Winter Lights and Salad

I goofed.

This post was supposed to go up last week, but I lost track of my days. I'm chalking it up to the 10 hour drive home from Maine on Sunday. I felt like I lost a day.

So, anyway....

I spent Thanksgiving in Maine. Honestly, we weren't sure how to spend our first Thanksgiving without my husband. Our daughters felt strongly about being together, but my Maine daughter's schedule didn't allow for her to fly home.
So daughter number one, her cat, and my dog, made the trek north.

Someone was excited.

The last time I spent Thanksgiving in Maine, we nearly died in a snowstorm, but woke to a winter wonderland.

These wild turkeys came out to play once the holiday was safely over!

This time, the snow fell the day before, but I awoke to this on Thanksgiving morning.

It's a little hard to see, but I loved the scarecrows steering the boat.

As Ruthy and Jan can attest (and Kav too!), it gets cold up north in the winter.

Portland, Maine has a tradition to combat the dreariness. They light the city up.

I love the idea. I'm a little less enthralled by the colors. Call me a traditionalist. The brightness is supposed to dispel the darkness of winter.

I'm a fan of white lights so this was a little over the top for me, but if it keeps people happy, then I'm all for it.

This is the work of a local artist.

We got to see the tree-lighting ceremony. Everyone sang along to the carols despite the cold.

It wasn't a traditional Thanksgiving, but it was just what we needed this year.

On to food - I've been eating tons of this salad. The blanched kale has a hearty winter feel. It's honey mustard chicken, toasted sunflower seeds, sliced beets, pomegranate arils, croutons on a base of kale. It's my go-to meal at the end of a long work day.

Hope you have something good to eat too.

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, a Fairy Village, and Heirloom Tomatoes

Missy inspired me with her post last week from the Atlanta Botanical Gardens.

When we were in Maine in early July, we took a day trip to the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay Harbor.


The Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens is very different from what Missy showed and from what I'm used to in the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. For starters, it's only been open for ten years. (Compare that to the for BBG which just celebrated the 100th anniversary of its Children's Garden.)

The CMBG is also a total grassroots organization. A group of local people got together in 1991 and decided Maine should have a botanical garden. They spent 16 years planning, fundraising, and building before opening in 2007. When we were there, they were under construction again as a huge expansion is in the works because it's been so successful.

The most noticeable difference, in my opinion, was in the types of plants. This is a garden devoted to the flora and fauna native to the area. You'll see from my photos that it's much more rustic.


There is a formal garden at the entrance, and a meditation garden near the water. You can take boat rides, or get a tour. We did it on foot.

Meditation Garden

They also had a section that completely enchanted me. It's called the Fairy House Village and children come and build their own fairy houses out of the natural materials. I took a ton of photos.

So, I've been on deadline and not cooking anything interesting. But the heirloom tomatoes have begun to appear at the farmer's market. There have been a lot of meals involving cheese, tomatoes and zucchini.

Simple but so good.