The grass is always greener, they say, on the other side of the fence. Especially when the side you’re standing on is clogging up with troubles – money, love, kids, job. What other troubles are there? Sickness, for sure, and grief, though ennui is a big one. I love that word, as it sounds like what it means: world-weary.

Packing it up and running away can seem like a good option. People do it all the time. A little flirtation can turn, overnight, into a full-blown affair, complete with trysts in hidden places, then lies and betrayal. If the couple hops the fence and runs off together, they may spend years managing the wreckage.

Children. We cherish them, would die for them, but honestly, they’re a lot of work, and the stress their kids put on a couple can put them over the edge. The child-rearing years, which if you have more than one, go on forever. Eighteen years seemed do-able when our first-born arrived. Of course, by the time number three was launched that was 25 years later.

Then come the boomerang years, when your now adult offspring bounce around from school to job to no job to school again, often landing back in their old bedroom (if you haven’t converted it into your sewing room, that is). You assume that marriage and parenthood will finally loosen the ties that have kept you bound to your kids, but it doesn’t work that way.

No one told us we’d be parents forever. That is, until in your dotage, when you become the child. I’m looking forward to that.

I pulled my spinach crop this past weekend, clipping off roots right in the garden and taking in basket after basket of leaves, about 10 pounds in all. Spinach is actually the third crop of the season, or the fourth the years we made maple syrup.

First would be dandelion greens. I learned something new this year when a friend stopped by and while we walked around the garden, he’d snap off a dandelion bud and pop it in his mouth.

“You eat them like that?”

“Sure. They’re sweet.”

Next comes the asparagus. Yes, it takes several years to get a patch established, but that’s all the more reason to plant it now. I pick it every other day until the Fourth of July, and eat it fresh.

Even with my upstairs family we can’t eat all the spinach, so just before it bolts in the July heat I freeze it. Blanch it in huge batches; those 10 pounds shrunk down to a good-sized bowlful of chopped, wilted spinach – I cut it up with scissors. Next I make a spicy white sauce, with mustard and garlic and creole seasoning, about a quart of it, and mix it with the spinach. A scant cupful goes into a snack bag – there were 21 of them – and put those little bags into a bigger one, then into the freezer.

Putting food away for winter sets me to thinking, imagining the cold, dark evening I’ll dig out a bag, put the frozen lump into a dish and sprinkle it with cheese. Half an hour in the oven and it comes out bubbly and good for my solitary supper.

What will my mood be that night? Contented? Lonely? Or best, contented in spite of lonely. A far cry from the sense of certainty, of comfort, that three little boys underfoot and the solid presence of my other half coming home in the dark gave. And if I’m honest, plenty of those nights were ho hum, same old thing. Cook the meal, wash the dishes, get the kids to bed, hash over the same old things:

What’d you do today?

Did you pay the oil bill?

Your cold seems better.

The kids are driving me crazy.

Ennui.

The peas will come next, though tradition says the peas were supposed to be ready by the Fourth. Our cold, wet spring took care of that, and they’re just now starting to blossom. The next seven weeks will bring beans, zucchini, beets, tomatoes, peppers, corn, one after another, each reaching its peak, each picked and tucked away for winter.

A life lived in one place, season following season, a predictable rotation of planting, harvest, rest, is a choice. It’s not for everyone, not for the adventurer, the ever-curious, for the restless.

But it is for me.

Town

At a special town meeting Monday, July 8, 6 p.m. at Walsh Common voters will “vote to authorize the Board of Selectmen to enter into an agreement, not to exceed two years, with North East Mobile Health Services to provide emergency medical and transport services in Lincolnville on such terms and conditions as deemed to be in the best interests of the Town by the Board of Selectmen.The Registrar of Voters will hold office hours while the polls are open to correct any error in or change a name or address on the voting list, to accept the registration of any person eligible to vote and accept new enrollments.”

Lincolnville’s Exuberant Fourth

Thanks to the vision of one man, Donnie Heald, our town had a wonderful Fourth of July. With the financial backing of a number of local businesses and individiuals the plan he’d been working on ever since last year’s successful fireworks display went off without a hitch. Even the weather – miracle of miracles – cooperated with a balmy, clear night, not too hot, not too cold and blessedly, not raining. The shuttle buses were busy picking up and delivering people to and from the Beach and their cars, the Midnight Riders were a hit – thanks Will Nils! – we were led in song by Bradley Watts and the CHRHS acappella singers, and then the fireworks!

Scott Crockett was out on the float with Donnie sending dozens of rockets high into the sky over the harbor, bursting into blossoms of color and light. Just before our show started we could see tiny versions of what was to come on the horizon, as first Islesboro and then probably Blue Hill further away, set off their displays, tiny sparkles of color against the dark sky.

The minute the show was over Andy Young lit the bonfire, a nice hot and quick fire of dry pine branches reaching high in the darkness. The band resumed playing, and the party went on. The crowd on the Beach was the biggest I can remember, though the 2002 Bicentennial celebration may have matched it. A great night all around!

Strawberry Festival

The 26th annual Strawberry Festival next Saturday at the Community Building and United Christian Church grounds promises to be another fun summer event for both townspeople and visitors. The doors open at 9 a.m. with the parade through the Center starting at 10. Come for the music, the hot dogs, the shortcake and pie, the puppet show, the face painting, and more, but mostly come to visit with your neighbors! Everyone seems to show up and everyone’s smiling. It’s always a great day for all. See you there!

Itchy?

I got over complaining about the black flies years ago. After all, they were part of the package, part of what makes the North woods – special. That is, until this year. Black flies, even mosquitoes, I can cope with, but the brown tail moth-caterpillar is just too much. The nasty rash doesn’t seem to go away or really respond much to the goop I put on it. One homemade remedy a friend shared has helped some, but always the rash is there. Okay. I said it. Enough.

Library

Knitting and needlework group meets Tuesday, July 9, 4-6 p.m.

Wednesday at 7 p.m. local author Liz Hand will lead a discussion of “Fiction from the Maine Perspective”. The library has recently added more than forty new books to its Maine fiction collection thanks to a generous grant from the Maine Community Foundation’s Rose and Samuel Rudman Library Trust. Liz, an award-winning who lives in Lincolnville, has used Maine as the backdrop in several of her books, particularly "Generation Loss".

For this event some participants may have read one or more of six books chosen for the program. All of these novels are set in Maine and written by Maine authors:


"Generation Loss" (2007) by Elizabeth Hand


"Rabble in Arms" (1933) by Kenneth Roberts,


"Spoonhandle" (1946) by Ruth Moore


"The One-Way Bridge" (2013) by Cathie Pelletier


"Once Burned" (2015) by Gerry Boyle


"Dolores Claiborne" (1992) by Stephen King

The discussion will be interesting whether you’ve read any of the books or not.