The Edgecomb Potters, Rich and Chris Hilton, are celebrating 30 years of throwing pots! They started with the former City School building, enlarging to 28 acres of studio, warehouse, gallery and the sculpture deck which intrigues us all while driving by. As well as their own work, currently studying how to perfect a Crystalline Glaze, they provide show space for nearly 400 craftspeople from all over the U.S. For information, call them at 882-9493.
Another Summer Symposium by the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts is coming to the Skidompha Library's Talbot Porter Meeting Hall on Tuesday, August 22, at 7:30 p.m., featuring Artist-in-Residence James Watkins, architect, educator and author, who will explain the influences of his Texas home and his travels in Asia on his work and life. These programs are free and open to the public. If you wish, you may come to dinner with the artist at 6:30 p.m., before the presentation, at a charge of $10.00. Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at the Watershed Center itself, on Brick Hill Road just over the border from Edgecomb, come to their Slide Nights, which give the resident artists an opportunity to explain their work for your understanding of contemporary trends in the ceramic arts. Also free, also at 7:30 p.m. Call Watershed, 882-6075 or go to www.Edgecomb.org for more information.
Planning Board Alert: The public hearing on the proposed extension of the Edgecomb Development LLC which was scheduled for last week was cancelled and rescheduled for the end of the month. Also, due to vacation and summer commitments, there will be no regular Planning Board meeting during the month of August. See you all next month!
Keep your ears to the ground about the proposed merger of Miles Memorial and St. Andrew's Hospitals. We, the users, have very little input into what may or may not be happening, but we need to keep aware of their project as it progresses.
The construction of Lincoln Academy's new Howie Ryder Science Wing is going faster than anyone expected! No date has been fixed, but it may be finished around the time school opens. Science Wing or not, L.A. Freshmen will be starting Wednesday, August 30 at 7:50 a.m. (Yawn! Why does 7:50 sound so much earlier than 8:00?); the good news is they get out at 2:28 p.m. More splitting hairs! All students will be on board starting Thursday, August 31. The school's Acting Head is Jay Pinkerton, taking over from retiring Howie Ryder. Howie and Betty, live well and prosper!
The dominant weed in the Cameron garden is an obnoxious little composite known in botanical manuals as Galinsoga ciliata. It's related to daisies and asters, has 5 tiny little white petals around a button of yellow, and has almost universal germination, hence its common name Quickweed. Did a quick Google to learn it's a native of South America, was released into American gardens in the 1850s, has only just shown up in Turkey, 2003! It binds soil like mad, would be good for holding banks, I guess. Keeps the soil moist around the good stuff, and I've discovered that porcupines don't like it, so I'm leaving it where it grows among our kale, chard and beets, a kind of camouflage.
Outwitting Mother Nature at 234 River Road, 633-2978, bonesukl@midcoast.com. This column appears in several local papers, and at www.Edgecomb.org.