Sunday-Tuesday, September 17-19, 2006 Maplewood, ME

We spent two very relaxing days with Jean, Pokey, and Pinky at Jean’s early 1800’s country house in Maplewood. This house is a marvelous example of early New England homes, with mazes of rooms, beautiful 16” wide-plank floors, low ceilings, beautiful antiques, and lots of fresh air. Jean’s herbs were drying throughout the house in preparation for her yummy five-mint tea. The house is set on the edge of deep Maine woods, surrounded by a barn, several out buildings, beautiful flower and herb beds, and a pond full of croaking frogs. Our first night there was spent feasting on fresh Maine lobster and sweet corn – yum!

On Monday, we drove to a local orchard and picked Macoun apples. In the afternoon, we practiced erecting our new SUV tent. It’s a large four person tent that has a “sock” that attaches to the back of the opened SUV, giving you access to the inside of the car, either for sleeping or accessing your stuff. It worked .. . . so we’re all set for camping. Once we had that figured out, we all took a long walk through the woods. In true Pokey spirit, he stole an old, partially deflated ball from a nutty woman’s house. He really refused to continue on, unless we let him take the ball with him. So, we gave in and he carried that ball for several miles, until he inadvertently left it in the road. When he realized his mistake, he ran back to where he thought he had left it, but was unable to find it. We all felt kind of sorry for him – he looked so dejected, but none of us offered to help find the lost ball. Pokey soaked in every puddle and pond that we walked by, taking advantage of all water opportunities. Near the end of our walk, we strolled through a beautiful meadow that was filled with milkweed and Monarch butterflies. Jean collected New England Asters and Goldenrod, and the dogs took one final dip in a pond before we returned home. We enjoyed a simple dinner of roast chicken and garden fresh tomatoes that night, topped off with an apple crisp made of apples we had picked that morning, all whipped together in minutes by Jean.

Tuesday morning, we packed up and headed out . . . . tears in our eyes as we said good-bye with hugs for our very dear friend and the perfect neighbor, Jean Degnon.