Category: the beach

Blue Moon

by Karen, posted in family, good grief, local fun, the beach

My husband and I got up early and raced outside to try to see the Blue Moon Lunar Eclipse at the ‘optimal time’ here in Maine (6:45 am)–since it only occurs once every hundred years or so, we didn’t want to miss it.

And it was up there…behind the trees.

So we jumped in the car and headed to the ocean (because, let’s face it, everything is always best viewed from the perspective of the ocean) and you know, with a big, honkin’ cup of coffee.

My iPhone camera left something to be desired, but the moon did not.

It was amazing.

Afterward, the song 100 Years was playing over and over in my mind. This is a song that I associate with my paternal grandmother, Mary.  And then, just like that, I suddenly realized that she was with me.

Because of course, our loved ones who have crossed over are always with us.

Sometimes we just feel their presence more strongly than others.

My birthday

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, Adult children, books, celebrations, friends, italian, local fun, Party for one, the beach

 

I hope you all had fun with me this week. In addition to the week of cakes, my daughter gifted me with a cake today, bringing my total to eight for the week, and this is the one with which we celebrated with singing and candles.

Here is today’s cake from Wells IGA: Caramel Sea Salt Cake!

Here is a slideshow of all seven cakes in the BirthdayCakeWalk2017.

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For my actual birthday today, I did more than just eat cake, if you can believe it! I ate whatever I wanted. A chocolate bread from Boulangerie in Kennebunk for breakfast. Sausage Flatbread with a salad from Pizza Napoli in Ogunquit for lunch. So far, that’s all. Oh, and the Salted Caramel Cake from my daughter!

And I tried to include things I love (besides food!) in my day. Connecting with my family and friends! Lilacs! The ocean! Reading! Writing! And of course, a visit to a bookstore!!

Now, for the point: It is my birthday wish that all of YOU have a day like this, too. Why wait for your birthday to be kind to  yourself? Do it now. Today.

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Dancing keeps you young

by Karen, posted in family, local fun, teens, the beach

I went to a local concert last weekend with my daughter, part of the Wells Harbor Concert Series. Every Saturday evening in the summer, rain or shine, there is a free concert (rain venue is the junior high school).

Party Starters

The band for the second concert of the season was a new one for us, The Party Starters.  They were SO MUCH FUN! One thing they did which I’d never seen before was they asked everyone in the room to form a circle, join hands, and sing “I’m Proud to be an American”, followed by The Pledge of Allegiance. They then asked us each to hug the person next to us. I know, right? Hug a stranger?

But we did.


This is a family friendly event! And did I mention, FREE? There will also be a food truck there this year every week, I believe, which is a new and welcome addition to the festivities. There is often a table with baked goods being sold by local teenagers raising money for something important. So buy their stuff.

On good weather days, the show is at the Wells Harbor Pavillion. If you are local, come this Saturday! The Bel Airs will be playing. Bring your dancing shoes!  Lots of people will be dancing…why not you?

If you’re not local, check out your own town website and see what free events are being hosted in your own town!

 

Get caught reading!

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, author, books, Brave books, the beach, writing

May is ‘Get caught reading!’ month. Why not get caught reading my book?
One Brave Thing! At your local bookseller and at Amazon.com, where you can preview it before you buy it.

OBT Sanibel by C Robinson

This is a photo of my friend Charlotte who ‘got caught reading’ One Brave Thing at the beach in Florida! YAY! Where will you get caught reading One Brave Thing??

Post your photos in the comments below!

 

 

Simplify: Who, me?

by Karen, posted in education, local fun, the beach, writing

IMG_4542I went to a class at the Wells Public Library this week. Lisa Luken of Simple Joy Living, LLC spoke to us about simplifying our lives by streamlining (as well as getting rid of) our stuff. Her tagline is “Simple. Joyful. Organized. Intentional. Living.”

Great, right? Who wouldn’t want that?

I had a ton of ideas fill my monkey-mind within the first fifteen minutes of Lisa’s talk. Some were related to organizing my clutter and some were about…other things. Still, they were GOOD IDEAS! There’s something about the energy of a group that can stimulate thought processes that lie dormant when one is home. You know. Sitting on the couch. Eating ice cream. Watching The Good Wife.

I returned home with renewed enthusiasm to rid my home of clutter. I bagged stuff up. In this case, it was mostly books. And then, some escaped! Two of them went back to their original places on the bookshelf when I wasn’t paying attention!

Not good. I have to do better. Because, as Lisa pointed out, if I am not home dusting, rearranging, storing, and otherwise picking-up-and-putting-down my clutter, I could be doing something that I really love to do. Like going to the ocean. Or walking the labyrinth at The LoveLight Center. Or revising my second novel (working title: How to Stay Married in Midlife).

Or, you know. Sitting on the couch. Eating ice cream. Watching The Good Wife.

🙂

Go with the flow

by Karen, posted in education, Functional Health, health, Metaphysical healing, the beach

ocean clouds 3I attended a chakra class at the Portsmouth Regional Hospital this weekend. Chakras, as you may know, are energy centers in the body that energy flows through, often described as spinning discs of different colors. Find out more about chakras here: Anodea Judith’s Wheels of Life

One thing that came up in the class was that taking a walk on the beach is one of the best ways to ground oneself, because all of one sense’s are engaged in this process.

GREAT IDEA!

As soon as the class ended, I headed to my favorite beach. So what if it was only in the 60’s? I arrived and was dismayed to see that the water was almost to the wall; there wasn’t enough remaining beach to support my intention to walk on it.

I have recently been told that I should consider working on my ability to ‘go with the flow’. Apparently, I am not great at this (what? what?). I decided to seize the opportunity to practice. So what if I couldn’t go walk on the beach? I could stand on it until the tide came all the way in.

So I did. I stood in the water. I stood on a rock. I stood in the sand. I literally went with the flow.

I highly recommend it.

🙂

 

Leisure time: top 10 activities

by Karen, posted in books, local fun, movies, NaNoWriMo, the beach, writing, yoga

IMG_9607I have the next few days off and am thinking of fun ways to spend it:

  1. Go bowling
  2. Go to the movies:  I want to see St Vincent, The Judge, and that Steve Carell movie about the terrible, very bad day.
  3. Get up early and go to yoga
  4. Go see the ocean!
  5. Check out the Craft Show at the JHS
  6. Work on my plan for NaNoWriMo beginning 11/1
  7. Attend a memoir writing class (if I can just get in my registration under the wire….)
  8. Start my next knitting project
  9. Read one of the hundred or so books I have in piles waiting for me
  10. Go to the Health and Wellness Expo in Portland

Of course, I may just lay on the couch and watch The Pioneer Woman on the Food Network.

 

 

Home is where?

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, Date night, Marriage, relationships, restaurants, the beach

Recently my husband and I took a vacation. This is news, because it was OUT OF STATE. Way out. Like, in NJ. Just getting the same days off from work together to go took weeks-and an aligning of the planets AND and act of congress.

What was better about Atlantic City than Wells, ME? Not much. I had to really think hard  for things.

  1.  The seagulls had black heads. Kind of cool.
  2. The ocean was WARM. WARM. The OCEAN.
  3.  The ocean was very close to the hotel; you could walk to it. There also didn’t seem to be very much
    variation between high tide and low tide.
  4. There were some different kinds of seashells from what I find here in Maine.

That’s about it.

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The best thing about Atlantic City? We were on vacation! We were together! That is all we needed.

Lost at sea

by Karen, posted in local fun, Midlife Crisis, no fear, the beach

Busy beachI love to go to the ocean. I go every day that I possibly can, rain or shine, summer or winter. Even if I only have 1 hour…hell, even if I only 5 minutes, I go.

One thing that I don’t often do, however, is swim in it. It’s not that I don’t want to (I do!), or that I am a wimp about how cold the Maine ocean water is (I am! But I go in any way!).  It’s because I’m nearsighted.

Stupid reason not to go in? Maybe. If I am with others, it’s not so bad. I can take off my glasses and fear not: there are people other than me nearby with a stake in my well-being. I can be reasonably certain that I will make it back from the ocean, back to my glasses and thereby restoring my vision, within a reasonable time frame. When I am by myself, well, let’s just say that there are no guarantees.

But for the first time this year, I gave it a shot.  I took off my glasses and put them in the case. I put the case into the bright pink beach bag that I brought with  me. I positioned my chair so that it was right next to the stairs I took to get down to the beach. I took note of landmarks near my chair (2 large hotel/motel buildings). I walked a bee-line straight into the water.  I continually checked my landmarks as best as I could while I was swimming.

When I was finished swimming and attempted to retrace my bee-line, I felt my confidence slipping as I neared where I thought I had left my things, but no bright pink bag was in sight. I was getting nervous…what would I do? I mentally rehearsed my opening line: “Excuse me-I know this is going to sound odd, but I’m lost…”

It was unnecessary after all. I suddenly saw my pink bag…2 people had put up their umbrella and placed their chairs directly in front of my spot.

Really? Really?

The next day I ordered some prescription swim goggles.

Another first

by Karen, posted in fitness, health, local fun, Midlife Crisis, no fear, the beach, Turning 50

When I turned 50 this year, I decided to try to do things for the first time, since this is my first year in a new decade. Today, I went swimming at the beach all by myself.

This is no small undertaking, to which anyone who wears glasses and is severely myopic will attest. The problem is this: what to do with the glasses? Leave them on, and risk losing them to the ocean, or leave them in a bag with your stuff on your chair, and risk losing yourself?

If I go swimming at the beach with others (who, you know, can see), they can guide me back to our place in the sand, no problem. When faced with the prospect of trying to find my way back without guidance, I have always balked, then caved. In other words, I’ve never done it.

Until today. I brought my red canvas bag, hoping that I would be able to detect the bright color, if nothing else, when it was time to leave the water and find my stuff. I put my chair right at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the parking lot. I walked in a straight line to the ocean, which was at medium-low (not low-low) tide, so I didn’t have to go too far to get back to square one. I hoped for the best.

My Plan B was this: to depend on the kindness of strangers. “Excuse me, but I’m lost…” wouldn’t sound very convincing coming from the mouth of a 50-year-old, so I fervently hoped I wouldn’t have to go this route.

I am happy to report that I didn’t! I swam in the ocean for 20 minutes, came out (just to prove to myself that I could find my stuff–and to get away from the teenage boy who wouldn’t stop taunting his sister with talk about the sharks getting us), then went back in for another 20 minutes.

Life was good today.