anne Pfeiffer, Garden and Outreach Coordinator at the Morris Farm, 882-4080, or anne_pfeiffer@morrisfarm.org for more information.
With Edgecomb's historical house survey and the future of Fort Edgecomb in mind, I ampleased to note that Huston Dodge will be talking about 18th-century construction techniques at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 14 at Gallery 170 on Main Street, Damariscotta. Reservations are advised as seating is limited. Admission $5.00, light refreshments to follow. Call 563-5098 for more information.
Gilded volumes from the library of Louis XIV! A 300-year-old cookbook revealing the secrets of souffles and ice-cream! Bowdoin College's Hawthorne-Longfellow Library invites us to "Le Grand Siecle," a display of fabulous 17th-century books from their special collections. The earliest "French chefs" were actually Italian, invited by Louis's papa, Louis #13, to refine the crude tastes of the French! Oooh la la! Open now, the exhibit will run through January 23, 2006. For information, including holiday hours, call 725-3280 or www.library.bowdoin.edu.
A "final plan" for salmon recovery has just been released by the National Marine Fisheries Service, www.nmfs.noaa.gov, and the Maine Fish and Wildlife Service. Among the plan's goals is to restore salmon runs from the downstream portion of the Kennebec River to the mouth of the St. Croix on the Canadian border. One of the eight major habitats, of course, is the Sheepscot River. A digest of this plan (the whole document is 325 pages!) can be found at www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/recovery/fishes. Interested persons may want to consult the Maine Atlantic Salmon Commission who assisted in preparing the plan. Dissenting is the organization Trout Unlimited in Maine, who say the rules don't include adequate recovery actions for large rivers such as the Penobscot or Kennebec or their tributaries. Funding is iffy, as always. Be sure to communicate your views to our state and federal legislators!
Plunging salmon-like through my river of resolutions at 234 River Road, 633-2978, bonesukl@midcoast.com. This column appears in several local papers, and at www.Edgecomb.org.