Fort Edgecomb

Fort Edgecomb

Located just across the bridge from Wiscasset to Edgecomb, Fort Edgecomb was built to protect and defend shipping traffic on the Sheepscot River into Wiscasset Harbor.

Situated right on the river are rolling hills and short trails with scenic views. Plan to bring a picnic lunch to take advantage of summer breezes!


How to get here:

From the inn go north on Rt 1 to Wiscasset. Cross the bridge and turn right on Eddy Rd. Turn right again on Old Fort Rd. Just before you get to the fort, the road becomes very narrow.

Make a day of it and head into Boothbay Harbor. Leaving the fort, turn right on Eddy Rd, continue to Rt 27, go right. Stay on Rt 27 into Boothbay. While in Boothbay, head to Southport Island to check out some lighthouses. Hendricks Head Lighthouse

White Cedar Inn Bed and Breakfast 178 Main St Freeport, Maine 04032

www.whitecedarinn.com

Grilled Blueberry Muffins

Grilled blueberry muffin

What a perfect way to start the day! Sure, your average blueberry muffin is good all on its own, but let's kick it up a notch here with a little buttah. 

How to -

Start with your favorite blueberry muffin (also works with cranberry muffins, or pretty much any muffin!) If you have to buy the muffins, that's ok, all is forgiven once this hits the table.

I use my old standby cookbook - Betty Crocker. (Side note, I tried Martha's recipe for blueberry muffins and they did not come out like muffins, more like scones. Which makes sense because the scone recipe came out like muffins.) But use whatever recipe you like.

When the muffins are baked and cooled, slice them from North to South Pole (rather than along the Equator). Put a tbsp of butter in a frying pan, heat until water dropped on the surface spits and place the muffin halves, cut side down, in the pan. Fry until browned, less than 1 minute. Pay attention, it really is less than 1 minute!

Turn out onto a plate, dust with powdered sugar. Voila!

White Cedar Inn Bed and Breakfast 178 Main St Freeport, Maine 04032

www.whitecedarinn.com

Mackworth Island State Park

Fort Gorges with Portland Head Light in the background

Another road trip on a beautiful sunny day! We love to just pick a spot we've never been to, point the car in the right direction and go!

Today's choice? Mackworth Island. Why? Fairy houses! (See the fairy house blog for the photos.) Plus, it's a great walk through dappled sunshine and off shore breezes.

One of the hundreds of fairy houses on the island

We were loaned a small pamphlet at the gatehouse to use on our tour around the island. In it you learn the island is the home of the Baxter School for the Deaf which shares the island with the Mackworth Island State Park and the pet cemetery for Gov Baxter's dogs and one horse. I'm not going to delve into the darker side of the former problems at the school, this is just a story of a walk in the woods.

The Falmouth Town website has a good overview map of the island (see below).

Mackworth Island trail guide from Falmouth Town website

The parking lot is pretty small so don't expect to find a spot on a sunny summer day. This is a great hike in the quieter months. Admission to the park is $3 and is pretty much on the honor system (but you'll note the camera watching you so pay up!)

I was just walking over to check the admission fee when this caught my eye. I totally caught its eye as well but we watched each other on the sly. Believe me, if that fox moved toward me I was so out of there!

The welcoming committee

The trail is very easy to follow, well packed down and it looked to be mostly wheelchair accessible other than the beach access which was pretty rough. Other beach areas have stairs.

Great views of Portland Harbor, Falmouth Foreside and some of the 'Calendar' Islands all the way around the trail.

There were random benches and this one great seat along the trail. Although, seriously, from this angle it looks too much like Moby Dick!

Huge downed tree

Lots of wild flowers, birds and assorted trees. (The island was completely deforested for fire wood during the Civil War and replanted with non-native species in the 1920's.)

Gorgeous woodland flowers abound

The remains of an old Civil War pier are along the trail. From the end of the pier you can watch sailboats and harbor traffic from Portland. Bring along binoculars as the low lying rocky islands are seasonally packed with seals, cormorants and gulls and other sea birds. (Zooming in with my photo software I can see one lone seal on one of the rocky outcrops just off the shore. It's a tiny speck on the photo just where the V is on the left of the island.)

Harbor traffic

 And we can't forget the 'pet sematary' that's about halfway around on the trail. Gov Baxter's 17 pet Irish Setters and one horse named Jerry are buried here. It's set apart from the trail so look for the turnoff.

Pet cemetery

The whole trail is 1.5 miles, easy grade. You could take 30 minutes or spend the day with a picnic lunch sitting on the beach. Pets are allowed but must be leashed and you must clean up after them. Remember, there is a school on the grounds and you saw that fox earlier. Lots of wildlife here, you don't want your dog running off after something (or the reverse!)

On the way out we saw clammers in the Presumpscot River. So strange. There they are in the shadow of Portland.

Clamming

How to get there:
From the inn, go south on Rt 1 to Falmouth approx 15 miles. You'll pass the Gilsland Farm Audubon Center on the right. A little ways after that there is a turning lane in the middle of Rt 1. Just before the turning lane ends is the left turn onto Andrews Ave that takes you across the causeway to the island. There is a large green sign directing you to The Baxter School for the Deaf, this is where you turn left off Rt 1 onto Andrews Ave. (If you reach the Martin's Point Bridge you've gone too far.)

Stop at the gatehouse for directions to the parking area. The parking lot is VERY small, so visitors are limited. Entry fee is $3 for out of state over 12 years old and $2 for in state residents.

White Cedar Inn Bed and Breakfast 178 Main St Freeport, Maine 04032

www.whitecedarinn.com 

F is for Fairy Houses

Fairy houses abound in the forest!

Fairy houses use all found, natural materials

Fairies keep pesky mice in the jail house.

Bark makes a lovely decorative element!

Uh oh, this little fairy has been tippling!

Lovely rooftop deck on this little house!

Definitely an avant garde fairy lives here!

Looking for fairy house in Maine? Two of the best locations (outside your very own yard) are the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens and this little spot we found on Mackworth Island in Falmouth.

Building fairy houses is fairly easy although that's no guarantee you'll get a fairy to come and live there. Fairies, although not excessively particular, do require a few basic necessities before they move in. 

• Your fairy house needs to be protected from the wind (fairies don't weigh very much and they don't like being blown around). 
• There should be bits of greenery (so the fairies can blend in if the cat comes nosing around). 
• All the materials should be natural (fairies don't like plastic, but they do have a soft spot for little bits of sea glass).
• They like a little walkway leading up to the front door (when it's raining they don't like to get their feet muddy). Small pebbles or seashells are wonderful for this.
• A nice sturdy roof keeps them safe from owls.
• Pine cones of various sizes are perfect for storing their little bits and bobs.
• Kelp makes excellent flooring.
• Because they are naturally eco-minded, fairies don't want you pulling apart living things. So only use twigs, leaves and bark that have already been shed by the trees. Moss is lovely for a little couch but moss is a living thing so shouldn't be used.
• Fairies from different parts of the world have all different kinds of houses, what kind of house can you build with what you find in your neighborhood?

To see the fairy houses on Mackworth Island follow these directions - from the inn, go south on Rt 1 to Falmouth approx 15 miles. You'll pass the Gilsland Farm Audubon Center on the right. A little ways after that there is a turning lane in the middle of Rt 1. Just before the turning lane ends is the left turn onto Andrews Ave that takes you across the causeway to the island. There is a large green sign directing you to The Baxter School for the Deaf, this is where you turn left off Rt 1 onto Andrews Ave. (If you reach the Martin's Point Bridge you've gone too far.)

Stop at the gatehouse for directions to the parking area. The parking lot is VERY small, so visitors are limited. Entry fee is $3 for out of state over 12 years old and $2 for in state residents.

The entire trail is 1.5 miles. Fairy houses are in various locations (see if you can spot them!) but the 'Village' is about halfway around the trail. Beach access in a variety of locations all around the island. Great views to Portland.

 

White Cedar Inn Bed and Breakfast 178 Main St Freeport, Maine 04032

www.whitecedarinn.com

K is for Kaleidoscope

Display of hand-made kaleidoscopes at the Brewster Kaleidoscope Society convention

Do you remember kaleidoscopes from when you were a kid? Cardboard tube with some mismatched mirrors and flakes of plastic? As fun as those were the first time you tried them out, you haven't seen anything until you've seen these handmade kaleidoscopes! No more clunking into place, these images are created fluidly and gracefully.

Over the weekend, the Brewster Kaleidoscope Society held their annual convention here in Freeport. On Saturday and Sunday there was a vendor display. Totally amazed does not begin to describe it! These handmade kaleidoscopes are nothing like the toys we used to have. Many of these are precision-designed and -made works of art. Absolutely gorgeous and inventive.

There were tiny, 'kid size' kaleidoscopes, kaleidoscopes shaped like lighthouses, teleidoscopes (these create kaleidoscopic images of whatever you face them toward), the amazing 4-mirrored kaleidoscope above (with the black drape) and so many others.

Some kaleidoscopes create the mandala images you probably remember. But there were some on display here that create spherical images called 'globes' and others that created linear images and some that combine different image types into one kaleidoscope. And, yes, it's all done with mirrors!

Back to those little bits of plastic that we used to look at, I was checking what was in the 'object cells' (that's what you call the container that holds the objects that make the patterns) and it's pretty much anything you want to put in there! Buttons, barrettes, those little bits of broken plastic, shells, it appears almost anything that will hold its color and shape can go inside.

One very small one I tried out was like those 'Where's Waldo' wands - you tip the wand back and forth while looking thru the tube and the image constantly shifts as the objects float back and forth.

In the case of the teleidoscope, anything will work but moving objects are the best! TV images, bits of colored and patterned objects on a turntable, a waving flag, all kinds of things.

If there is a kaleidoscope convention nearby, I really recommend heading over to the vendor booths to check this out. The workmanship and creativity that go into making these fun, usable, interesting works of art is amazing.

The Brewster Kaleidoscope Society is named after Sir David Brewster who received the first patent for a kaleidoscope. For more information about the history of kaleidoscopes and to find kaleidoscope artists, head over to the Brewster Kaleidoscope Society website.

To view more of the kaleidoscopes shown above and to see 'inside' the 4-mirrored kaleidoscope, check out Arny Weinstein's website - awscopes.com.

White Cedar Inn Bed and Breakfast 178 Main St Freeport, Maine 04032

www.whitecedarinn.com