I don’t know how it happened, but here we are, sliding into late September. Fall officially arrives with the autumnal equinox, which will occur on Monday at 2:19 p.m.
Those who commemorate the equinox, one of two times of the year when day and night are of equal length, view it as a time to celebrate balance, give thanks for the abundance of the harvest, reflect on the cycles of life, and prepare for the coming winter months.
September seems especially busy in our area this year, and I hope everyone who likes getting out and about will find plenty of activities to enjoy. Here are some of the events coming up this weekend and beyond:
Saturday, September 20, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the Bethel Common: HarvestFest. There will be arts and crafts, live music, harvest activities, and food. This is always a fun day, and the Museums of the Bethel Historical Society usually enjoy participating, pressing fresh apple cider and having our buildings open for tours. Unfortunately, with a wedding (Will’s) and a knee replacement (mine) coming up in our very near future, both Will and I have other plans for that day, and most of our volunteers are also unavailable, so there won’t be cider pressing this year, but look for it to return next September.
Jane Chandler let me know that the West Parish Congregational Church will have a booth at HarvestFest to bring awareness of food insecurity locally and globally, a reminder that not everyone in the world is able to enjoy an abundant harvest. Stop by and play the World Hunger Game with M&Ms to learn where in the world children are hungry, and make a donation to the Church World Service, which feeds people around the world.
Saturday, September 20, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Whitman Memorial Library: Third Annual Vendor Fair and Free Book Event. There is no charge for vendor spaces. For more information, contact librarian Pat Little at 665-2502 or email whitmanlibrary2@gmail.com.
Saturday, September 20, at 12:30 p.m. at the Rumford Community Forest, 161 Isthmus Road, Rumford: Join Trust for Public Land and Inland Woods + Trails to celebrate the Rumford Community Forest. This new 446-acre Community Forest is within five minutes of downtown Rumford and was permanently protected as a shared backyard for the surrounding community early last year. A celebration with community remarks and refreshments will be followed at 2 p.m. by a guided trail walk. There is also an opportunity for volunteer trail work that morning, from 9 a.m. to noon. Learn more and register online at https://events.tpl.org/rumford-celebration/registration/form.
Saturday, September 20, at 12 p.m.: Annual meeting of the Gilead Historical Society. The festivities begin with a free lunch at noon, followed by a short business meeting and raffle drawings, and then the program, which will feature highlights of the past 20 years of GHS.
Sunday, September 28, from noon to 4 p.m.: Habitat for All Homegrown Food Festival at the Valentine Farm, 152 North Road, Bethel. Learn how to make cheese, kraut, garlic spreads, jams and jellies, and more. And there will be cider pressing, too!
Like I said, this September is a busy one! As for me, I’ll be at the Vassalboro Public Library on September 20, reading from and discussing Just Like Glass at 1 p.m., the last stop on my book tour before my upcoming knee replacement in early October. I don’t know a soul in Vassalboro, and I’m hoping that doesn’t mean I’ll be reading to an empty room, so if you have any friends over that way, send them to the library!
Two weeks after my surgery, I’ll be getting back out there, doing an author talk at the Paris Public Library on October 22 at 6:30 p.m., and I hope to see lots of familiar faces there as I shuffle in with my cane!
I’m also very pleased to have recently been invited to the Andover Public Library for an author visit on Saturday, November 22, at 2 p.m. It’s hard to believe, but by then we’ll be plunging headlong into the holidays—don’t forget that books make great gifts!
I’m writing this column on Sunday morning, in the loft at camp, where I’ve written many of my columns this summer. I have a cozy little writing area set up, with a table for my laptop and a comfortable seat, in front of a window that looks out on the lake. This is the spot where, last summer, I put the finishing touches on my book, Just Like Glass, and today, the surface of North Pond really is “just like glass.”
Today is bittersweet, because it’s the last time this year that I’ll be writing from camp. We actually moved home last Sunday when we saw the forecast for overnight temperatures dipping into the 30s, but came back this weekend to spend our traditional “camp closing weekend” here with Donna, who comes up from her home in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, every year to make sure we do it right.
When I told Donna we were moving home, but would leave the refrigerator on and the waterline in so we could stay here when she came up this weekend, she responded, “If we find it’s easier this way, maybe that’s how we should close camp in the future, with a ‘soft’ move back to the house and then a Weekend of Gratitude closing weekend.”
So that’s what we’re having, a weekend of gratitude. In between all the closing chores, we’re taking plenty of moments to appreciate the gift my parents gave us when they decided, back in 1954, to spend $200 to purchase a lot on North Pond from the Mann Company and build a camp.
I’m also taking lots of moments to appreciate the gift of the 60 years of friendship Donna and I have shared, since meeting in September of 1965, on the second day of second grade in Milford, Connecticut. While I’m up here writing, she’s downstairs vacuuming, stripping beds, and covering the furniture on the screened porch—and claiming there’s nothing she’d rather be doing, and no place she’d rather be.
Later today, Tony and I will move home “for real” and—once the dust settles after the wedding and the knee replacement—settle into our fall/winter/spring routine, but I will continue to remind myself of how lucky I am, in so many ways. And the magic of this ramshackle little camp, which has been shared with friends and family for more than seven decades, will stay with me until—before I know it—it’s May again and time to return.
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 2 (I just realized that I put the wrong date, September 25, in the print version of this column—oops!—but maybe the proofreader will catch it), but you can read the Locke’s Mills column online every week at amywchapman.com, or subscribe for free to have it emailed to you each week. (If you read it online, you’ll also get some “bonus content” in the form of a photo or two with every column.)
“When you leave a beautiful place, you carry it with you wherever you go.” – Alexandra Stoddard
Both your camp and Donna are treasures! I love to look at camps for sale around Maine (they're a lot more than $200 now!) Happy places.