The world is my lobster!

Sallie has now departed and my house mate, Sarah, has moved in with her beautiful beagle Betty. We went out to a chowder house in Portland on Monday night to celebrate. Sadly, I couldn’t try the chowder as it had bacon in, although I was assured by the waiter that it was “only a little bit”. Not sure he quite grasped the concept of not eating meat!

I’ve been settling myself in to my upstairs living space, buying myself some colourful items to make the place my own and make me smile. I am also very proud of my first yard sale bargain – a lovely, white wicker mirror for a mere $5! Parents and staff ahave also been great at donating items for the year. Some fab seaside crockery and a down duvet which I'm not sure I could survive the winter without... Have you noticed how obsessed I am about the snow and ice to come? 

Currently, I’m still in semi-denial about having to teach, although had a great day in school today with my mentor Emily and the panic I've been desperately trying to ignore has subsided slightly.  

The panic is not, however, stopping me from acting the tourist...

On Friday, Sallie’s friend Lisa took me out to her family’s lake house on Little Sebago lake. I took along my swimming kit with some scepticism about the temperature of the water, however, when I tested with my toe I was pleasantly surprised. In we leapt and off we swam in warm, silky, beautiful water. No wet suit needed – Box end this was not!

Beautiful Little Sebago Lake, Maine

Proof!

Sarah, Christopher and the Lucky Catch

Yesterday, I went on another adventure, this time with Sarah, a teacher on my wing at school, and her son, Christopher. We went lobstering on the ‘Lucky Catch’. There is no escaping that Maine is the lobster state – lobsters appear everywhere…on menus, on license plates and on much tourist tat. Sarah’s husband is a proper lobsterman who works incredibly hard and puts in really long hours. In Stephen Fry’s ‘America’, he describes proper lobstering in Maine and is full of admiration for the people who do it for a living.  As you can see from the following photos, I didn’t endure much hardship today as a lobster-woman (unless you count having to wear the orange apron) but I was still put to work…


 

We had to prepare the bait for the traps first with 8 fish in each bag.

Then the traps were hauled up.

They are each left for 3 days before they are checked and reset.

If lobsters have been caught, they then have to be measured from just below the eye to the bottom of their back. Lobsters that aren’t as long as the measuring stick escape the pot and are put back. Those that measure-up go into the tank to later have their claws held together with elastic bands. These can then be sold to eventually be boiled alive…brutal stuff!

Once the lobsters have been measured, new bags of bait need to be put into the traps...

and then the traps pushed back into the sea for another 3 days. 

We also got to watch seals digesting their lunch and some were frolicking in the water (just for us, obviously!) It was a fantastic couple of hours out on the waters of Casco Bay, Portland.

I have to say that I like Portland. It’s a small city but the down town area is full of independent, individual shops and the lobster quays (and the faint whiff of fish) give the area a working feel too.

Downtown Portland