On Sunday morning as I sit down to write the weekly column, our bay has a different kind of beauty:  the gray waves curl over each other quickly on an outgoing tide, the sky is overcast, and rain comes and goes.  A contrast — and a welcome one — to the hot days of the week just past. Today Sprucewold smells of wood fires burning on cabin hearths, of blueberry pancakes and bacon served to family and visitors as plans for the upcoming day are laid out.  It’s also mid-August, and transition is in the air with kiddos getting ready for school and their moms and dads gearing up to return to work. Others of us are relaxing into a few more weeks here or even a couple of months.  The best time in Boothbay Harbor, according to many, as things quiet down and the crowds thin out.

Last night’s annual Sprucewold Potluck, held on the Linekin Heights Green following some afternoon rain showers and continuing with a few more drips now and again, was a great community event!  Jack Angel gets credit for coming over in the afternoon to help social chair Sarah Stedt and her son, David, arrange tables. Other helpers arrived early to towel off the last of the rain and organize the food tables. Barbecued chicken wings, ham, baked beans, upside-down pizza, “crack” salad (that’s the chopped broccoli with bacon that some of us find totally addictive), green salad, coleslaw, and more fed a crowd of 60 or so. Dessert followed — blueberry bars, blueberry cake, a variety of other sweets, and Lisa Dalton’s recent discovery of Westport Island pies were among the offerings. It was a multi-age group and included a number of newcomers to Sprucewold, whom we are delighted to get to know as community members and friends. The younger kids had fun with the soccer ball and at least a few folks had a look at the shuffleboard courts.  

The stonework recently done to repair the cooking facilities on the Green, supported largely by the Linekin Heights Association but also by the Sprucewold Association, is nearly complete.  Many thanks to the Linekin Heights group for accomplishing this and for making the facilities available to the community for events like the picnic!

The Sprucewold Beach meeting was held on Saturday morning and minutes should be available to members soon. Elisa Fisher Goldsmith was introduced as the new president, succeeding Wally Moulaison. Wally has seen the beach through many great years and his care and hard work are much appreciated. Those of us who have enjoyed beach days during the recent hot weather can’t say enough about what a special resource it is to all of the kids and adults who gather there — to have lunch at a picnic table and to swim, kayak, and play/watch a little soccer action occasionally.   

I have Doug Reilly to thank for an out-of-the blue email this week entitled “Sprucewold Information from Long Ago.”  He had been going through old papers in his and Dotty’s cabin on Sunset, purchased by his parents in 1964.  Among the treasures, which he has scanned and included in the email (I can send them on to you if you give me a call or send me an email), is the Whit Spaulding history of the Sprucewold Colony from sometime in the 1970s. Much of that is included in our history, Rusticators in Sprucewold, from 2007 and still available for purchase from Ralph Kimball. There is also a copy of an old brochure of rules in the colony, dictating that all structures be painted similarly so that nothing will look out of place and that there be no trailers, campers, or mobile homes allowed.  Doug also includes a map and mentions the cabin of Captain Barnaby, on Crest Avenue, who, according to Doug, had the first Glider Pilot License in the U.S. We actually knew Captain Barnaby back in our early years here in the late ’70s and enjoyed seeing him and his wife drive through Sprucewold in their Morris Mini. And if I’m not mistaken, he used to play the saw in the library lawn band concerts, next to Brud the hot dog man from days of yore, who played the spoons.  

As Sunday goes on, the sky has brightened and a few boats are out in the bay. Activity is picking up, reminding me of the advice of an old Mainer a few years ago: If you don’t like the weather here, just wait a few hours!