Lupine and Lilacs

I was so thrilled to see the Lupine on Dog Island on my walk that I went back to the house and got my camera.  I left Patrick home for this second walk, but Willy had plenty of energy left.  His head is just visible at the bottom of the second picture.  He loves his special walks when he's the only one, racing wildly around me with his eyes sparkling and tongue hanging out.

When I first visited Eastport years ago there were no houses in that area like there are now.  The whole world looked purple, white, and pink.  I have seen the the gigantic seasonal homes spring up, one or two a year. Gravel driveways lead through formal gardens to huge, expensive houses.  They have decks and gazebos, with many huge windows on the side of the house that faces the water.  Many of the yards are decorated with marine paraphernalia, and they all fly flags from tall poles.  For them it is always summer.  Nevertheless, the area is very large and they are not yet particularly

intrusive, at least not yet.  We are the last outpost of shorefront in Maine.  To go further east is to go to Canada.  So our summer people are of a sturdier nature.  They are willing to travel far in search of a more simple place, where the entertainment is church suppers and concerts by the local orchestra.  They like fish and chips at a picnic table.  They know the grocery store closes at eight (7 in the winter).

Slowly, though, they are changing things.  Gift shops have sprung up.  Even some cruise ships are beginning to stop here.  People who came here originally to find a quaint, small town full of poor fishermen and unemployed workers with little ambition or work ethic, are now seeing the town as a place that needs their help.  They are working hard to turn the town into the kind of place they left to come here.  Well, there is still more Lupine on Dog Island than there are formal gardens.  Deer still  roam the woods (and the streets), though their days are numbered, I think.  They seem to be getting in the way of people.  There is talk of "culling" the herd.  The deer don't know that cultivated gardens are to be left alone or that they may cause some of us to get Lyme Disease.  They believe that the earth belongs to them and sometimes cross streets in front of cars.  Sometimes a person's car needs to be repaired after it has killed a deer. 

Don't get me started.............anyway, I think Eastport will still be a place I want to live for long enough.  I recently applied for a rental in my old home town.  Eastport, I thought, was no longer where I wanted to be.  I have lost everything that brought me here in the first place.  Seeing Bangor again as I went to finish my application for housing there, I realized that Bangor isn't my home anymore, either.  When I returned from my trip there, Eastport looked like paradise. 

Then there is my own garden, and this is the lilac I brought from Wilson St when I moved here.  It was a shoot coming up near the huge lilac that grew in that yard.  I didn't even think it would survive, but look at it now.  So lupine and lilacs seem to have put me in the right place.