Wednesday
can be the toughest day of the week unless you’re an optimist. If you’re an optimist, you keep your head up and look toward Friday with a song in your
heart. I prefer to be an optimist. Heck, I was born on a Friday, so it’s only
natural that I plow through Monday and Tuesday, pick up speed on Wednesday and
sail through Thursday until I wake up smiling on Friday! A week ago, I
discovered there's an uncanny number of optimists in Bath. Even when
it snows on the first day of spring, you can still play in Bath. There’s always
something fun to do, especially on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday!
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| The Wilderland Studio on Middle Street |
On Wednesday, I took
a brisk walk over to Middle Street to the home studio of Kdb, a
phenomenal artist, who has been creating a visual narrative of the Kennebec
River watershed from Merry Meeting Bay to the Gulf of Maine. In 2014, she set up camp at Popham Beach to take daily pictures of the shoreline, beaches, islands, mountains, hills, salt
marshes and bogs along the mid-coast for an entire year. At the end of that year, she
realized she had only begun to tell the story of climate change. According to scientist, the Gulf of Maine is heating up 99.9% faster than any other ocean in the world, and Kdb wanted to document what that looked like over an extended period of time. She decided to continue the project.
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| Kdb at her home studio in Bath |
Kdb focused her lens on the
reaches of Phippsburg and Georgetown and named her study the Wilderland Maine
Climate Change Project. Her Wilderland was once called Seguinland by a litany
of artists who came from near and far between 1900 and 1940 to capture the
natural beauty of the rocky coast of Maine. Marsden Harley, Max Weber, and John
Marin all painted at Small Point, and William and Marguerite Zorach came up
from New York City to plant their feet and their easels at Robinhood Cove in
Georgetown. As soon as Kdb mentioned Seguinland, I was drawn into the watery net of Wilderland. It’s amazing to witness the connection between art,
history and science. What did Winston Churchill say? If we can’t have funding
for the arts, "then what are we fighting for?” And Robin Williams echoed the same
sentiment in the film The Dead Poet
Society.
After
viewing Kdb’s inspiring works of art in a variety of mediums, I returned home
and convinced my husband to drive out to Phippsburg for a walk along Popham
Beach. It was already late afternoon, but we knew if we hurried we would catch
the prettiest time of day for a stroll. And we were not disappointed! It was
low tide, and we were able to walk all the way out to Fox Island. We scrambled
over the rocks like a couple of kids, and when we reached the top our reward
was a fabulous view of Seguin Island and its magnificent lighthouse. I’m not
ashamed to admit that I cried. At the end of the day, when you spy something
truly beautiful, it’s hard to stop the tears from flowing.
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| The Salt Pine Social is ready to serve on a Thursday night |
After
Wilderland on Wednesday, Thursday was a breeze.We had dinner with friends at The Salt Pine Social. We have new neighbors and old friends in Bath, and we love to see as many as we can when we're all in town. The Social didn't disappoint. It was cold outside but magical and warm inside, and we were pleased to be greeted by Daphne, one of the co-owners, who gave us a little private tour of their marvelous renovation. We started our "neighbors night out" at 5:30 with drinks and oysters and continued right through wonderful entrees and an astonishing dessert, vanilla-freckled Meyer lemon panna cotta in passion fruit "soup," which was even more delicious than its name!
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| Brian Stanton, the Master of Ceremonies, warms up the crowd |
Then, with tickets in hand, Joe
and I arrived early at the Maine Maritime Museum on Friday evening for Main
Street Bath’s first “Front Street Feud” charity event. The new contest was
replacing a beloved trivia contest, “So You Think You Know Bath,” and some people were
understandably nervous. After all, MSB was about to launch a new tradition in the
historic City of Ships! But as fate and Bath would have it, there was no need
to worry. The suave and debonair English teacher from Morse High School, Brian
Stanton, had us all at “Hello!” His smile was bright, his wit was quick, and he
knew the contestants and the community well enough to put us at ease, make us
laugh, and not offend our intelligence too much. The teams were made up of
local nonprofit organizations. They were all a hoot, and so were their names:
Nostalgia Family (Bath Historical Society and SPI), Skoolfield Family (RSU 1
and Fields for Our Future), Bluegooder Family (Bath Police Department and Bath
Rotary), and Shipwrite Family (Maine Maritime Museum and Coastal Journal). In
the end, the Bluegooder Family won, and I for one agreed with that outcome.
They were calm and steady under fire, and that’s the best way to be any day of
the week!
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| The Skoolfield Family faces the Shipwrite Family |
Joe
and I laughed a lot at the “Front Street Feud.” Everyone who was asked to play,
proved to be light-hearted. They filled us up with good will, and they taught us a lot about Bath. Laughter is not just the best
medicine. It’s a great teaching tool as well. My favorite answer was offered by
Skoolfield Family. When asked what could be added to downtown Bath, one smart
teacher from Morse High School replied, “A movie theater.” That was the number
one response, and I had to agree. All of the contestants were creative thinkers, and even Einstein believed that imagination was more important than
knowledge. There was certainly a lot of imagination going on at “Front Street
Feud!” It’s great to go out on a Friday night and laugh with your friends and
neighbors, and it’s an extra bonus to win the “Heads or Tails”
contest. When in doubt, I usually choose tails! On that fun-filled Friday night,
I made the right choice, and I won a fabulous prize! Today I am more grateful
than yesterday for finding a home in Bath!
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| Hilton Park's beautiful guitars wait to be played |
It’s
hard to top a Friday night game show at the Maine Maritime Museum, especially when it starts with an amazing view of the Kennebec that includes a tug boat traveling
south, but the Chocolate Church Arts Center opened their intimate, downstairs performance space on Saturday night, so local fans could listen to
the Americana, folk and blues music of the Hilton Park Band from Berwick, Maine.
Never too tired for music, we headed back out to listen to a talented trio of
father, son and friend. Together, Bruce and Conor Hilton and Gregg Pannier
produce an ethereal blend of guitar, piano and voice. Bruce and Gregg are
seasoned performers, but Conor started singing with his dad four years ago when
he was only 16. He’s a natural, and his guitar (or mandolin) and voice follow his father
perfectly. As soon as they started to play, they cast a spell over the room. It
was easy to sway and dream to their music. On April 29th, the New
England Music Awards will announce the New England Album of the Year, and
Hilton Park’s new album, Moments has been nominated. I’m keeping my fingers and toes crossed because this trio
deserves to be recognized. At the Chocolate Church, they played a song from an
earlier CD called “Strings.” Bruce picked up his father’s guitar to play it,
and told the audience that he wrote the song for his wife, who was also in
attendance. It was by far my favorite song of the evening. Of course, I’m a
hopeless romantic, but even if you’re not, I think you should look for “Strings”
online and listen to the words. Bruce and his band tell unforgettable stories.
Last Saturday night, Hilton Park at the Chocolate Church reminded me how sweet
it is to listen to a love song.
Right
now it’s Sunday night, and I’m looking forward to Wednesday!
