S & Auntie B

We ran into my niece, G's sister, S when we went to a sale at the artist studios her mother and our friend, DR have. They do all sorts of fiber arts and the studio collective was humming. It's an old shoe factory converted into artist spaces and business was brisk.

The weather was freezing and dry, with a fierce wind. It reminded me of Van Buren, Maine in far north Aroostock County where I had my first teaching job in 1971. There it never warmed up after October with piles of blowing snow across the windswept potato fields. In May we had mud, a brief summer(I was in Europe for 8 weeks traveling with my Swedish friend, so I never felt the warmth!) and it got cold again right after the potato harvest. I stayed two years. The summer of 1793 was a road trip across the states, so I never spent a summer in Van Buren. T and I visited about 11-12 years ago, a 5 hour ride up and another back to our summer house on teh coast of Maine. It poured, I showed her around and we were warmly welcomed by the lovely woman who was our school nurse and the mother figure for all 6 of us from out of state, all in our first year of teaching. i surprised her and I will never in my life forget her face that day when she realized it who it was, slightly grayer at her door. She's gone now, all loved her and her family so. The town was frigid, but the welcome was warm as toast.

Our morning was spent preparing the house for Thanksgiving and working on some wedding details. The day flew by.

For the Record,
This day came in blustery and FRIGID, the coldest yet and I mean cold!

All hands are healthy