Thursday, August 12, 2010

Camp Small Point Returned today with 40 eager kids ready to see the lighthouse and throw anything off the catwalk they could find.  Fortunately France has little plastic figures with parachutes and lightweight balsa wood airplanes that satisfy any kids fancy for flight at 30 feet.  The wind turbulent surprises you coming from all directions so you can never predict where the objects will land.  One kid banged the back of his head on a rock and caused some worry but a little ice wrapped in paper towel and some loving care, inspection of his eyes with a flash light and some common questions assured everyone that he would be fine, despite the blood.  They asked me to speak basically as a distraction and I did a little better this time telling more about what I’ve learned about the history of the place.  They are great kids and were a good audience.

All tolled, including the day camp, there were about 60 visitors.  Captain DeBery came with a boatload and so did Captain Ring.  A wind from the east brought unusually cool air but the sun was bright and it felt as though there was a touch of fall about.  France is making jam from a bag full of Rose Hips she picked on the beach in Popham and scraping the white paint off the brick walls in the museum with sandpaper when not taking people on tours.

We said good-bye to Darko and Najda yesterday but still have fond memories of their visit.  I know it meant a lot to them to get out of the heat of New York and come to this little oasis in Maine.  We were thrilled to be able to share it with them.

On their last night here we heard a warning on the VHF from the Coast Guard of severe thunderstorms and they weren’t kidding.  When these come through here you batten down the hatches.   Ever since I was a kid when a storm like this came through, my sister and brother and I would sit on the porch with our dad and he’d smoke a cigar and we’d talk about the lightning and time how far the storm was away by the interval before the thunder.  I never was frightened by them because of this and am always thrilled to see a big one like we had on Tuesday night.  Thanks Dad for that.  I know he still loves them too.