Category: Recreation

Feeding the 5000 event held in Portland, Maine to bring attention to Food Waste

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Portland proved that there is such a thing as a free lunch during their recent Feeding the 5000 event in Monument Square where from 11:00 am – 4:00 pm on Friday, October 7th volunteers served up soup made from vegetables gleaned from local farms.

What is gleaning you ask? You may not be asking, but I was unfamiliar with the word before this event.  Gleaning, as described in the Let’s Glean Brochure on the USDA website is “the act of collecting excess fresh foods from farms, gardens, farmers markets, grocers, restaurants, state/county fairs, or any other sources in order to provide it to those in need“.

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Hiking Maine | Wandering our own trail at Pineland Farms in New Gloucester

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Pineland Farms in  New Gloucester is a lovely sprawling, compound with so many activities, events, and offerings that it’s sometimes hard to keep up, but that’s what makes it such a great destination. There’s always something fun to do. When my brother mentioned that he was playing a disc golf tournament there over the weekend, it triggered a desire to check out some of their hiking trails for ourselves. It’s an amazing destination for outdoor enthusiasts.

We’d been to the Pineland Farms Market before to pick up some of their delicious local offerings, and I diligently read their event newsletter when it arrives in my in-box, but we had never actually explored the hiking trails.

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Hiking Maine | An Especially Lovely Hike on the Presumpscot River Trail

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Slow, lazy Sunday mornings that gradually lead into more active adventure later in the day are the routine in my house. So on a past Sunday morning, still in pajamas and streaming episodes of the Gilmore Girls, I was content knowing I’d get more active later in the day. But, when the living room suddenly darkened as thunder showers passed through, it made the hike we had planned for later that day more tentative, and the chances of me staying rooted to the recliner more likely.

Fortunately for my health, the storm, while intense, was brief and followed by brighter skies signaling the return of our outdoor plans. Once things cleared, we headed out to the Presumpscot River Trail, which is part of the Portland Trails network.

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Hiking Maine | Following in the path of the Ultimate Maine Waterfalls Road Trip

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We received the Massachusetts Atlas and Gazetteer as a wedding gift. We were living in Framingham, Massachusetts at the time. It sat within easy reach tucked into the slot behind the passenger seat of our car. We used it to guide us everywhere as we explored the state. It got so much use the corners were curled back in a permanent roll, and the cover eventually fell off. It served us well but was unceremoniously discarded when shinier, newer toys took over as a way to guide us on our travels.

We could have really used another Atlas on our recent outing to recreate The Ultimate Maine Waterfalls Road Trip which we had read about on the OnlyInYourState website. [Starin, Michelle. “The Ultimate Maine Waterfalls Road Trip Is Right Here – And You’ll Want To Do It.” February 8, 2016: OnlyInYourState.]

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The joy of spending a summer evening at the drive-in.

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Everyone of a certain age has their “bouncing around the back” of a station wagon story. Usually one that entails fake wood siding, and sibling squabbles that rival those of Cain and Abel. I’m sure I have a few myself, but the reality is that my memory just isn’t that good. I keep only about five to ten years back in active usage, another ten are sometimes brought up for the occasional recollection, and the rest are more vague. What I have instead are moments in time, and composites of things that probably happened again and again but have been entwined into one memory.

That’s how it is with the drive-in for me. It was one of our regular family outings when I was young, and the only thing I still associate with station wagons.

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