Today we had special plans. Melinda had a membership to the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, and she could bring a guest for free. On this day the guest would be me! I had considered going there on the way down the peninsula, but the $16 admission was a bit too rich for my blood. I thought it was a shame, considering how much I love plants. This was surely a great gift! We left for the short ride up to Boothbay.
The muted sunshine in the morning made taking pictures much easier. I will run down through the following shots. I cannot remember the names of every plant and will label them only when possible. I would however be very happy if readers were to fill in the unnamed plants, by commenting here or at Facebook. For now, let's take a walk through the garden...
Artichoke.
Lamb's ear.
A blue mud wasp, nearly two inches in length.
Grape vines.
Kinetic sculpture.
Lily pond.
A labyrinth.
A honey bee.
Basils and lettuces.
Red hibiscus.
We had seen the herb and kitchen gardens. Now we walked through the children's garden. This area was wonderful for kids. It had small houses and projects they could work on, even a tool shed where they could choose the tools they wanted...
Loved this! A live black chicken hanging out with a white porcelain friend.
Painting donated by Melinda's friend--the same one who gives classes for the watercolor
woodblock paintings mentioned in Day 21 of this Grounded in Maine Journey.
An air plant.
Kids' tool shed.
A passionflower, one of my favorite flowers of all time.
"You must DO something to make the world more beautiful."
Now it was on to the Zen Meditation Garden, down near the water, on a long and winding path...
Highbush blueberries.
This was interesting. I picked a root and chewed on it. Quite nice!
A sphere made out of resin.
Fern garden.
This stone work reminded me of DNA.
A circle of polished marble.
Down near the tram stop, was the woods of fairy houses, where people could make small structures out of branches, rocks and moss for the fairies who need to bed down at night...
A very strange sculpture that looked like a hundred oars stuck
onto the outer cylinder of a boat's drive shaft.
Looking across Back River at Sawyer's Island.
These are runes. I did a bit of research in trying to decipher what was meant by this order.
From left to right: uruz (strength, the letter "u"), mannaz (horse, the letter "m"),
inguz (Ing - a god, the letters "ng"), gebo (gift, the letter "g"), and ansuz (god, the letter "a").
But still I have no idea what the artist's meaning is.
We hopped aboard the tram and got a ride back to the main building...
First time I'd ever seen a bumble bee with orange like this.
The Bombus ternarius, or orange-belted bumblebee.
Pink hibiscus.
We'd had a great time visiting the Botanical Gardens, but were getting hungry...
Sculpture on the way out.
Melinda had one of her hankerings; this time for a lobster roll. I think she had heard me talk about it earlier in the week and thought it would be a nice treat. We headed to Karen's Hideaway (716 Wiscasset Rd, Boothbay). She had mentioned the place several times. I was really looking forward to lobster.
When we got there, we parked and walked up to the porch window. A nice gentleman and his young son took our order. We each ordered a lobster roll with just butter. It came with coleslaw. We sat and talked until the food arrived. They really pack the meat in. It was a whole lobster on each bun. We dumped the butter over our rolls and dug in. Out of this world. I must have been seriously distracted by eating, because I didn't even get a picture! The coleslaw was made with a rich, real cream, wasn't too sweet, and had a nice fresh crispness to it.
Even though delicious, the meal was a bit too rich. We both suffered a mild hangover afterward. But it was well worth it. In writing this today, I'm trying not to let my stomach growl. There have been no donations, and the last thing I had was a coffee yesterday morning--no food since breakfast two days ago. I'm quite hungry. Writing about the food we enjoyed is a kind of masochism. It is like drinking sea water when you're thirsty. It feels like fresh water, but the taste just reminds you that you are about to become more parched.
Back in Boothbay Harbor, Melinda dropped me off at the library so I could work. When I was done I took a few shots as I walked back to the cottage...
A look inside the bridge house.
A look inside a house for sale near Melinda's street.
There was no need for dinner. We talked for a long while, as we had been doing for the last few days. Then before bed I went for a night walk...
The Catholic Church.
A look across the harbor from the Fisherman's Memorial.
I returned to the cottage and went to bed, with flowers, bees, runes, rocks, water, lobster rolls, and sunsets swimming around in my head. Nice day.
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