I’m delighted to say that my book, Exploring Maine’s Coast, has been selected for the Monroe County Library’s Self-published Book Festival to be held at the main library in downtown Rochester on November 7 (11:30 – 4:30) and 8 (1:30 – 4:30). Only one out of three submissions were accepted into the festival so you should see some pretty good indie works. Stop by my table and I’ll answer any “behind the scenes” questions you might have. You can preview the book by clicking on the Blurb icon located on the left sidebar. I’ll have several copies with me that will be available at the festival price of $69.99 (regularly $81.53 though Blurb.com). For more information on this event Click here. Hope to see you, there!
New Look
I decided with the new year a new look is warranted for my blog. WordPress calls it “2014” so, technically, I’m still a year behind. I’m at a bit of a lull right now as I await review comments on my bird photobook, “Birds of Declining Populations,” and “A Personal Odyssey Along Maine’s Coast.” I’m also getting ready for another photo shoot; more about this in a later post.
I registered for the CANAM Photo Expo. All of the camera clubs in western New York and Ontario, Canada will be entering photographs from their members. I’ve entered 13 photographs that will be split between the print and digital salons. Competition will be stiff–I hope to at least get a couple of photographs scored in the top 20%.
In the meantime, if you haven’t seen any of my recent photographs you can click on this link. You can navigate to the rest of the site from there, if you wish.
Maine Events
Although my blog’s focus is the natural environment, here I make an exception to focus on the social environment. My friends have invited me to several events here on the coast. The first was the Common Ground Fair, held annually up the coast in Unity Maine. It features the produce of Maine’s organic farmers and other locally produced goods. There is a lot of publicity in Maine encouraging people to buy local. We were in stop-and-go for miles getting to the grounds. Once we got through the gate the fair had the feeling of the sixties, except instead of fields populated by concert goers, there were now food and goods producers. There are about 900 local farms in Maine, and about a third of them are organic certified.
There was a lot of livestock. One of the crowd pleasers were the alpacas. They are really cute. Their fur is one of the warmest and used to line winter coats–something to begin thinking about.
There were simply too many exhibits to completely see. However, one that many folks did not want to miss 
was the border collies exhibition. These working dogs are bred to work in teams and trained to understand many verbal and hand commands. They follow instructions to herd sheep and goats, as desired by the farmer. A couple of fair goers in the photo to the left are checking to confirm when and where this demonstration will take place.
And who could forget the brass band from Providence, RI that came to play at the Fifth Marine Museum on Peaks Island? It was a beautiful day, ensuring a good island turnout. What the band might have lacked in its budget was more than made up for by their diversity and enthusiasm, as you can see in the following shots.
Although they had no uniforms, they did have two tubas! Beyond that, each player looked like they were from very different backgrounds.
They got people dancing and one of the short people topped a rock for a better view of the activities.
Then, this past week-end it was the Maine Marathon, attracting about 3500 runners. There was also a 
half-marathon, and a relay. All began at the same time and shared the first 6.5 miles of the course before splitting off.
Here they are, just after the gun went off. Having been a runner for nearly 40 years I was a bit envious of this crowd (now I mostly swim for my aerobics). Among one of the notables in the half-marathon was my long-time friend, Black Dog Davey, 
seen in the pre-race photo to the right. Unfortunately, he was “nosed out” by Moninda Marube with a winning time of 1:08:13, seen 
approaching the finish line in the next photo. By the way, the full marathon winner was Rob Gomez, burning across the finish line in 2:34:42 (that’s an average of 5:13 per mile–wow–but nowhere near the world record of 2:02:XX just set in Berlin–these guys must be cyborgs).
Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be focusing on the foliage scenes, particularly in the Rockland area.
-From Portland and the mid-coast
