About this time of year, I like to do an aerial inventory of how things look around the region. It’s just one of my weird indulgences. It helps me understand what it's like to be a bird surveying good landing spots. Thankfully, I have never had to land anywhere but Wiscasset Municipal Airport, with one exception, the grass strip at Adam’s Pond where the water company now resides. Doc Andrews and I did a few ups and downs from there! Fortunately, my takeoffs and landings were well received.

Recently three area residents have been honored publicly for their many years of living among us. The Boston Post Cane is shared by New England towns with elder members of communities who have approached a century of life on the planet. In some cases, I suspect, some recipients have been over 100 years old.

Lesley Carter Blethen, postmaster at Boothbay Harbor Post Office, is retiring in a couple weeks. After 32 years with the postal service and five and half years in the Army, she is passing on the keys to the kingdom. It’s been quite a journey.

Madisyn and Hayden, grandchildren of Garry Blackman, learned to play instruments at Southport Central School. They both learned to play the ukulele and Hayden added the piano. For Garry, an accomplished musician, this is not small potatoes. Learning how to play a musical instrument is a very significant skill.

It’s a good thing the weather gods in our neighborhood have been considerate of late because the last rain we had motivated me to repair a big section of roof that I have put off for too long. It became painfully obvious to me that when we had discolored rainwater flowing from a dining room ceiling light, my time had come.

Captain Bill Campbell has worked on the waters in and around Boothbay Harbor for 50 years.

He started with Captain Bob Fish at the age of 15 on the Maranbo II, then operating as the Squirrel Island ferry. Captain Fish, no entrepreneurial slouch, realized that there might be an opportunity to expand his business by additionally running tours for people visiting the region. Bill worked as a deckhand eventually graduating to “tour guide." After that Bill even got to drive the boat a bit.

Jim Jellison, resident interesting person, never imagined growing an 800-pound pumpkin. It was not his life’s goal nor a project he had ever investigated. He just did it because he could and because he was curious to see, once the idea landed, how successful he might be. He actually grew four pumpkins, but one of them, which would have been the largest, blew up during a growth spurt. The 800-pounder can be seen on Route 27 in front of the old Boothbay fire station, now home to MITCHELL & CO studio. Two other slightly less large pumpkins can be seen at the YMCA Child Enrichment Center annex and Boothbay Harbor Elementary School. I think Jim told me they were around 700 and 500 pounds. Still a John Deere tractor needed to unload and place.

What do you think these fellows have in common? It’s not their hairstyles or their fancy clothing. It’s not their magnetic personalities. It’s not because they all get up at 5 a.m., and it’s not that they have all run the Boston Marathon. 

We all can enjoy many food venues here in the area. There is Italian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Greek, Turkish, sushi, deep fried fish, take out, breakfast, pizza, gourmet, catered, dining-over-the-water, meat and potatoes, burgers, lobster and crab roll, and Hannaford variety of everything! Plenty of ice cream, homemade to imported. No fried bubble gum though!

I think that “Woodstock” was the zenith of my tie dye exposure, for those who remained under exposed. The over exposed shall remain nameless. It was sort of the hey day of personal expression and colorful exploration and definitely a time when clothing, such as it was, remained optional. However, the tie dye phase seemed to fizzle a bit as things moved on through the ’70s and beyond. But not entirely.