Downeast Maine part 2

Hi everyone! 

I am finally getting around to posting some more shots of our trip to beautiful Downeast Maine. We are in love with this part of New England and cannot wait to go back! Not only is the scenery spectacular, the lifestyle, friendly people and small town living are so appealing. We just loved everything about it! 

On our last morning in Portland, we walked around a bit after checking out of our iris covered room at  The Pomegranate Inn.

I loved this charming flower shop, Harmon's & Barton's.

This beauty is across the street from The Portland Museum of Art. We then headed to The Portland Head Light. Here are several views of it. The sky was so beautiful every single day we were in Maine.

I don't know the name of this lonely lighthouse out in the water across from the head light. Does anyone?

Downtown Portland is in the distance on the left in the shot below.

We then drove 3 hours north to our rental cottage in Brooklin, Maine but it actually took us a lot longer because we stopped at several towns along the way. The following photos were all taken with my iphone as I brought the wrong camera battery charger and my camera died. Menopause  really does suck. Remembering to take all the different chargers for phone, camera, laptop, ipad has been proving quite difficult lately! So sorry for the quality but here they are....

The summer cottage had a cute wood burning stove and a wonderful stone fireplace. The days were warm so we never lit the stove but husband made fires every morning and night. 

Loved the red stained cedar siding.

The first morning I crept out as husband slept to check out the views and property since it was getting dark when we arrived the night before. 

This is what I saw! What a view! Looking over to Deer Isle, Maine. This would have been a gorgeous shot with my regular camera ;o(.

This is the cottage's beach at low tide, looking across the mouth of the Benjamin River. You can barely see the bridge in the distance to Deer Isle.

The tucked in cottage from the beach. 

Polka dot barnacles and a view of the Benjamin River.

Gorgeous Blue Mussels are all over this beach at low tide.

After our morning chai, we headed out to discover Brooklin. It is small and quiet and home to primarily boat builders, writers, artists and potters. We checked out the impressive WoodenBoat School where people come from all over the world to learn how to build boats in the summer. They have a beautiful property and store that are fun to explore. It was quiet when we were there but quite busy in the summer. They also publish WoodenBoat Magazine there. 

We found the grave of one of my favorite authors, E.B White (Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little). He lived in Brooklin. His home is on the main street but not open to the public.

That's all for now, one more post of Maine to come... Seal Harbor and the precious Castine. Have you been to Maine? I hope so! If not, you must go!

Thanks for visiting!

Cindy

Downeast Maine part 1

Hi everyone! I have a new iPhoto thanks to my daughter's patience. It took two days for the new app to fully upload.  I am back with my camera after months of neglect. Unfortunately a new operating system, OS X Mountain Lion, was necessary as well so I am immersed in another technology learning curve right now. 

We had a nice visit with our daughter over the weekend in Manhattan. Much of my time was spent thoroughly cleaning the apartment and painting her vanity table but we did get to see all of Central Park's best scenery on a perfect fall day on Saturday. I stupidly left the camera and my phone back at the apartment!

Husband and I are now enjoying Downeast Maine. 

It lives up to its reputation! 

 I took the shots above in Cape Neddick, ME. 

We have spent the last two nights in Portland, a great artsy, foodie city. We are staying at the Pomegranate Inn, a nice B & B in Portland's West End neighborhood, with a fantastic eclectic art collection displayed throughout the house. Their taxis shrubs are enormous!

This is our room with irises (my shot taken at night was too blurry so found this one online). The red bench and pillows are sadly no longer in the room but the room is still quite stylish and comfortable.

Breakfast area of Pomegranate Inn.  Caiola's is down the street and is excellent. 

Their window boxes are perfectly arranged for fall...

Also a nice food and wine shop next door, Aurora Provisions, 

with takeout and bakery and beautiful products for sale. I bought some nice Swedish Ekelund tea towels there.

 I toured the Portland Arts District yesterday wile husband worked back at the inn. The Portland Museum of Art has a very nice collection. They own Winslow Homer's Studio, many of his paintings and hundreds of his illustrations. The studio tour was booked yesterday. It sells out months in advance and is only open for a few months of the year. It is in beautiful Prouts Neck, Maine, 15 minutes from Portland.  NYT wrote this about it a few years ago. 

This perfect little famous painting is titled Artists Sketching in the White Mountains.

We headed south to Ogunquit for some lobster rolls and a beautiful stroll along the ocean on the Marginal Walk.

The path ends or starts in pretty but touristy Perkins Cove. This is a great time to visit Maine, the leaves are perfect and it is not crowded. Just enough tourists to make it feel lively. Many places here will shut down for the winter in a few weeks.

We headed to Kennebunk and Kennebunkport and stopped off at the charming Snug Harbor Farm.....

On to more exploring today and relocating to a little cottage on the water in Brooklin, Maine. The big disappointment is the ridiculous government shutdown, which means a closed Acadia National Park!

I am trying to use my Instagram more often, if you want to follow along... http://instagram.com/clsachdeva

Thanks for visiting!

Cindy