We sold the Heron in the middle of "season," and as our favorite guests, now friends, came to town, we dropped in to visit them, had them out to the lake for cookouts, or otherwise visited with them. Bob and Hillary came to dinner; Matt and Vivyan, Zack and Muir came out to swim and kayak and had supper. Eric Bibb's family came to celebrate birthdays and they got to meet another favorite guest, Harriet Gosnell's mother, the amazing 90 year old Daisy with whom you can have conversations about anything. This photo shows Eric's mother and Daisy with us at market. We went to Freeport to hear Eric play in the L.L. Bean Free Concert series. Went back a week later to hear Suzanne Vega. That venue has become a favorite. You arrive early, set up your bag chairs and picnic lunch on the grassy, then wander around Freeport until concert time. In our own theater we recently heard Baka Beyond, an Afro-Celtic group that had the place rocking. It was good to see people driven to dancing by the drums. John needs to remove the stage extension for groups like that, making more room to move. We are like people who have been on limited house arrest for five years, and now we're free to move about the area. The new vehicle is a 2000 Subaru Forester with a sunroof and MP3 player. Its name is Iko, or should I say it name Iko. Getting IKO on the license plate (vanity plates are cheap here) was one of those cross-cultural experiences I occasionally fall into. The DMV office in Augusta is very efficient and friendly (Louisiana and New Jersey are said to be the worst), but you do have to go through the vanity plate censor. They call her on the phone and explain what you want. She prays over it, and probably looks it up in her list of dirty words, then approves it. I wanted Iko Iko, of course, but since Maine requires license plates front and back, I figure it adds up to Iko Iko. We are in total renovation mode at the lake, redoing a room at a time. The carpenter has started framing out the deck to porch transformation. Soon we will be in double renovation jepardy, as we are set to acquire the old coop building next week.

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