Without a wintry look right now I thought it might be fun to dig out an image from a winter past. Not that I’m complaining, but there is only so much one can do with fog and rain, especially at this time of year. Don’t get me wrong, fog and rain fall into my category of interesting, and I don’t mind at all venturing out when things are a bit less cheery, but no need to subject the viewing public to reminders of what has been with us for this most recent time.

It isn’t very holiday friendly.

So off I went into the piles of files in search of something from a while back to share a more seasonal scene from Little River in East Boothbay, another of my favorite haunts in all seasons. It was where I first landed on my second coming to Maine. Treasure Island was home base and an excellent introduction to the area. Winters there could be pretty rugged in a house that was primarily meant for warmer seasons, summer primarily. The views, however, from that vantage point were delightful and the neighborhood most interesting.

I don’t recall the year I made this week’s offering, but I suspect there are those among us who might have a pretty good idea. I do recall some residents in the area though. Mr. Winfield Dodge was a local gem who lobstered out of a skiff and made frequent passes by the island.

The Royalls lobstered out of there, too, and had a fine house on the opposite shore. Eventually I got to meet and enjoy time with Virginia Inness-Brown and her brother Admiral Royall. Virginia wrote the introduction to my first book, “Winter.” Interestingly, the school where I taught in Montclair, New Jersey had a building named for George Inness, quite a famous painter as I recall.

Then there was the “Lobster Shack” just up the road where folks could hang out and get a bite to eat. Lobsters were bought and sold there and many of the fishermen who worked out of Little River kept their boat nearby in the well protected harbor. I remember Mr. Alley from whom Phyllis Washington bought lobsters. It was often my job to make the short trek to Mr. Alley’s place to make purchases for the Washingtons and guests. This was my first encounter with the critters which I didn’t really manage very well. I never quite figured out if the paper shopping bag Mr. Alley loaded with lobster was meant to let go halfway back to Treasure Island, or if it was an oversight. Either way, lobsters scrambled along Hiawatha Trail, with and without wooden claw pegs, was not very pretty. Especially the one that got hung up in a low hanging branch when it was launched from my grasp!

Mr. Knapp fished from the head of the cove and hauled the float at Treasure Island as well as did some odds and ends around the property. His son Larry took us out on his lobster boat, with a small group of friends, when we got married right there in Little River, just off Virginia Inness-Brown’s cottage so she could attend from her bedroom window, having suffered a stroke which limited her mobility.

The Miss Conduct boat I have seen in the area for years. I’m not sure if it belonged to Captain Morton at the time the attached photo was made but I know he had it for some time in the Harbor kept at Dougie Carter’s “Sea Pier.” I went out hauling with Captain Morton a few years back and never stopped laughing and talking for the entire trip. What a guy!

So, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Hope everyone has the best new year possible accompanied by prayers for the many sad things that are going on in the world. We are so very fortunate to live where we do. Be careful out there.