Archive for the 'Around New England' Category

In what might be the greatest upset victory since the New York Giants prevailed over the previously unbeaten New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, Massachusetts State Senator Scott Brown (R) has won the special election to replace the late Edward “Ted” Kennedy in the U.S. Senate, over Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley (D), by a margin of 52% to 47%. How big is Brown’s win? As Boston’s mayor explained to the Boston Herald:

“I never thought I’d see the day when a Republican replaces Ted Kennedy,” Mayor Thomas M. Menino told the Herald tonight. “I think Scott Brown caught the wave of anger that’s out there, and the wave of anti-Obama.”

Before his death last year from an aggressive form of brain cancer, Kennedy had held his Senate seat since 1962. The seat had also been occupied by his brother John F. Kennedy, before he became president. As Patricia Murphy reports in Politics Daily, Brown paid tribute to the man he will succeed.

Brown also spoke of Ted Kennedy, calling him “a tireless worker and a big-hearted public servant who, for most of his lifetime, was a force like no other in this state. There’s no replacing a man like that, but tonight I honor the memory and I pledge to be the very best, worthy successor to the late Sen. Kennedy.”

Upon being sworn into office, Brown will replace temporary Senator Paul Kirk, and serve the remainder of Kennedy’s term, facing re-election in 2012.

Also reporting on Brown’s historic win are Yahoo News, Fox News and UPI.com
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The name “Pemaquid” is said to have had its origins in an Abenaki Indian word for “situated far out.”

Immigrants from Bristol, England, established a settlement at Pemaquid in 1631. The village had as many as 200 people by the 1670s, but Abenaki Indians burned it during King Philip’s War. The settlement was rebuilt but suffered further attacks from the Indians and the French, and it was abandoned before 1700. It was resettled in 1729. Today, the area is part of the town of Bristol, incorporated in 1765.

The point, at the entrance to Muscongus Bay to the east and Johns Bay to the west, was the scene of many shipwrecks through the centuries, including the 1635 wreck of the British ship Angel Gabriel.

In May 1826, as maritime trade, fishing, and the shipping of lumber were increasing in midcoast Maine, Congress appropriated $4,000 for the building of a lighthouse at Pemaquid Point. The land was purchased from Samuel and Sarah Martin—descendents of survivors of the Angel Gabriel—for $90.

READ MORE here on the history of Pemaquid Light.

From 1881 to 1899 a breakwater was built from the northern shore of Rockland Harbor to protect the harbor from Nor’easters. The Bodwell Granite Company used around 700,000 tons of granite for the project, which cost more than three quarters of a million dollars. As the work progressed, a small moveable beacon was moved farther out each time the breakwater was extended. The light was relocated four times between 1888 and 1895. Finally, in 1902, a permanent lighthouse was built at the breakwater’s end by the W.H. Glover Company of Rockland after a Congressional appropriation of $30,000. The breakwater is almost a mile long now.

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Not many celebrate their 85th doing this sort of thing:

who moves into a “red” state.

Seriously.

I know Raven would agree as we watch New Hampshire be invaded by those fleeing the People’s Democratic Republic of Taxachusetts and New York…

Cranky @ Six Meat Buffet is DA MAN for thinking of this…. we should have it incorporated into federal law…

A beautiful area- north of Portland but south of Bar Harbor. Some pics from yesterday.

Adirondack chairs.

Buoys.

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Cape Neddick Light, AKA Nubble Point, in York Maine.

More pics below the fold- that show the Maine FOG at it’s almost best.

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Location:
One quarter mile north of the intersection of N.H. Routes 103 and 114 on the Bradford Center Road in Bradford. The bridge spans the west branch of the Warner River.

Style of Bridge:
Long truss

Year of Construction:
1854

Original Cost:
$500

Structural Characteristics:
The bridge is 60′6″ long with a clear span of 53′9″. It has an overall width of 19′3″ with a roadway width of 16′2″, and a maximum vertical clearance of 13′2″. It is posted for three tons.

Maintained By:
Town of Bradford

World Guide Number:
29-07-03

New Hampshire Number:
14

Some verrrrry random thoughts on a cloudy and very humid Sunday afternoon.

The blueberry-pecan cake we baked yesterday was very good…except for the bloated, cultivated, controlled-growth berries themselves: THEY SUCKED! Nothing like real (i.e. SMALL) wild, blueberries, especially those from the fields in Maine.

This ship is still with us…barely. It is the SS United States. Like our current political situation, it is quickly rusting apart and will soon collapse into itself. There is a HUGE effort underway to restore the ship, to it’s original glory…but sadly not enough interest.

Gross Tonnage: 53,329
Length Overall: 990 feet
Width: 101.6 feet
Draft: 31 feet
Machinery: Steam turbines geared to quadruple screw
Speed: 35 knots (maximum 38.23)
Capacity: 913 First, 558 Cabin, 537 Tourist
Built: Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Virginia, 1952.

I don’t know why, but I have always liked white curtains. NOT drapes, GAWD NO I hate those. Sheer, billowing pure white curtains, lacy and otherwise. I don’t waste a lot of money on them either- Wal Mart sells a good enough selection for me. Easy to care for, SIMPLE, no fuss, and most of all, no drama.

Tomorrow is Memorial Day. Most folks will be celebrating the day with gatherings of family and friends, cookouts and all that. Somehow I cannot sit around on such days and stuff my face…or grill food. I have to DO something for the memory of those who died to defend my liberties and lifestyle. I’m working in the afternoon; but tomorrow morning right up til after noon I will be placing these wreaths on the graves of all the local men and women who have served and died defending freedom. Several friends and I spend a good portion of this past week putting these together. It’s the LEAST we can, don’t you say?

Make sure you think of those who are not with us; those who chose to enter a profession that took them to wars far away; where these brave souls did battle and probably died horrific deaths…just so that we could enjoy the pleasures of life- everything we do, we want, we have- we must be grateful to those who most likely never got the chance to experience. So think about them a lot tomorrow- and be in awe of their sacrifice for you.

The Lighthouse

The rocky ledge runs far into the sea,
and on its outer point, some miles away,
the lighthouse lifts its massive masonry,
A pillar of fire by night, of cloud by day.

Even at this distance I can see the tides,
Upheaving, break unheard along its base,
A speechless wrath, that rises and subsides
in the white tip and tremor of the face.

And as the evening darkens, lo! how bright,
through the deep purple of the twilight air,
Beams forth the sudden radiance of its light,
with strange, unearthly splendor in the glare!

No one alone: from each projecting cape
And perilous reef along the ocean’s verge,
Starts into life a dim, gigantic shape,
Holding its lantern o’er the restless surge.

Like the great giant Christopher it stands
Upon the brink of the tempestuous wave,
Wading far out among the rocks and sands,
The night o’er taken mariner to save.

And the great ships sail outward and return
Bending and bowing o’er the billowy swells,
And ever joyful, as they see it burn
They wave their silent welcome and farewells.

They come forth from the darkness, and their sails
Gleam for a moment only in the blaze,
And eager faces, as the light unveils
Gaze at the tower, and vanish while they gaze.

The mariner remembers when a child,
on his first voyage, he saw it fade and sink
And when returning from adventures wild,
He saw it rise again o’er ocean’s brink.

Steadfast, serene, immovable, the same,
Year after year, through all the silent night
Burns on forevermore that quenchless flame,
Shines on that inextinguishable light!

It sees the ocean to its bosum clasp
The rocks and sea-sand with the kiss of peace:
It sees the wild winds lift it in their grasp,
And hold it up, and shake it like a fleece.

The startled waves leap over it; the storm
Smites it with all the scourges of the rain,
And steadily against its solid form
press the great shoulders of the hurricane.

The sea-bird wheeling round it, with the din
of wings and winds and solitary cries,
Blinded and maddened by the light within,
Dashes himself against the glare, and dies.

A new Prometheus, chained upon the rock,
Still grasping in his hand the fire of love,
it does not hear the cry, nor heed the shock,
but hails the mariner with words of love.

“Sail on!” it says: “sail on, ye stately ships!”
And with your floating bridge the ocean span;
Be mine to guard this light from all eclipse.
Be yours to bring man neared unto man.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Portland Head Light, located in Portland Maine is one of the world’s most photographed lighthouse. It’s picturesque quality comes from the location, natural elements and accessibility. Surrounding the property are several “hot spots” where photographers can be seen all year round, setting up their cameras.

Lots of pictures below the fold, from years past visits to Cape Elizabeth.

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