News from Falmouth ME

In reviewing the blog recently, it occurred to me that I didn’t really make an entry in August.  Where did the summer go?  It's Labor Day already!  Earthquake and hurricanes in the East, and now evenings and early mornings are getting cool here in Maine.  Labor Day weekend is truly the last hurrah of summer for Mainers.  Kids are going back to school, gardens are winding down, and produce is being put up in glass canning jars . . . people are starting to wear long pants again.  For the record, July was the hottest July on record . . . three days over 90 in a row, with one of them being 100 degrees.  This is some news here considering the average year in Maine only gets four days total that creep over 90.  Now, however days are in the 70s with morning temperatures between 55 and 65.  Fall started making its debut here in mid-late August with just a few flashes of red, every once and awhile in the maple trees. 

So what have John and I been doing.  Well, we weren’t putting up pickles. Most of our time has been spent waiting for a suitable house or condo to come on the market, looking around at our new surroundings, and looking around for new doctors.  You think this latter item might be easy, but it is not.  Trying to find a doctor who is accepting new patients, is a Blue Cross/Blue Shield “preferred provider," and takes Medicare too is quite a detective feat.  Regardless, I think we are seeing some light at the end to the tunnel.  We actually have made appointments to see a doctor who meets the criteria, is Board Certified, and whose patients gives him high ratings.  We’ll see how our first meetings go.

We also read the local newspapers.  In crime news Portland has its share of serious crime, but a lot of the crime here is somewhat minor.  The headline read in the Portland Sun (the little local newspaper we read daily), “City nabs couple under new graffiti ordinance.”  Not much of a chase scene, however, “A couple that attracted the attention of police by lying in the roadway early Monday morning, were the first to be arrested and charged under the city's new graffiti ordinance, police said.” This all occurred about 1:40 AM in the morning.  They were spotted tagging mailboxes and street signs with a heart shaped symbol.  Both were in their twenties and I won’t post the pictures of the couple that were included in the newspaper, because they are innocent until proven guilty.  Let’s just say they had a very dazed looks on the faces.  It may be just a case of young love gone wrong, but violators the graffiti ordinance face “at least $500 fine, plus costs incurred for cleaning the tagging, as well as no less than 25 hours of community service.  Possession of graffiti paraphernalia is an additional fine of up to $250.”  Hmmm! Young love turned to tough love. 

For the Russophiles out (Amy, this is for you!), the Russians were in town to lay a wreath at Portland’s WWII Arctic Campaign Memorial a couple weeks ago.  Who knew the Portland, Maine, and Archangel, Russia, became sister cities 22 years ago?  It seems during the war great convoys of ships left Portland’s Casco Bay to steam across the northern oceans and around the top of Norway to deliver badly needed supplies to deliver supplies to a hemmed in Soviet Union.  The wreath laying ceremony commemorated the 70th anniversary of the arrival of the first Allied merchant ship to Archangel (I think it's called Arkhangelsk now).

We have also indulged in a true Maine summer past time.  We visited Waldo’s gas station, deli, ice cream stand all within walking distance down the road, not to buy gas and deli items, but visit the ice cream stand.  If you grew up in a small town, you know the tradition.  You buy the ice cream at a window, perhaps pick it up at a different window (as is the case at Waldo’s Super Scoops), and sit at bench or picnic table to slowly enjoy the ice cream outdoors.  Usually, most people know someone waiting in line, at the tables, or behind the counter, so it is a great summer meeting place.  We stopped by this weekend. John had a double dip of coffee ice cream.  I had a double of black raspberry.  The woman behind the counter knows us by sight now and sure enough while in line we met some people we knew.  Boy oh boy! We fit right in now.  Must be time to move!

We took a day long course Saturday at the Maine Audubon Center on mushrooms given by a mycologist who specializes in the medicinal and culinary uses of mushrooms and who has written a few books on the subject.  Why would do this you may ask?  Especially, when common names for some can be very descriptive . . . Deadly Lawn Galerina, Death Cap, Destroying Angel, and Poison Pie or others named Columned Stinkhorn and Stinky Squid.  Well, there are others called Hen of the Woods, Chicken Mushroom, and Honey Mushroom.  Even the prized Morel mushroom is in the same group as the Stinkhorns.  So mushrooms are a mixed bag, so to

speak. Regardless, we aren’t going to go collecting and eating any wild mushrooms anytime soon.  It is just that here in Maine during the fall, right after a good rain, we’ve seen a great variety of mushrooms all over the woodland floor.  They are white, brown, yellow, orange, red, purple, and green, and some will even glow in the dark.  They are tiny to huge, lay close to the ground or hang off the trees.  We’d just like to know what they are when we see them, based some key identifying features, even if we can only get them into their basic categories.  In the store, wild mushrooms can be 15 to 20 dollars a pound, so of the students were avid collectors.  Still as noted, we are not about to collect.  A few mushrooms are foolproof in their identification.  Others have very
subtle difference and can mean the difference between delectable to noxious to downright poisonous.  Case in point; our instructor is on call at the local Poison Control Center.  We know this because he got a call during class.  Someone was in the Emergency Room after eating a bad mushroom and the ER folks emailed him pictures of the type that was eaten.  Fortunately, it was just the noxious variety and not the Destroying Angel (in a twisted sense, don't just love that name!), so someone was just in for some intestinal distress, instead of liver failure.  We will buy our mushrooms at Whole Foods, thank you very much.  Pictured here first are bright orange Little Chanterelles, quite edible and tasty we hear.  The others are Pigskin Poisonous Puffballs, whose name tells all.  Most puffballs are very edible when young, but if cut a young one open and it has a tough skin and a really dark inside, don't bother getting out the sauté pan.

Well, all for now.