The Marsh in Early October

As some of you may know, I had been looking forward to a walk in the early autumn marsh, and had picked as my destination the Rachel Carson Wildlife Refuge mile-loop trail in Wells.  A dart thrown at the calendar pegged Wednesday October 2 dead-center, a day on which the weatherbeans were calling for sunny and warm.  The stars thus aligning and the gods smiling, I continued with my plans, changed the batteries in my camera, packed a go-bag, asked Steve if he would care to accompany me, made plans for exploring Wells after my walk in the marsh. . .

. . .which was about the time that I recalled that the Full And Proper Name of the marsh in question is:

The Rachel Carson NATIONAL Wildlife Refuge.

A quick check of the net confirmed my suspicion. Yep, the refuge had been closed as part of the Federal Government Shutdown.

Well, phuck.

I'd really been looking forward to my little hike-and-photo-shoot, and at dinner was making a effort to reconcile myself to its loss.  Steve suggested a walk in the other marsh, at Pine Point, but I was. . .somewhat leery, since I hadn't been able to find any information about it other than it seemed to be under the control of the Audubon Society, so perhaps might be open.  Steve suggested that we go down and check it out for ourselves.

Which is what we did.

It turns out that the trail off of Route 9 in Pine Point is part of the Eastern Trail Alliance, which connects Kittery to South Portland -- 65 miles of trail in Maine.  The Eastern Trail Alliance, in turn, is part of the East Coast Greenway, which eventually aims to connect Calais, Maine, to Key West, Florida.

Who knew?

So, the section that we walked connects Pine Point to Black Point -- a distance of about 2.5 miles.  Since we didn't know then the distance to Black Point, we only walked about a mile of the trail.  We had plenty of company; it was, as the weatherbeans had predicted, a Perfectly Gorgeous Day -- people walking, running, biking; and also standing in one place, taking photographs.

I took some photographs, too; they're reproduced below, for your viewing pleasure.

Looking across the marsh toward Pine Point

Shadow Steve on the trail.

Red hedge along the trail

Shadow Sharon taking picture of Shadow Steve

Spar, with rocks and swamp

              Milkweed

Dozing sandpiper-or-plover

          Red trees

Fields of gold, with heron

In the mail...

We have here in our hands the Official Tour post cards and bookmarks.  I especially like the tag-line on this one:

Star-spanning galactic trader Jethri Gobelyn returns!

It may, in fact, be my second-favorite Liaden tag-line ever.  First place in my heart being always held by the inspired tag for Pilots Choice, which has, for Sheer Chutzpah never been equaled:

The new Liaden Universe® novel is here!

So!  the front of the post card:

Trade Secret Official Tour postcard

Back of the Trade Secret Official Tour bookmark (the front is the same as the post card)

For Cat Fans

So, I was wandering around the house with my camera in my hand, taking pictures of Things That Were Not Cats.  Which the cats, naturally enough, decided was Not Allowed.

Here, have some cat pictures.

Scrabble

Trooper

Mozart