Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

In keeping with the lag between when I do a trip and when I have the photos ready to share, this Friday post is late. If we're lucky, it's still Friday. Back in October, I flew back to Maine for my more or less annual visit to a good friend and the autumn color. I nailed it for fun times with friends; the color was less inspiring. We may have missed the peak by a week, but it also just wasn't a very good year for it.  The bulk of my visit was spent in a wonderful cabin on Webb Lake, near Mt. Blue State Park (we stayed there last year, too). The weather was a bit unsettled, but there was still opportunities for nice hikes, and dawn and dusk on the lake were worth it all by themselves. One of dozens of sunrise shots from the dock. One thing I like about spring and fall trips: I don't actually have to get up early to see the sunrise. Over in the State Park we found a tranquil forest and modest color.     We also found running and falling water. And we were practically dive...

This is purely an eye candy post--I spent a couple of weeks in Maine with a friend back in October, some of the time on the coast, some at a cabin on Webb Lake near Blue Mountain State Park. I'm not going to try to make a narrative of this--just share a bunch of pretty pictures :) Leaving the smoke-filled lowlands of Puget Sound  The coast Near Brunswick, ME Warm enough to work outside! Christmas Cove, ME The Gulf side of Christmas Cove Damariscotta Pumpkin Festival Lily approved of the corgi pumpkin! Inland Classic Maine home with a glorious tree! Brunswick Commons Crystal Spring Farm open space, Brunswick Webb Lake Tumbledown Mountain Tumbledown Mountain and Webb Lake Fog on Web Lake from Blue Mountain State Park Hope you enjoyed this little excursion through the best season of the year!       ©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2023  As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated. Don't miss a post-- Follow us !  

  Title: Echo Mountain Author: Lauren Wolk Publication Info: Listening Library, 2020. 9 hours 14 min. Hardback published 2020, Dutton Books for Young Readers, 356 pages. Source: Library digital resources Publisher's Blurb: When the Great Depression takes almost everything they own, Ellie's family is forced to leave their home in town and start over in the untamed forests of nearby Echo Mountain. Ellie has found a welcome freedom, and a love of the natural world, in her new life on the mountain. But there is little joy, even for Ellie, as her family struggles with the aftermath of an accident that has left her father in a coma. An accident unfairly blamed on Ellie. Determined to help her father, Ellie will make her way to the top of the mountain in search of the healing secrets of a woman known only as "the hag." But the hag, and the mountain, still have many untold stories left to reveal and, with them, a fresh chance at happiness. Echo Mountain is celebra...

At some point in our recent wanderings I realized we'd hit the high points in three states--the literal high points, as in the highest peaks. I wrote about climbing Wheeler Peak in Great Basin National Park a couple of weeks ago. It's not absolutely the highest point in Nevada, but it is the highest peak entirely within the state (the high point of Nevada is Boundary Peak, and the border with California runs right over the summit of that one). So I'm calling that my first state high point. A week or so later, we were backpacking in the Presidential Range in New Hampshire and I had the realization that it would be only a little farther, and a lot less descending (though it would be a bunch more climbing, that was less daunting to either of us than climbing back down the very steep and rough trails we'd climbed to our hut) to go to the summit of Mt. Washington. Since only one of us could do that, I descended to the car and drove up Mt. Washington to pick up my husband. A...