Holiday Lights & Traditions

Take a moment during this busy time of the year and take a ride around Dexter and other communities as part of your holiday tradition and enjoy the holiday lights.
People take a lot of time, effort and pride to put up decorations for all of us to enjoy!
My dog Meg and I go out many evenings a week for a short "Light Ride". Too bad there isn't a little bit of snow for the lights to reflect on.
As a kid, I remember my parents taking my brother Steve and me out for the "lights ride" and back then we didn't have all the blow ups and blinkers, but it was still memorable and time spent with our parents.

Speaking of traditions, it brings to mind my mother (Mackie)carring out the tradition of making all kinds of candy; the yummy peanut butter balls, homemade fudges, cookies, etc. After the threats were done, we went and delivered to all the people who worked for my parents in the summer at Lake Shore Lunch. These special people included (but not limited to) close friends, the bus driver, postman and neighbors to deliver these special treats.

As my brother and I got older one of us had to dress up as Santa to make these deliveries. Neither of us really appreciated that tradition at the time, but now I look back on those memories as treasured ones.
Christmas morning, after we opened our stockings, we delivered hot homemade walnut breakfast sticky buns to all our neighbors, which came fresh from the oven! First we delivered by car with my Dad driving, and then later, as Steve and I got older, we went by snowmobile and once I even did by horseback.

These are just a few of the traditions I remember growing up! Please share yours……
Merry Christmas

Emma Update

My little girl turned 3 weeks old today and weighs just over a pound. Her little rash is clearing up from the scratch she got from her brother and sisters.
Holly took this picture for me yesterday and surprise emailed it to me. Put a smile on my face, and you can never guess what my new desktop photo is. My horse Dexter would probably be jealous, but as you pet owners know, there can never be too many pets!!!
WELL, there can be, but we choose not to think about it that way :)
Hope you and your pets have a Wonderful Holiday pre-season....
Judy & Emma

New York Thanksgiving

Well I have finally visited the Big Apple!!! My oldest daughter Jennifer is now living in Brooklyn and working in Manhattan, so Tiffany, my youngest daughter and I took a road trip and the 3 of us had a New York Thanksgiving.
I had a lot of firsts while there.... The subway, crowded Food Co Ops, parking garages, haggling with street vendors, walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, traffic beyond belief, and more, but it was an experience I will never forget.

Some of the things that surprised me is how helpful & nice people were!!! If we were looking at the subway maps, people would come over and ask if we needed help. We even had a lady in a car next to us at a huge intersection, put her window down and ask if we need direction. That was the topper! Another surprise, I was under the impression that subways were dirty and dangerous. You couldn't prove it by me. All the ones we were on were clean, friendly and fairly easy to navigate.

Jen took us out on Friday to "get our feet wet" and on Saturday, Tiffany and I made our way from Brooklyn to Manhattan and beyond. We walked more than I have walked in years, but it was worth it. We saw everything from Chinatown, Soho, Tribeca, Central Park (walked across from the West Side to the East), and went to the Museum of Modern Art. It was kinda late by that time, so we decided not to pay $20 for only a hour, so we will put that on the To Do list for another time. I also wanted to go to the Twin Tower memorial, but ran out of time.

I did find that things were very expensive, but you could find good deals too! I am not much of a shopper, but enjoyed window shopping and the street fare.
I also got to meet a client Emily Pearlman who I have been working with for many years, but only had know each other through email and phone calls. Her studio (EPPottery.com) is in Tribeca, which Tiffany and I found, and had a great visit and lunch. It was great to put a face to her name.

Our trip home was LONGGGGGGGG........ we got caught up on Holiday Traffic and we went about 30 miles and it took 3 hours! So our 5 1/2 hour trip down (in the night) took almost 8 plus hours to get home. Portland that is....
Overall, the trip was awesome!!!!! But it was good to get home. My pets were happy to see me too :)

I also got to see my new puppy Emma at Holly's, who lives in Arundel, 2 times. Once on the way down and once on the way back! She is so cute and sooooo little. Can't wait to bring her home in January. Guess that's another trip to Arudel. YIPEE, the country girl heading to southern Maine AGAIN!
FYI: Emma's eyes are open at 2 weeks old (yesterday)
Check out Holly's website and see more pictures of the 2 litters of puppies.

New Member of family

Small things in our lives become a big part of our future. Yesterday morning a "small thing" was born at 3 am and will become part of my family and weighs only 5 ounces.
Meg, my lab, the cats, my horse Dexter and I have a new Yorkshire Terrier puppy. Yes, I love my pets.
Holly Gilbert Cleary, origionally from Dexter, saw my Yorkie I used to have years ago and just had to have a lovey like Mick. So she found Kelsey and from there added more Yorkies to her family. Well to make a long story short, one of her little girls, Liberty had 4 babies yesterday and I get one :) You can see her webpage at TaylorMadeYorkies.com
I am very excited, but of course it will be a 9 week wait to bring my bundle of joy home.

VOTE

Tuesday, November 7th is your time to have a say in the way our town/country is run. Take the opportunity and VOTE!
Although you and I may have different views and opinions on issues, candidates and policies, we all can still vote our own opinions.
I have to say this year, I find it hard to choose a gubernatorial candidate that I can endorse.

I do oppose Tabor, but I agree something has to be done. After sitting on the Town Council for 3 years and pruning the budget until we had to finally grab the hatchet (during the Palesky times), the council cut the budget until it almost bled. That was almost 3 years ago. I feel that the majority of small town municipalities are very mindful about their respective budgets. In my opinion, the problem for small towns are the mandated "state" expenses that are put at our small town feet.
I admire Mary Adams tenacity and feel she is trying to look out for us, but I am sure that budget cuts would affect Recreation for kids & Elderly Programs. (they were things we had to consider)
Remember, town budgets consists NOT only of services provided, but static things.....
IE: Heating Oil, Electricity, Water, Insurances, Wages, State mandated, school budgets and the list goes on. Add to that police, fire, highway, office staff and the expenses that go along with those departments and not to be able to budget properly would be a shame.
In the Town of Dexter, you can always find out what is spent on what and bring it up at any Town Council meeting during the Public forum.
So please, whether or not you agree with me, exercise your right to VOTE!

Local Authors, poets and more

I have had a column on TheDailyME.com for years called FeaturesME. We have very talented people in our midst that don't have an forum for their works, so I am pleased provide that space.

One of our local popular authors is Dexter native Fred Wintle who I (we) have encourage to put his short stories to print. His first published work is "When Weavers Wove, Short Stories of a Small Maine Mill Town" to be in print in November. It will be available locally and a great stocking stuffer.
I will let you know when and where as soon as it is available.

Readers are commenting....

I receive many very nice emails from people from all over the country. This is one that I received recently.

Thanks for all the fall foliage photos showing the beauty of Maine at this time of year.

Great reminders of my youth growing up in Guilford many, many years ago.

Bob Bishop

Austin, Texas

Good Quotes to live by...

If you read TheDailyME.com you know I use a saying of the day. This one today is particularly good for me to think about and I wanted to share.

Be of good cheer. Do not think of today's failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow.
You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find a joy in overcoming obstacles.

-- Helen Keller (1880-1968) American Writer

Green Thumb fall update

We had a challenging summer growing flowers on Main Street, between lots of rain this spring and the hot top drying the planters quickly. We tried using new and different flowers in the barrel plants this year. One of which was Lime Light 4 o'clocks which worked well until the hot sun didn't get them time enough to bloom during the day. We also put in Bicoppa, Purple Stuff (my own named plant), the daisy looking plants (Darlene is better with remembering the names than me), needlepoint ivy (that got lost in the barrels) and the Tobacco plant. There were various other ones, but those were the main ones. In the Bench Planters, we planted with all herbs: Anise Hyssop, Basil Red Rubin and green Basil, Chives and thyme all of which smelled Divine and wanted me to go home and make pasta or pizza when I smelled them.

My Dad, Dana Wilbur, (age 84) and his life partner Marilyn Scribner, diligently went to town with 20+ gallons of water in their trunk to water the barrels, the herbs, the cannon out on Dam Street many times a week. Mark Bellaire also watered in the mornings, plus some of the store owners and town office ladies poured even more water on... And still the flowers got wilted at times.
If anyone knows of plants that are extreme heat and drought resistant, please let me know.
The Highway Dept. guys picked all the barrels and benches up from Main Street last week and they are now wintering at my house so that hopefully we can get a better jump on them in the spring.
I wish we had a little greenhouse here on Number 10 to winter some of these plants, but maybe when I win the megabucks...??!!!!!

Keepin' up with the news

Soooo..... I started this blog months ago, but didn't do much with it.
Since I suggested to my daughter, who recently moved to New York, that she should start a Blog to chronicle her new life experiences, I am shamed into "do as I say and do as I do"......
I hope that you will learn to interact as well in this new forum.

Green Thumb Society

We started the non-profit flower club a few years ago to help keep the costs down to the taxpayer, yet beautifying our community. We had hoped to have more formal meetings, speakers, etc. in addition to planting and caring for the town flowers and gardens, but although a great thought, it didn't come to fruition. The town gardens, barrels ended up taking a lot more time then anticipated. BUT, we still enjoy the labor of love.

In March 2006, Steve Craig built a temporary greenhouse for us to start seedlings. Darlene Bagley and I also (in March) ordered from a couple companies online some different type flowers and we picked up a bunch locally. I think now, I wish we had ordered in January or February and planted in February/March, but we are learning.

The town highway guys delivered the Main Street Flowers barrels to my house where we will be filling them sometime around the end of May.
We added to Main Street, 4 new sitting benches with flower buckets for downtown shoppers and gawkers :) We planted those with aromatic herbs. S. Craig & I built them, but if would like to donate $$$ for this project is would be great! He built them for free, but I would like to be able to buy the supplies.
We also are in need of perennials. So if you are thinning out your gardens, give me a call. Plants such as hostas, bleeding heart, kewl stuff...

And lastly, would you like to get your fingernails dirty? We are alway looking for "like minded flower lovers" to help plant, weed, WATER, etc. You do not have to have any flower knowlege, just the desire. BUT if you do have something to share, we are always looking to mind meld we others. Knowledge is FLOWER POWER! 924-3067

Wild West Weekend

The 5th Annual Wild West Weekend is coming up August 3rd, 4th, 5th, 2007. The 4th annal was bigger and better than ever!!!
We have signed up many of the vendors from this year who want to participate in 2007 it was so successful.
Let us know what you are thinking about Wild West Weekend! It is a year round planning adventure and I hope to have input from Dexter and surrounding towns who would like to participate.

TheDailyME.com blog

I hope this will take the place of the guestbook which has been overrun with spammers, but also create a space to talk about local topics you are concerned about.
I would like to share some of the things I do in my community, I hope that you will too!
Lets get blogging...