Have You Ever Noticed That A Moose Can Look Like A Retarded Horse? (Part 1)

 

There is so much to write about these past few days that I actually don’t know where to start. We met our wonderful friends Laura and Andy in Portland (Portland, Maine that is). We met in a cooking bookstore and then had lunch at Duck Fat and yes, we had potatoes fried in duck fat and yes, they rocked.

The four of us went up to Sabbathday Shaker Village which is the only living Shaker community left in the U.S. There are three Shakers living there on a functioning farm – lots of help is outsourced – and living the Shaker life. Our guide, a middle aged lady in culottes, with a white mock turtleneck underneath a gingham checked cotton shirt that she constantly re-adjusted and then tightly wrapped around her stomach. She told us that the last three living Shakers were there. She also told us that Shakers are responsible for creating perma-press and circle-saw technology. I imagine that some of my readers might not have seen a Shaker village, but they are these little pockets of loveliness: hand-made everything, purpose-built structures made for meeting, eating, living amid enormous gardens of flowers, herbs, vegetables and orchards. It’s just too bad they don’t believe in procreation or these villages might be peopled and still functioning rather than becoming museums. That being said, I adore the slogan of Sabbathday Shaker Village: “The Fruitage Will Never Fail.” They were referring to their massive apple orchards, but I think I can apply it to our eight trees as well.

We kept heading north to the Rangeley Lakes Regions to the cabin we rented for a few nights. Rangeley Lake is beautiful, and we got some gorgeous pics to prove it. Even more of a boon, the little cabin was perfect: hokey enough to feel like a country lake cabin and nice enough to feel comfortable. And it was right on the lake, we had coffee down on the shore in the morning. The water was perfect: warm and amazingly clear. There was a wee family of ducks that liked to hang out on our little cove. It was funny to see them scavenge, then get worried they have lost the group. So they would waddle-run over to check on the group before their scavenging led them off again. They are really sort of into group harmony. I liked them an awful lot.

You might be wondering why we chose Rangeley for our little vacay to which I will say “Wilhelm Reich.” And more on that soon.