Welcoming in the year of the dragon

Well I haven't had the most eventful of weeks but it has been good all the same, with lots of time to do domesticated things like make soup and toad in the hole for Sarah and Stuart so they could experience some British cuisine!

It's been an interesting couple of weeks at school. Children did some great work last week to celebrate Martin Luther King Day and thought about their own dreams for a better world, then yesterday marked the start of Chinese New Year so we had celebrations in class. One of the parents of a boy in my class was born in Vietnam and so he came to tell us about his childhood memories of New Year celebrations. It was great. As usual I was like a big kid and had more questions than them. He brought all of the kids some 'lucky money' in a red envelope as is tradition but told us that he had spoken to his parents and they had said "How much are you putting in each?" When he replied "a dollar bill", they told him that odd numbers were bad luck and he had to put in 2...All of the kids went home richer yesterday after wishing him a long and happy life! We also did crafts, ate lots of snacks with chopsticks and of course had fortune cookies. Mine disappointingly told me "an apple a day, keeps the doctor away".

To make up for my lack of news, thought you might be interested to find out what the crime rate is like round here. Each week, the local paper has a section called "Police beat" where you can catch up on all the goings on. Here are some highlights:

In Cumberland
Reveille gone wrong
1/15 at 6:53am A person walking on Drowne Road reported hearing a blaring vehicle horn that wouldn't stop. It turned out that the horn came from a school bus at the nearby bus garage. The horn malfunctioned due to the cold.

In Freeport
Romantic late night shopping spree?
1/14 at 2:17am An employee of L.L.Bean contacted police to request assistance removing  two people from the Main street store. The employee reported seeing a man and a woman go into the men's bathroom together. When the employee followed them in, they were reportedly caught in "a romantic interlude." Police found the two people on the Bean's campus and called a taxi for them to return to Brunswick.

In Yarmouth
Spell chec
1/9 at 1:40pm Police were notified of a four-letter word painted in orange on a storage facility near the Royal River Park on East Street. The four-letter word was reportedly spelled with only three letters, the letter k was missing.

Worrying stuff!

Life in the Arctic

Well this week the cold well and truly arrived. I made a galette des rois on Wednesday night for our French lesson on Thursday so of course we woke up to our first snow day of the year. The phone call came at 5:30am saying school was cancelled. I peeked out of my window and even through the gloom could see there was no snow. Could it be right? By 7:30 it was blizzarding and continued all day so we stayed snuggled up and warm (actually being trapped drove me crazy) until it stopped and we went out and shovelled snow in the dark. 10 minutes vigorous shovelling of the drive way and I was done with snow!

By Friday morning, the plows had been out and school was back on. The cold, however, was here to stay, freezing the snow so it now looks like glass. In the dark it takes on a mystic quality and looks like everywhere is flooded, the trees bring reflected in the surface. Beautiful!

But did I mention the cold? Yesterday I went for a brisk walk around Back Bay and it was biting. Then today, Theresa and I went to Boston. 10 minutes outside and I could barely move my jaw it had gone so stiff. Without taking into account the wind chill it was about 10 degrees farenheit (-12C). Good job there was plenty to do inside!

We went first to the Museum of Fine Art where we saw "Degas and the nude". It was an amazing exhibition of his work featuring sketches with charcoal, prints with ink, pastels and some amazing sculptures. All of his work had a tactile quality - you just wanted to follow his lines. We decided we could have happily taken several pieces home, but the one we most wanted was this...


The museum was huge but we before we reached art overload we visited the collection of American contemporary art with some Calder mobiles and Jackson Pollocks hidden amongst other treasures.

Having feasted our eyes, it was on to our bellies. We headed to the North end to 'The daily catch', a tiny little restaurant (seats about 20 people) which is rather rough and ready, however, is known for its amazing sea food. The chef cooked our meals in a tiny kitchen in the corner. We were able to thank him personally from our seats. I had a lovely tuna steak with some spaghetti on the side.

Yum

Yum

Yum 

Yum 

Yum!  

Afterwards, it was a hop, skip and a jump across the road to the famous 'Mike's pastry' for Cannoli - ridiculously unhealthy pastry filled with flavoured cream of your choice but incredibly delicious.

Devouring these (sorry Grandma Nora, we were common and ate on the street), we shivered our way back towards the car. Or at least that's what we thought...we hadn't paid very much attention to exactly where we had parked, just being grateful for finding a spot close to the markets. Theresa had at least spotted a Starbucks on the corner but... Starbucks are on every corner! Cue a man with an iphone and a starbucks app. Wonderful! Nearing hypothermia and frostbite (despite thermals and layers) we made it back to the car via a warm cup of tea.

The cold is set to continue (-21C tonight!!!!!). My fault for wanting the real Maine winter to arrive. I am excited though as I have just managed to borrow a pair of ice skates from someone at work. In Yarmouth and apparently in Cumberland too, there are places flooded on purpose to create places where people can turn up and skate for free, not to mention the ponds and lakes scattered all about. Layers of padding (and health insurance card) at the ready.

New Year Zen

After a great christmas at home seeing so many friends, I needed to come back to Maine for a rest!

Christmas eve traditions were kept...

As were Christmas day ones...

Hiccup cures were needed...

as were dictionaries for adjudicating a fierce game of scrabble.

Kath knows about playing with mum!

Christmas dinner exceeded expectations and was complete with crackers, naff jokes and silly hats.

A trip back to the UK would not have been complete without getting well and truly soaked on a walk. High force still managed to look beautiful even in the gloom.

 



It was great to get to see the house in BC and go and explore the places I've heard so much about, including visiting the tip to see what bargains could be had. A pair of balti dishes as it happened and I still wonder about that chair...

Anyway, there was no time to rest. It was back to Northampton where I had a wonderful surprise. A tea party with people from Bliss. It was great to see so many people and catch up on all the news.

I loved my time at home and am glad I made the choice. Family, friends, muesli, a good old BBC period drama...but I was also happy to come back to Maine and I have fallen in love with the place all over again. Friends here welcomed me back with open arms and the weather is still holding back its worst. So much so that I went for a long walk along the beach from Pine Point to Old Orchard and back on Saturday. It was beautuful and I even paddled in the Atlantic...well, in wellies. I love the beach in winter and seeing the ghost towns that have been deserted by sun seakers. The only downside was there being no ice cream shops open.

It was great therapy!

To top off a great couple of weeks, last night I went to a pasta making class with Theresa and her daughter Lena. It was fab! We made our own dough, then were shown how we could incorporate chilli flakes, pepper, basil etc into the dough as we rolled it out or make spinach dough. Our teacher made some very yummy sauces and so once we were ready with our strings of pasta, we could throw them into some boiling water to cook, drain, top and devour. It was so good and lots of fun. I can't wait to try out some new ideas when I get home. Delish!