Hidden Maine

Hidden Maine

Today is February 25th. In 90 days, we will be back to real beach weather with gulls wading in the shallows. Winter really is so brief.

Hidden Maine

At this time of year, the sun is low in the sky. A slight breeze will put a light chop on the water…and the sea can be awash with glittering diamond light. It’s not August and 80° in the shade. It is, though, a treat to sit by the shore, allow the mind to drift, and be at peace with the light. A cup of tea and simple time can make our winters extra special and something to look forward to. These are the cliffs in Cape Elizabeth near Portland Head Light on an early Sunday morning.

Hidden Maine

Video Taken From the Porch
of a Dog-Friendly Inn

This video opens with a lobster boat on a sun-dappled sea. As the video pans to the left, it catches more lobster boats. This video is at The Inn by the Sea in Cape Elizabeth from their front lawn. The video ends with the rocks at the end of Crescent Beach.

If you get the chance, The Inn by the Sea is a great place to visit any time of year. They are dog-friendly and have a fabulous restaurant.

Hidden Maine

This is Ship’s Cove at Fort Williams in Cape Elizabeth. It has a small beach with rounded rocks and sand. It’s 100 feet long between the rocky headlands. This was a good wave day. In the back of where I am standing is Portland Head Light, America’s most photographed lighthouse.

On November 27th, at 7:45 in the morning, I thought I would stop at the cliffs in front of my house and take 5 minutes to film before work. I remained there in awe of the waves for over two hours. The sea catches us that way.

When you come to Maine next time, Fort Williams is a true jewel of our coast. The entrance to the park is still free. It has cliff walks, a dog park, two children’s areas, picnic tables, and a world-famous lighthouse. It’s on the open ocean and is at the entrance to Portland Harbor. Thirty feet above this pebble beach is a 50-car parking lot, so it’s super convenient.

Hidden Maine

This is near the entrance to Portland Harbor, a small pebble cove 500 feet south of Portland Head Light. The cliffs are just 20 – 30 feet high. High enough that if someone is standing 200 feet back from the edge, they can be oblivious to a good surf. This was that sort of a day. I was surprised when I walked to the cove and saw that there was a good sea running. It was good enough that I spent over an hour just watching. Nothing spectacular occurred, just waves, and yet it was truly awesome.

Why the ocean is so alluring and why a good wave day is so enthralling, I don’t know. It just is.

Hidden Maine

Pirate’s Cave

When my daughters were little, we went to Pirate’s Cave every weekend in good weather. Neighborhood legend holds there was a natural cave at the shore back in the 1800s that the first resident liked so much that he expanded the cave for his daughters. Legend again: he used black power and two oxen to tunnel deeper into the cliff.

When we moved into the neighborhood, it was a natural place for kids to explore, and usually, neighbors would place a treasure box buried in the loose rock with a driftwood X on top. Pirates always left something different each week: foreign coins, American coins, Mardi Gras beads, costume jewelry, and beauty contest rhinestone crowns. The quantity of loot hauled out of this cave was astounding.

This video shows American coins being sprinkled in slow motion into a box in Pirate’s Cave.

Hidden Maine

Stand Up Cave

This is Stand Up Cave, 1000 feet down from Portland Head Light. It’s a natural cave where waves have tunneled into the cliff. The cave follows a vein of crystal quartz formed in the area rocks millions of years ago. The cave is deep enough that one can shelter from the rain. If there is a storm at sea and the tide is high, Stand Up Cave will fill with seawater and waves. Stand Up Cave is beautiful.

Hidden Maine

Lobster and Lobster Pot
By the Sea Shore

This is a reenactment of something that occurred regularly in the 1950s. The tide would come in, traps, ropes, and buoys would be left in a tangle on the beach. Back then, buoys were wood, and the rope would not have been in a neat coil. The buoy and rope used here were from under the cottage, so they are authentically 60 – 70 years old, and the golden lobster is a contemporary pretend.

We were surprised by the crowd we drew when we did this photo shoot. They had lots of questions about these elements of ancient sea history.

Hidden Maine

Cruise Ship on the Maine Coast

A cruise ship coming from the south. A thousand people are on board. Smooth seas. Morning sun. This was the third ship coming into Portland Harbor this morning, October 27. The first ship arrived in the dark; all lit up and bright. The second ship was around 7 AM. The sun had not yet broken the horizon. This, the third ship, passed by at 7:33.

It’s interesting that something so huge can actually pass by a few hundred feet away and not be noticed. Once in port, people will have breakfast, disembark, fill our city, explore, taste, try, and go away impressed. Why are they here? Fall foliage. It’s been warm this year; the leaves are just starting to turn color.

Hidden Maine

On the Edge of a Dream

I awake from one world, dress, and walk to the shore. The sky is grey and pink and peach. The sun is shining through, and silver light shines on the water. Waves roll to shore. I sit for 45 minutes, mesmerized by the sound and motion. In the end, I climb back up the cliffs and return home for breakfast. If I were asked, I could sum it up simply: it was beautiful.

Hidden Maine

Best Beach in Maine

This is the best beach in Maine, 22 minutes from downtown Portland; it’s called Higgins. In June, July, and August, half the beach is cordoned off for dogs to run freely, allowing Piping Plovers and Least Terns free nesting areas down in the dunes. During the summer months before 9 a.m., dogs can run unrestricted on the upper half of the beach. Their human partners absolutely respect the 9 a.m. privilege. I’ve watched and been impressed with their collective discipline. After Labor Day, the beach becomes free to roam by dogs and open to surfers any time of day. This is a September view of this amazing beach where you can see people, dogs, and a seagull or two enjoying the beach together.

Hidden Maine

Rogue Wave Sunday, October 8

A tropical storm downgraded from a hurricane, was 200 miles out to sea. The sun was shining. The temperature was in the mid-60s. I had watched the rhythm of the waves for over an hour. I had chosen a big flat rock six feet wide by 3 feet wide. The rock was high in the cove. It was a safe place far back from the waves. The tide had been high at 7 AM. It was still falling at 11:55. I saw a big wave coming. It hit 50 feet out, all frothy white. Then, another wave behind rolled in. It was even bigger. The froth and foam framed the black rocks. The wave was a full three feet above the lower dark rock.

I was surprised as the wave swept over the six-foot mark from my sitting rock. It was the closest any wave had come during my hour. As the water swept in, I lifted my feet. The water swirled around. I kept filming. It was a good capture.

Rogue waves are real. I’ve only been surprised once before, 31 years ago, at the same cove. You can count, calculate, and arrive at the certainty of force by logic and still be surprised when a rogue wave arrives that you hadn’t counted on.

Hidden Maine

Waking Up With the Sun

If I had woken up five minutes later, I would have been oblivious to this ship the size of two football stadiums passing by 400 feet in front of the house. It was 6:56 AM. The sun had just risen on the eastern horizon, and the ship silently slipped by. There wasn’t a sound. Literally, one minute later, it passed by Portland Head Light, 300 feet out, then turned left into Portland Harbor. In the fall each year, we have dozens of cruise ships that do their fall foliage tours along the Maine coast.

Hidden Maine

The candelabra hangs in a 100-year-old oak tree. It’s 50 feet above the ocean, and when I got home at 7, an almost full moon set the sea aglow, and the candelabra and oak leaves created a silhouette that stopped me after I got out of the truck. It’s nice to have simple things that frame a moment. This location is 800 feet south of Portland Head Light. This angle is facing southeast. Moonlight on the ocean is beautiful.

Hidden Maine

Saturday, Hurricane Lee was 200 miles out to sea. There was scattered sun, and the wind was out of the north. Thousands from inland came to the shore: beach walkers, dogs, surfers, kids. The crowds came just to watch the waves. Saturday, September 15th, was a great day—big waves, 10, 12, 15 feet high, curling, cresting, rolling in. Wind catching the tops of crests, blowing it back. It was a party atmosphere at the shore. I sat on a rock and watched. There were people everywhere.

Hidden Maine

I love fog. I always have. I love the way the world changes. I love what disappears. I love the simplicity of what remains. This morning, on the way back to the house from picking up my newspaper, the driveway curved and rose up from the street below. Halfway up the driveway, I was almost eye-level with the lawn. I saw the purity of these three objects: the hammock, the love seat, the bird bath…and the white fog beyond. It was beautiful. I videoed 21 seconds of the hammock. The air was still. I could hear bell buoys and a fog horn. There was the soft patter as the fog accumulated on the trees and dripped down the leaves. It was beautiful.

Hidden Maine

Summer temperatures arrived in early September this year. This is seven in the morning, 800 feet down the coast from Portland Head Light. Much of our summer has had hazy skies due to fires in Canada and out west. The haze has created some interesting atmospherics, muting the sparkly light on the water. Many days feel like the opening to a French foreign film.

In this view, a 100-year-old oak tree stands in the center, with a lacy iron chandelier on the right side. We look forward to clear skies again. In the meantime, it’s interesting to see our land and ocean in new ways.

Hidden Maine

The Islands of Casco Bay

Coming out of the roofline of the house in front of the lighthouse is a little bit of the rock of Cushing Island. Beyond that is Peaks Island, and beyond that, in a distant mist, is Long Island. Note the white block moving along the shore of Peaks Island. Wait for it. It’s tiny. I’m thinking this is a delivery truck moving a couch or delivering a dining room set to a resident on the island. Peaks Island has a road that runs along the open oceanside of the island.

Hidden Maine

Sailboat Coming About

Some summers, it feels like the ocean is full of sailboats. Their white sails are all over our blue sea. This summer was different. The skies were often grey. The ocean was grey. It rained so much that I emptied water from my wheelbarrow dozens of times. It was an excellent summer to grow grass.

When I looked out and saw a sailboat, it was a big deal. I studied its progress carefully. On this day, the sun was shining. The boat moved slowly. It caught a bit of wind. It was beautiful. This is 800 feet south of Portland Head Light and 17 minutes from our store.

Hidden Maine

Blue Sea
White Sea Foam

This is 30 feet above the sea at low tide. It was a sunny day. There was a light breeze. We had good waves and great white seafoam at the shore. As we pan left, we come to serious greenery and a small poison ivy bush. Along the shore, always keep your eyes open for poison ivy. This is 800 feet south of Portland Head Light.

Hidden Maine

Kayakers on the Marsh

Our cottage has been in our family for 79 years. It once housed a boat and thus is called “The Boathouse”. Our cottage fronts a white sand beach and the open Atlantic. Out back, we front a 10-acre saltwater marsh. Twice a day, the ocean sweeps in to float our boats. We have five sitting areas outside. One on a porch, one on a wooden dock, one on a granite dock, one with lounge chairs, and one with a big round table. All sitting areas have big umbrellas.

Every spring, we have projects. This year, it was dock repair and a new lawn. At one point, while i was resting, three kayakers came paddling through our marsh in blue, red, and yellow boats. Work days on the cottage are as good as beach days, maybe even better. The family cottage is 20 minutes from our store in downtown Portland, Maine.

Hidden Maine

Sometimes I Think I
Might Be Part Owl

I’ve already admitted to this. I love the night. I love a good full moon. I sometimes think I may be part hooty owl. Most nights, I go out on the porch several times to watch the sea and listen to the wind in the trees. Some nights to study the stars and other nights to study the moon.

On August first, it was grand. The sky had scattered clouds and lots of open space. The sea was silver and sparkling. To the south, there was the bright light of a ship on the horizon. To the east, a series of ships with lights across their decks lined up at the horizon. They extended a long way. I’d never seen anything like it.

The tree in the foreground is a white birch.

Hidden Maine

Seagull

I took a break at the granite dock from my spring/summer repairs and renovations of our summer cottage. The tide was rising. The 10-acre marsh was lush green, and this seagull had just swallowed a fish whole. I got my camera out to watch the gull paddle upriver. The birds were chirping in the bushes up back. I was surprised at how fast the gull paddled and how high he sat in the water.

Hidden Maine

Buoy at Dock

Our cottage is 20 minutes south of Portland. It’s been in our family for 79 years. What’s fascinating about the cottage, it was originally built to house a boat; thus, it’s called “The Boathouse”. It sits on a white sand beach, open ocean out front, and a ten-acre salt marsh out back with a tidal river, Angel Creek, that fills with ocean water twice a day. Twenty percent of the property is flooded with seawater twice a day, and has four sitting areas between a wooden dock and a granite dock.

The lobster buoy marks the edge of our saltwater property. It’s an authentic wooden buoy: a half slice of a wooden log with a long wooden handle. The buoy was in the basement of our cottage. The buoy is over 60 years old and has been painted many times. Evidence of colors shows light blue, black and red. When the tide comes in, the buoy shows nicely, riding high in the water.

Hidden Maine

Summer fog. Surreal. Our world suddenly becomes shrouded in an alternate universe, a mystery of space. Sounds and smells change. Space and time are inverted. The beauty of the simple is magnified. Look closely on days of fog, for there is much to be revealed.

Hidden Maine

This is eternal. It’s the first walk on the beach in July: bare feet, shorts, 68° with an incoming tide. I truly believe there is so much beauty around and so much magic in our world and that we are so overwhelmed by it all that it can be hard to see.

This 23-second video is a collection of seafoam bubbles at the shore, cream color, all sizes clumped together. Then a wave sweeps in, and it all disappears. Water retreats and bubbles return. Wait! Wait! Wait! At the end, you can see me with a hat, white shirt, and shorts leaning in as a reflection in the water on the sand.

Hidden Maine

This is June and the great flowering of spring. This is a sea rose, an invasive brought back to America from China in the 1850s. Seen here on the cliffs of Cape Elizabeth, the blue of the open ocean out beyond contrasts beautifully with the delicate pink of the rose. The camera lifted a little higher caught the rock cliffs and a lobster boat in motion on its way out to sea.

Hidden Maine

I live at the ocean. One of the few times I go inland in the summer, I go to a Maine tourmaline mine. On this August day, I went early because I was curious about the Little Androscoggin River that wraps around the base of the hill of the SparHawk mint-green-teal tourmaline mine. The SparHawk Mine is off the Hardscrabble Road. I found an access point to the river and climbed down to study the stream. I was curious to see the bedrock near the mine to see if it held any clues to the gems that are found in the area. The Little Androscoggin was beautiful. I hopped rocks and sat in the sun. I listened to the rushing water and was surprised to find what looked like lobster claws along the banks of the cascading river. Yes, it was a crayfish claw. My upbringing immediately said lobster.

It was a good day of mining at the SparHawk Mine. And yes, Maine is beautiful in many places beyond the coast.

Hidden Maine

This is my beach. One hundred acres of sand at low tide and 25 acres of sand at high tide. This view is our shipwreck that came to shore on a foggy August night 125 years ago and dropped 800 tons of coal. The sand moves around every tide. This is a rising tide. The green horizontal line mid-frame is the old ship. The tide returns every 12 hours, 30 minutes.

Hidden Maine

Here is the view at the coast Thursday morning, June 1, 2023. Sun was up, sparkly light on the water. It was beautiful. And yet, there was something different, forest fires in Nova Scotia. The eastern seaboard had a fine film of smokey air for a thousand miles. The effect was a 10 – 15% tamping down of the morning blue sky brightness. Minor but noticeable. I notice the subtle differences in the sky over the sea every day. This is 42 seconds of morning light. Yes, subtly different and beautiful.

Hidden Maine

The sea is always ready to surprise. Several years ago, I was sitting on the outer rock on the left. The tide was a foot lower, and the rock was dry. In the six-foot channel beside the rock, a baby seal came and swam back and forth. He frolicked and dove and played for a long time. I sat still like a rock. I believe he never saw me. Finally, he swam away.

Part of the appeal of the ocean is the waves and the tide. The other part, even more fascinating, is the sea life, how it all interacts, and how we might be surprised at any moment by what may appear.

Hidden Maine

The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas. The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor. Yes, these are the words I memorized in the 7th grade and had to recite on stage. This photograph and video were taken at 9:37 in the evening of a no-mow summer. The day was June 5th; the grass tassels were tossed by the wind. The sky was mostly cloudless, but down below the road was indeed a ribbon of moonlight looping through and around the marsh. And, there was no highwayman, just moonlight on the sea. Funny how memory holds a phrase memorized 70 years before.

Hidden Maine

I walked with my son and grandson down to a bridge and stream near my house. My son said, “Look, ducks!”

“Where,” I asked.

“Sitting right on the bank,” he said.

Where?” I asked again.

We continued that back-and-forth questioning until, finally, I saw the ducks.

The picture shows one duck who was 12 feet away, peacefully blending in. The video shows two ducks looking so natural in their stream-side nests. Sometimes, we are so close we’re racing and going too fast to see what’s actually there just a few feet away.

Hidden Maine

Great Falls

In Portland, as we look north, we often don’t take our state’s second-largest city, Lewiston, seriously. I have found, though, Great Falls, a massive waterfall above the bridge between Lewiston and Auburn, to be one of the most spectacular places in Maine in the month of May. It’s like high tide in a storm at the coast that lasts for an entire month. Great Falls is only 50 minutes north of Portland.

Hidden Maine

Summer is Returning

I saw three sailboats with white sails up, catching wind this weekend within an hour of one another. Clues to summer’s return are appearing in the garden, too.

Our video shows a schooner with a yellow hull motoring down the coast through a morning sea with sparkly light.

Hidden Maine

Spring Flower Fix

I have a garden by the sea. Twenty-two years ago, Nancy planted 12 daffodils. This year we counted 620 flowers. The Daffodil garden has a hill up in back protecting it from the cold north wind. Because the garden faces south, it gets the warmth of the sun before any other spring garden in the area, and our flowers begin blooming a full week before anyone else’s Daffodils.

Hidden Maine

A Happy Place

One of the happiest places on Earth is a special portion of Fort Williams where Portland Headlight is..a free place where dogs can run free any time of day, 7 days a week. like-minded humans show up accompanied by their dogs. The dogs run., play, frolic, and meet and greet friends as people do, too in a more subdued way.

Fort Williams is in Cape Elizabeth. If you have a dog and you’re from away, we have another Cape Elizabeth institution called Inn By the Sea. The Inn accepts dogs and people as overnight guests. It’s a very fine Inn with a fabulous restaurant and a half-mile sand beach and could be part of a great getaway for you and your dog.

Hidden Maine

Summer is bigger than any of us are capable of fully recognizing. One leaf, one flower, one blade of grass, even a bug, a simple bug with wings and six legs, is so amazing. Any of these would be worthy of an entire day of study and wonder. Summer is filled with billions of amazing touchpoints.

This is the Spurwink River in Scarborough, Maine, a tidal river. We can leave the dock at our summer cottage, row and drift, and be carried up river on an incoming tide, and when the tide turns, we can return easily to our dock downriver.

The wonder of miles of marsh grass, ducks, loons, and herons, summer breezes, and sparkly light on the water. Will we be able to go slow enough to actually see? Or will so much be coming at us that it is all just a blur? Go slow. Summer is returning.

Hidden Maine

If you said, “Perfect moment on the Maine coast, mid-summer eve?” Without skipping a beat, my answer is dinner for two on the porch at the Black Point Inn in Scarborough. We go several times each summer. At 6-7 PM, the sun swings around to the west, and there is golden light on the water and a light breeze. I don’t summer there. I do know the lay of the land well because a half-century ago, I dated a young lady who had a summer job out on Prouts Neck. She was part of the house staff of an oceanfront cottage. Prouts Neck has always seemed very fine, very elegant, very proper.

The food is excellent at the Black Point inn, and the waitstaff is efficient. Every time we’ve gone, it feels like a trip to the French Riviera. The men and women with silver and gray hair sitting in white chairs were the same age as I was in the early 70s; they are the children and grandchildren of the people who owned the cottages in the early 70s. This video was taken on the porch during dinner. I highly recommend the Black Point Inn, Prouts Neck, for dinner for two…ask for seating on the open porch.

Hidden Maine

To stand on the cliff, eyes watering in the breeze. To feel its cool, clear, cutting edge. To watch the waves roll in and the sparkling light on the water. I’ve been here a hundred times. I will come back 100 times more. Do I expect it will be different the next time I come? It’s always the same; it’s always different. There are subtleties, details, and always clouds that reflect and change everything. I will return tomorrow.

As the land sweeps to an edge, it drops 20 feet to a curious cove with two entrances. In this video, you can see the entrance to the open ocean. To the left, you can’t see a sea storm entrance where big waves can travel down a 200-foot canyon and enter the cove from the northeast. I have never seen an arrangement like this anywhere on the Maine coast.

Out on the rocks, I can see Portland Headlight a quarter mile to the north. And yes, the silver light on the blue water is beautiful today. Sunday morning, slight breeze out of the north, air temperature 39 degrees.

Hidden Maine

A few thousand feet down the road, it dips and swings close to the ocean. The waves are good enough that surfers come to try their luck. To the right of where they surf, I’m filming. A freshwater stream passes under the road and out into the pond. In the foreground, you can see calm water, then winter marsh, then rocks and waves. This is Pond Cove on Route 77 in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.

Hidden Maine

A recent snowstorm. The little pocket cove at Crescent Beach, Cape Elizabeth. High tide. Waves rolling in. Bench by the shore. Staircase at the far end of the cove. Air temperature 38°. Sparkly light on the water.

Hidden Maine

Mystery of the Morning

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