B.B. Haywood's Blog

   Today I got out my gardening journal . I started it in 1997 !  It is filled with garden plans, photos of flowers, letters, mother's day cards, but this is one of my favorites... especially if you have ever lived on a dirt road...

                             How to Drive in Mud Season

      1.  In snow, drive slow. In mud, drive as fast as you can (without bottoming out).

      2.  Stay in the ruts whenever possible. (unless the ruts of your front wheels differ
            from the rut of your rear wheels, in which case you are going sideways and best
           move on to step three.)

      3.  Hitch up the oxen.

Happy April and Mud Season !!


    

When your birthday is on March 8, you know you were born between unforgiving Winter and Early Spring.  Soon the sugar maple trees will start to thaw , with tears of joy flowing into buckets that will be turned into the sweetest syrup.
The earth will soften from the inside , out , and make mud for dogs to get all over their paws, and cars to get stuck in. The Cardinals will have fat bright red babies, and the Robins will be dancing with the fairies. The snowdrops will begin to peek out of what is left of the snow, and the air will smell like clean laundry. 
Out at Holliday's Blueberry Acres, we will be watching the blueberry fields, and waiting for the bees to wake up. We have our gardens planned, our seeds ordered , and now we have to wait just a few more weeks.
Happy Early Spring ~

Town in a Strawberry Swirl made the New York Times Best Seller List for Mass Market Fiction!! We are number 20 on the printed list for Sunday February 23rd. The book is also number 20 on Barnes and Noble Mass Market Fiction list! 

There have been some other well know writers in Cape Willington, Maine.  I guess the most well known is the poet,  Sebastian J. Quinn. He is best known for The Bell of Chaos, his Pulitzer prize winning poetry book. He also wrote A Drop of Peace, which was a best seller for several months.
Sadly,  he is no longer with us after meeting his maker under a pile of pumpkins.

Then there was Darkness Raven. No one actually knew his real name, or what has become of him.
His poetry started a whole group of followers. I think his most well known book was From this Lighthouse Tower.

The only other well known writer I can think of is Fred Chevus. He made the Best Seller list with his non-fiction book on the impacts of the environment on the oceans, titled How Do I Love Thee, Let Me Count The Waves. That was back in '02.  They still use that as a textbook at the Ocean Institute.

Cape Willington is a beautiful place to live. We are all inspired in some way by being here by the ocean.
Congratulations B.B. Haywood!!!

         2014 is the Year of the Wooden Horse, promising luck and prosperity.
We certainly feel lucky. Town in a Blueberry Jam, the first book in the Candy Holliday murder mystery series, has been released as an unabridged Audio Book, narrated by Tavia Gilbert!
The fifth book in the series, Town in a Strawberry Swirl, will be on sale February 4th!  We also have the first four books in the series available in large print editions.
The artwork for all of the book covers is outstanding, and a good reason to choose our books from the many others on the shelves.
We are fortunate to have Leis Pederson, our wonderful and patient editor at Berkeley.  Kae Tienstra, our agent, is the reason we are published! James and Matthew Feeman created the beautiful Website and Facebook page for the series.
Most importantly,  Happy New Year to our readers!  Thank-you for your e-mails and comments, and for returning to Cape Willington .
Wishing you all happiness and good health in 2014 *
Beth and Rob
B.B. Haywood

  This week I have been struggling with lack of cell phone coverage and a crackling land line.
Phone problems happen so often in Cape Willington. I believe it is what led up to the misunderstanding between Timothy Granber and his very long time girlfriend , Amalia Vasar.
   Amalia was at the knit a pair of socks class at the Town Library, when her cell phone rang. It was Timothy, or she wouldn't have answered it during class. He was calling her from home on his crackling land line.  "Amalia, will you pick up Larry for me?". The cell reception at the library not being totally clear, Amalia heard " Amalia, will you marry me?". 
  "Yes!" , " of course I will".  
So, while Amalia was telling all of her friends in the knitting group "Timothy finally asked me to marry him! , and I said Yes! ". (though it wasn't quite the romantic proposal she had dreamed about), Timothy was home waiting for her to drop off his brother Larry so they could watch the rest of the game together.
  My friend Walter Harper told me "this one will take some time to sort itself out". "Kind of like when Barry Laskow called and asked me if  I would take in a stray dog".  "Yes, of course I would". which is how he ended up owning Charlotte the 350 pound hog.

     Joan Donnelly's Christmas wreath has been hanging on her front door for 8 years.  I know it was alive once. Now it is brittle shades of brown and yellow. The once cheery bow is drooping, faded green bleeding into red. Granted , we don't use our front doors here. Always the side door. (I even heard that Steve Briar built his house without a front door at all!). So I suppose Joan may not even know the wreath is still hanging there, waiting for attention. Or maybe she is thinking 'hey', only a few months till Christmas, why bother?.
   Thinking about that summer wreath, and front doors, Candy Holliday showed up at my door the other day. Maggie was out of town, Doc is too busy, and Candy wanted someone to go with her to deliver three dozen high bush blueberry plants to The Lightkeeper's Inn. The gardener at the Inn, Dahlia  Roseet is a piece of work. Her name used to be Sandra, but she changed it to Dahlia when she started her job at the Inn. I hear from Candy that Dahlia can predict the weather from looking at pine cones.  An open pine cone means good weather, a closed up cone means rain. "What do the pine cones say?" she asks everyone.
   Candy and I unloaded the blueberry bushes from Candy's jeep, with Dahlia's help. There were ooohs and aaahs  by guests and employees . I can't wait to go back and see them all planted and in bloom. 
   On the way home from the Inn we drove past Joan's house. "Hey! That reminds me, I need to take down my Christmas  wreath " Candy said laughing.

   The leaves have finally unfolded, they are beautiful Spring green and full of holes.
Late last Fall/early Winter, when driving home , I drove through like what looked like a snowstorm, made up of tiny white moths. Every day for several weeks.
In the evenings every window of the house was covered with swarms of the moths.
I had never seen anything like them, nor did I realize how devastating they can be to the trees.
The moths apparently just arrived in Maine with a landscaper from 'away'. All of those moths laid eggs in the trees during their stay. The leaf eating caterpillar chewed  holes in the leaves that just unfurled. They will then send new cocoons down into the soil to continue the cycle. No plants should be transported inland from May to December, to stop the spreading.
The worry is that the moths will spread into areas where wild blueberries are growing. If they like the blueberry plants ,  it could be damaging to the industry.
There is a certain fly that when released , will eat the moth eggs, but this season only 800 flies were available for 3 towns to share!  that's 266.6 per town, so hopefully we will get more flies and the winter moth will be history.

                           Happy Memorial Day Weekend!
        
                           

   There is a 10 Mile long yard sale this weekend stretching from Route 150 in Cornville
to Route 2 in Skowhegan.  I am going with Maggie and Candy!  We'll let you know what we find....

                           10 Miles to Shop

Last weekend I stopped at Maggie Tremont's house for her garage sale. Her three day garage sale!
She said it was the first one she ever held. She lovingly displayed all of the toys and clothes Amanda has outgrown, along with household items she no longer needs or wants.
She was eagerly anticipating the crowds and the early birds she heard so much about!
Ready in rain or shine...
According to Maggie, day one was a big hit-with one early bird. The woman bought a box of toddler blocks, a whole box gone!
Next a couple came and bought all the dolls and doll clothes. They told Maggie they buy dolls at garage sales, and then donate them to a children's charity organization. Wonderful.
But, Then Betty Oaks pulled in to the driveway in her bright green car.  Everyone in town knows about Betty and Roy. Roy being her pet parrot. She bought him on Amazon a few months back when winter boredom set in. Now she spends her time in search of hard plastic toys for Roy to chew on, because he gnaws them to nothing in seconds flat.
So far no big money being made. In fact when people come with rolls of quarters, and balk when the price is 4 dollars, well-that is not 'big money' happening.
Paul Carver rode up on his bicycle. looking for records-albums that is. Maggie told him she only had a few, and he said she probably wouldn't have had any he liked anyway.  Rude?  Maggie challenged him on the impossibility of riding a bike and carrying said records anyway.  
Day two.  Maggie was not looking forward  to it.
Day three. Dread. Should not have had a day three.
All in all it's more fun to go to garage sales than to run one.

I spent several of the days this week on a road trip to a few states west of Maine.  I started out Wednesday morning in Cape Willington rush hour. This is about 20-30 cars all backed up along the Coastal Loop at drop off time for the schools. It lasts about 10 minutes!
While I was in traffic , and waiting to begin the long drive ahead, I flipped through radio stations to pass time. I ended up listening to a song with the lyrics " I just met you-call me maybe".
It got me wondering- does she want him to  maybe call her? or call her Maybe, as in 'Maybe Williams went to the prom with Todd Coty. 
I did hear that one of Marjorie Coffins fine young sons is dating, and going to the prom with, a niece of Walter Gruthers,  Emily Frenda. Emily's Mother Eileen is Walter's sister. They grew up in Cape Willington . Their father was a lobsterman.  Back in the day, they had lobster traps piled for miles in their back yard.
The song "Rock Lobster" by the B-52's woke me out of my thoughts. That is a crazy song! Which reminds me-don't forget the Cape Willington Lobster festival August 9-12. If you need a hotel reservation, do it now!! The hotels will be booked up and down the coast. The Sea God and Goddess applications are online, deadline June 1st. This years festival will kick off with a sand castle building event. If you want to volunteer to help with the festival contact Sue Reynolds at 555-6495. or Candy Holliday at 555-7898.
One more note. The Ice Cream Shack is open for the season!  They opened yesterday, in fog and temperature of 52 degrees. It was packed!

             Happy Mother's Day~

             B.B. Haywood