Lighthouse caretaking

Taking stock

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We’ve had a couple of days to settle in and meander about the island. It stirs so many memories. We learned so much our first summer as caretakers and got to share it with friends and family and those memories abound: Kristi’s lighthouse door, sanded, steel woolen, painted and painted; Andre working the rider mower ( which is presently disassembled in the whistle house) and his panoramic photo with labels; the Mount brothers’ glass block window in the lighthouse; our first Aldo Leopold bench. Now we rip and saw, carefully, but without hesitation.

The trails are in great shape and the keeper’s quarters are homier than they have ever been. We even have the resident, annual, abandoned, juvenile seagull.

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I’ve knit a pair of socks each time I have been here and this trip will produce a new pair. In the meantime, I am wearing the old ones.

Back to island life

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We left home at 0800, passed a stray cow on the road at 8:15 ( the farmer didn’t seem to mind), boarded a ferry, drove through mist, fog, heavy rain and light rain. The leaves in northern VT were beautiful.

We got close to the final boat ride and it was raining steadily (but the wind wasn’t too bad). I have to admit I thought the Holiday Inn in Bath looked pretty attractive at that point, but figured it’s always a minor hassle moving to the island, it would probably be more pleasant in nice weather but a little rain wasn’t really a problem. Besides, Capt. Ethan assured us it would be sunny on the island and he was right. So we donned our foulies, put our stuff in garbage bags and Away we went.

And he was right. I even saw a rainbow wannabe. It was more like a prism on the horizon because it was truncated by the low cloud ceiling.

By 5 pm, we were ashore and our food was in the refrigerator. So we had plenty of time to admire all the work which has been done since our last visit and to settle in to island life again.

We’re settled in and the wind picked up and blew all night from the Sou’west. Perfect lighthouse weather!

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Mementos

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Everything around me has meaning or memories.  That’s why I keep them.  China in the cabinet is from my aunts, grandparents and parents.  Although I don’t use the pieces often (mostly because I have inadvertently  juggled stemware while washing), I can remember using them when we were younger.  When I became single again as an adult, I chose to use my heirloom silver forks, knives etc., daily, and continue to do so.  Better than keeping them in a box stored away where they have to be polished before use on special occasions.

I have feathers and rocks, which used to be organized by where I collected them.  There were  Pacific and Atlantic collections.  Somehow over the years, and endless moves, they’ve become jumbled together into a couple of baskets but they still remind me of where I was when I found them.  I think I can still tell them apart if I had to.

Most of the handknit items I made for myself have distinct memories.  I have the Pi shawl,  started when I was near death in the Grand Canyon (well I felt like it anyway) and finished while we were living on our sailboat. I can still remember getting anchor mud on it when I went back to knitting it after I acted as a windlass and hauled the anchor off a muddy bottom.  I have at least two pair of socks, knit while caretaking Seguin Island in different seasons.  And a summer top and tee shirt as well.

Deal Island produced a cowl, headband, socks, vest, stuffed penguin and socks. Many of these items were knit from yarn I spun through the generosity of a fellow knitter I met in  Tasmania.

And now I have polished nails.  I traveled south to New York City last weekend for a reunion with some of my dearest friends from medical school.  We were celebrating a significant birthday for one of us and had a spa day.  I had a facial, where at least 20 creams were applied to my face in thirty minutes.  Or perhaps one cream was applied 20 times in thirty minutes.  Who could tell?  Once the first coat was applied, I had to keep my eyes closed.  I also had a manicure, which is a novelty for me.  Now I can look at my polished nails and remember good times with friends.

Back – to the lighthouse

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Not physically but in photos. What can I say? There were no rainbows in the Adirondacks today. We enjoyed the Milky Way tonight from the hot tub but I don’t have any photos to show for it.

This shot is looking north towards Popham Beach, ME from the North Trail, historically Tim’s favorite trail.

North view

Here’s a shot of the keeper’s quarters and lighthouse from the South trail, my favorite trail, with clouds radiating from the lighthouse.

Seguin from the South Trail

Sunrise back at the cabin

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We made it home but not unscathed. I was scathed. Our black cat, Loki put up a big fight because he just didn’t want to leave Seguin. While we began taking our stuff outside, I saw a black lump under one of the beds and thought, “no problem, we’ll load up and then I’ll collect him from his hiding place”. Well actually the first thought I had was, “we better box Loki before we do anything because he always gives us a hard time”. This tops them all.

He fooled me. He bunched up a t-shirt and left it under the bed to look like he was sleeping there and then hid in a crawl space behind the basement. The basement is bad enough but this place has a 2 foot high hole in the wall to get into it and then is a crawl space full of 150 years of debris. I tried luring him out with tuna, while a film crew unloaded their gear for a film they were shooting on the island. When it was time to go and we still didn’t have Loki, I had to go in. I donned foul weather gear to protect my arms and head from all the fiberglass and dove in. I had Ethan’s friend Christian, as back-up and he saw Loki dive out when I dove in and ran across to the other side of the basement and dove into the identical, gross crawl space there. In I went again, I got him out but he got away and then got trapped in a window, behind a dresser and under a couch before he was finally captured due to the heroic efforts of all.

So there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home. This morning brought a beautiful sunrise and fog is now settling in the valley. Why do we keep leaving?

Sunrise over Otis

Home team colors

Final days on Seguin 2011

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Our last days are full of activity. The weather is exceptionally nice and visitors arrived by ferry, lobster boat and kayaks. Lobsterman are back to their traps after several days ashore because of bad weather. And we’re closing up the house. In an effort to preserve our clothing, we were removing some things from the house, naked. We thought all visitors had left. Nope, new ones arrived. They didn’t run off so they could not have seen anything. Could they? They even offered to help.

Working harbor

Visitors heading off

Kayakers heading in

Household items heading below

Tim was in a glory because we had a scheduled burn in the cove below the tide line. He built a great little structure, burnt his New Yorkers as starter and the construction debris went up in flames and smoke. We called the fire department before we started, to prevent them from thinking the island was on fire, and left a message on their voice mail. Left a message on their voice mail?

Bonfire diminishing

Today was a good caretaking day

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Miraculously, the rider mower we worked on last year unsuccessfully, runs like a charm! We’re not sure if it was used this summer but I was able to mow crop circles around the upper 40, near the keeper’s quarters and lighthouse. I love that mower and was so happy to have enjoy it running again. We had our first group of visitors since we arrived and got to show them around the lighthouse (and take pictures of my crop circles). They arrived while we were finishing up a successful repair of another lawnmower and the weather was beautiful. What more could we ask for? Plus, I finished my pair of socks tonight and will have another pair to wear before we head home.

crop circles

helipad

I couldn’t resist a different view of the lighthouse: its shadow over the cobblestone trail.

Lighthouse shadow

Caretaking heaven

On a clear day, I can see Mount Washington

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And I think it’s about 80 miles away from Maine. The skies finally cleared, after five days of rain and fog, and it was worth the wait. The air was so clear we could see straight to Mount Washington.

Mount Washington

We were watching the sunset from the catwalk of the lighthouse and then got too cold because the clear air is associated with cold air. Last night was in the 40’s and it didn’t get warmer than mid-50’s all day. We are very aware of the temperature since there is only one space heater in the keeper’s quarters.

We decided to watch the sunset from the lantern room, which is always toasty with the light burning, and then the optics were almost more interesting than the sunset itself. The original fresnel lens is incredible. It’s delicate and powerful. It takes a 1000 watt light bulb and amplifies and transmits its rays about 70 miles. It also turns a sunset upside down.

Optical sunset

Light and sunset

This last sunset photo is actually looking east! It’s a reflection of a reflection of a reflection. And so on and so on and so on.

Reflections

Low flying rainbow

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High pressure arrives

A cold, high pressure system blew the fog away today. The wind was dry and from the north, so Tim headed out to one trail to work and I went to another with our respective weed whackers, more delicately called whipper snippers in Australia. He had the good sense to get back to the house when a rain squall blew by. I saw it and thought it would just pass. Well it did pass but not before it soaked me and with cold, wind-driven rain and hail. Back at the house, I caught a rainbow in the storm’s wake, which had hardly any arch and was almost flat along the water.

Low flying rainbow