It’s still September as I write this on Sunday, but by the time you read it, it will already be October, which doesn’t seem possible, although I think I say something just like this every month. The older I get, the faster time passes, and just about everyone I know says the same thing.
September, for us, was all about preparing for our Big Event, Will and Rosemary’s wedding, which took place on Saturday at the overlook in the Buck’s Ledge Community Forest, and it all turned out absolutely perfectly. I had been nervously watching the long-range forecast; for a little while it sounded like September 27 might turn out to be our first rainy day in about two months.
We all knew how much we needed rain, just not on that day! Fortunately, the predicted storm moved in sooner, giving us a day of delightfully steady rain on Thursday, a sunny day for drying things out on Friday, and the most perfect day we could have imagined on Saturday.
Rosemary and Will were just about the most laidback bride and groom I’ve ever known, and the entire wedding party was just as relaxed, making the whole event blissfully free of drama. I won’t go on and on about the wedding, except to say that it was beautiful, and we are all so happy to have merged our family with the wonderful Wiser family, and I think I remembered all the freezers in which I had stashed the 12 dozen or so cupcakes I made for the reception. (If anyone who’s reading this opens their freezer and finds a couple of dozen forgotten cupcakes in there, feel free to eat them—we had plenty!)
Now, on to October, and upcoming events.
Monday, October 6, from 1-2 p.m. at the Whitman Memorial Library in Bryant Pond: Archivist Rhonda Chadwick will discuss ways to organize, preserve, and store documents to create a family archive for future generations. Free and open to the public. For more information, contact Librarian Pat Little at 665-2505 or email whitmanlibrary2@gmail.com.
Saturday, October 11, at 1 p.m.: Buck’s Ledge Community Forest will celebrate the completion of the Trail for All. This trail meets the specifications for wheelchair use, and is also available for anyone less able to hike the more strenuous hiking trails. To attend the celebration, please park in the parking lot off Route 26 at the base of the access road and walk up to the scenic overlook, or, if not able to walk the access road, you may drive to the upper parking lot just above the overlook.
Saturday, October 11, from 4-7 p.m. at the Locke Mills Legion Hall: Crock-Tober Fest Dinner. Crock pot meals, dessert buffet, bread, rolls, and soft drinks. There will also be a 50/50 raffle and door prizes. All donations will benefit the Locke Mills American Legion, Post 68.
Saturday and Sunday, October 11 and 12, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Piper Brook Lane, off the Greenwood Road: A yard sale with a twist: fund-raising event for Far-Winde-Away Nature Preserve, located at the south end of Mud Pond. Gerry and Dawn Nelson, who have created trails on their property and opened it to the public for hiking and nature exploration, are holding this special event to raise funds to support continued development of the preserve. Similar to a yard sale, there will be a wide variety of items available, but here’s the twist—nothing will be priced, and the amount you pay is up to you. If you see an item you like, simply make a donation that you feel is fair, and it’s yours! The Nelsons say, “You’ll leave with a new treasure, plus knowing you’ve helped support this treasure of a preserve.” Use this link to view a flyer for the event: https://bit.ly/4nOd0Hn
Wednesday, October 22, from 4-6 p.m.: The Locke Mills Union Church will celebrate the season with a Harvest Festival, including a free harvest dinner.
Friday, October 24, from 6-9 p.m. and Saturday, October 25, 9 a.m. to noon at Gould Academy’s Field House, 74 Church Street in Bethel: The Bethel Outing Club’s 45th annual Ski and Snowboard Sale. New and used gear, clothing and accessories will be on sale, all in one place, making shopping for the winter season easy. The Outing Club takes 20% of each sale, which benefits youth outdoor programing in the Bethel area. To learn how to sell your unneeded (but not obsolete) winter gear or clothing, or how to volunteer to help at the sale (with some nice benefits), go to bethelouting.org and look under Events. There is a link to SignUp for volunteers and instructions on how to tag and inventory gear you’d like to sell. Donations of non-obsolete gear are also welcome. Tags for used gear, as well as instructions and inventory sheets are available at True North Adventureware and the Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce.
Tuesday evenings from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Locke Mills Union Church: Rosie MacArthur offers weekly country line dancing lessons. The cost is $5 per lesson, and there’s no need to pre-register; just drop in. The class welcomes all levels, including beginners, and Rosie also offers lessons on Thursdays from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the United Methodist Church at 75 Main Street in Bethel.
By the time you read next week’s column, I should have a second new bionic knee. The surgery is scheduled for October 8, and even with all the busy-ness of wedding preparations, I’ve been trying to squeeze in as much hiking as I can before then.
Last Sunday, Tony, Eli the Wonder Pup, and I hiked on the Sanborn River and Overset Pond trails, which I wrote about in my online column last week. The river was very low, and I’m hoping to get back there before my surgery to see if the rain we got last week made a big difference in the flow.
On Friday, I sneaked away from wedding prep activities to hike Peabody Mountain in Albany with my Colorado crew, Annie, Cait, and Cait’s boyfriend, whom I call Ben Two. (Annie’s brand-new husband, Ben One, was unable to come east for Will’s wedding because he had another wedding to attend in California on the same day.) It was nice to see a fair amount of water in the beaver ponds and streams. We ran into trailmaster Bruce Barrett as we were setting out, and he told us he had recorded five inches of rain at Hutchinson Pond, about twice as much as we got in Locke’s Mills.
On Saturday morning, I got up early for a solo hike to Lapham Ledge in the Buck’s Ledge Community Forest, where I watched a beautiful sunrise, then down to the access road to check out the wedding site. Tony and a crew of friends and family had taken the chairs up on his trailer the day before and set them up, and the beautiful birch arbor Rosemary’s sister, Marguerite, had made was in place, ready and waiting for the 11:00 ceremony.
This week, except for work, my calendar is mercifully empty, and the weather looks amazing. After such a busy month, I’m hoping to spend lots of time on rest, recovery, and recreation.
If you have news or events you’d like included here, email me at amy.w.chapman@gmail.com or call 207-890-4812. The next print edition of the Citizen will be out on October 16), but you can read the Locke’s Mills column online every week—with the added bonus of photos—at amywchapman.com, or go to the website and subscribe for free to have it emailed to you each week.
“Although we try to control it in a million different ways, the only things you can ever really do to time are enjoy it, or waste it. That’s it.” -- A.J. Compton
Congratulations to the entire family. So happy for you. And the weather was perfect. Good luck with the upcoming surgery. Won't be long before you are back on the trails with another new knee. I love October!
Congratulations on Will and Rosemary’s wedding. I enjoy reading your column, despite that I am a little out of your neighborhood.