On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
JanieM
This set includes a few from places outside Maine.
Driving east along the rim of the gulf of the Ashtabula River. Just after I stopped to take this picture I passed a house for sale with a sign that said “Open House Today.” The road was so beautiful, I almost stopped. But I did my eighteen years in Ohio, and though I love going back to see my family, I’m a New Englander now. I won’t say “Mainer” – there’s a rumor that you have to have been born here to claim that title.
This cemetery is just stunning in the fall. It includes this monument to the people who died in the Ashtabula River railroad disaster in 1876. Check out Wikipedia for the whole story.
The inscription on the base of the monument says, “To the memory of the unrecognized dead of the Ashtabula Bridge Disaster, whose remains are buried here.”
From the East Side boat landing, a view of the Kennebec River and the Sand Hill neighborhood, with St. Augustine’s church steeple as the centerpiece.
Old Fort Western, which is on the east side of the river. Picture taken from Water Street on the west side.
I spent a work week each month in Cambridge for many years, and there were lots of gems like this. I loved visiting Cambridge in the spring, too, because of all the blooming trees and little gardens. Where I live it’s too cold for dogwoods, among other things. A friend of mine who gardens, when asked what grows well in Maine, said, deadpan, “daisies.” I would add lilacs and maple trees. Well, and white pines.
My theory (I always have a theory) is that the early European settlers planted maple trees along the roadways and in their dooryards (the Maine term) for sugaring, and lilacs because they’re hardy enough not to need a lot of care, even in the harsh climate. Daisies grow themselves.
My front yard, back when the old maples were still standing.
In my yard again, several years ago. These trees were so beautiful. I used to think of them as sentinels, and without them we’re undefended. At least I’m glad I got a lot of pictures of them.
A bit of the field behind my house. Like the birches in the previous set, the blueberry patch always provides some late color, when most everything else is drab and bare.
What I Think
J R in WV
Sweet!!!
Was in Maine once, spent a week digging in the gemstone quarries, and a week traveling up and down the coast with my wife, who went sightseeing while we dug in the quarries. Was a wonderful June down east.
Mike in Oly
Thanks for the tour! These are beautiful.
Alison Rose
Wow, that red tree on Harvard Street is vibrant! Bet it looks even more amazing in person :)
MomSense
These photos are lovely.
SiubhanDuinne
Stunning photos, Janie!
WaterGirl
I love all the color! So beautiful, so happy.
I am really enjoying the Fall Colors series, but it’s about over unless more peeps send in their photos.
Mary G
Love the green and yellow sentinel spilling out of frame in the second to last picture. It must’ve been heartbreaking to let go of it, but I’m sure it’s still keeping watch.
stinger
That does it. I’m moving to Kingsville.
pat
That last picture of the trees in your yard is stunning and it is really sad to think that they are no longer there..
What a loss.
Thank you for some wonderful pics.
The Castle
Your intuition is correct. There is an old tradition in northern New England where a newlywed couple would plant a pair of sugar maples in their front yard – for practical and symbolic purposes. The very old farmhouse I care for has such a pair of sugar maples out front. They are grand trees.
I suspect not many people follow or even know about this old custom anymore.
The upshot is that the old turnpike through town is lined with dozens of these sugar maples, some old, some newly planted. Unfortunately, sugar maples are exquisitely sensitive to road salt, which makes them not the best choice for having down by the road in the 21st century, but at least I’m on the uphill side..
I am very sorry to hear about your maples. They were and are beautiful.
Benw
So beautiful!
I feel very ominous past tense vibes about your trees. Did something happen?
Before COVID I vacationed in Wiscasset Maine and it was just amazing!
JanieM
@stinger: LOL. Also in Kingsville’s favor, I’m pretty sure you can get a lot more house for the same $ in Kingsville than you can right now in Maine, never mind Cambridge.
Yutsano
Pictures like these make me think I could almost be happy in the Northeast. Almost.
JanieM
@Benw: Yes, three or four years ago the power company, with the permission/collaboration of the owner of the property, took them down, both the ones in the yard and the ones along the roadway. Granted they weren’t all in the greatest shape, and if one of them had gone down in a storm it might have wreaked havoc on either the power lines or the house. But still…..I took it very hard.
I linked this in one of my earlier sets, but at the risk of being repetitive, here’s a shot of some younger replacements, along with a section of trunk of one of the old ones. These newer ones are 25-30 years old, and not uniformly doing well; I think that field is probably too wet for them in spots. But at least they’re well back from any imaginable widening of the road, per @The Castle‘s mention of road salt. So hopefully some of them will survive. I don’t own this property, long story, so these are not all my priorities, lol.
On the consolation prize front, a woodworker friend of mine is building some small pieces of furniture for me and my kids out of slabs he cut from one of those trunks. I’ve kind of lost track of that project through the pandemic era, and need to get caught up again. There are also two 30-year-old offspring of the old maples in the yard, which I fostered in the vegie garden years ago, and I’ve been collecting seeds from them for the past couple of years. One of my friends already planted some seedlings at her camp, and @The Castle has given me another idea about where to put more seedlings next year.
I could write a novella about those trees, but I’ll stop now. ;-)
Jinchi
I think the trick is that you have to pronounce it correctly, but most non-natives would probably need a serious voice coach to get that down.
Love, the pictures. I really miss fall. New England is the only place I’ve lived that truly has four distinct seasons.
JanieM
@Jinchi: Maine is the only state I’ve lived in (7 at last count) where there’s a phrase for non-natives: if you weren’t born in Maine, you’re “from away.” It’s not a compliment. Susan Collins just played on that idea, if not that specific phrase, in her campaign. I know other states have names — like Alaskans call the rest of us flatlanders. But if I understand correctly, that’s a statement about where you live, not where you were born.
A Maine phrase that I think is related: people say “out of state” in contexts where people in other states say…something different. When I first lived here I was chatting with a stranger who said he had just come back from vacation. I said, “Oh, where’d you go?” He said, “Out of state.” A newspaper article about a fire or a burglary will say the owners were “out of state” rather than “out of town.”
There’s something about this place…..
JanieM
Thanks to everyone – I’m glad you enjoyed the pics.
I certainly enjoy taking them, in my casual way, and I’m really grateful to WaterGirl for the suggestion, made a few weeks ago, that spending more time in the photo threads would be a good a mental health break from the politics threads. It’s working wonders!
Comrade Colette
@JanieM: Such lovely pictures and colors! I haven’t been in New England in the fall since I was in 7th grade in 19(cough), but these really take me back. It’s hard to keep in your mind’s eye just how vibrant the colors are.
@stinger:
Uhhh … Kingsville, Texas? I was born there. I don’t remember it, but my mom still says it was the worst place she ever lived, and she’s lived in dozens of places in 10+ states.
stinger
@Comrade Colette: No, Kingsville, OH — I want to live on the street in that top photo!
way2blue
Lovely photos. Thanks. But why did the property owner cut down the maple trees in the front yard? In our town, ‘heritage’ trees (usually enormous live oaks) are protected…
way2blue
@JanieM: Ignore my earlier post. Yes. Power company concerns will override other considerations. (I’m still annoyed that my husband had a large Monterey Pine tree in our yard cut down, the one with the children’s swing.)
JanieM
@way2blue: See my comment @14. Beyond that, it’s a very long story of personalities and priorities, not fit for a blog comment.
In general, though, this is a rural place, and sugar maples are everywhere. So although there are a lot of environmental rules and regulations, preserving specific trees isn’t a thing, at least not in my town. Whether it is anywhere in Maine I don’t know, but would be curious if any of the other readers from Maine do. Here’s a story about a specific tree in Yarmouth, Maine. If I remember correctly, there was quite a bit of back and forth before they finally took that one down, even with Dutch Elm disease as part of the mix. But that was an ad hoc situation, not a general “heritage trees” category AFAIK
ETA: We crossposted.
J R in WV
@J R in WV:
And if there was any confusion, this photos set is SWEET, takes me back to Maine, a place we enjoyed very much. From the SW quarries adorned with rare crystals to the NE coast adorned with sea food, beautiful in every way. A great assortment of fall pictures from what seems like a fairy wonderland from inland WV hollows.
As a youngster back in the 1960s, my dad had a friend from the next town over, who was originally from Maine, and who had a cabin on a Peninsula out into a bay.
Not a year round place, walls one board thick, 7 feet high, no ceilings, just the bottom of the roof whitewashed. Bunk beds for most folks… But another summer house every 100 yards or so, and a National Historic monument out at the end of the point, and everyone seemed friendly and social.
When a day came for a lobster feast, Mr Noyes rowed out into the bay with a neighbor’s row-boat, and took me with him~!!!~ I had just graduated from HS and planed to start college the second half of the summer session, and everyone suddenly treated me more like an adult than ever before. When we visited the next door neighbors just west, he was an Episcopal priest, and had a large community pitcher of martinis in his freezer (it nearly filled it, actually, these are summer camps after all) and without asking poured me one ~~ OMG, how do grownups drink that? I’m 70 now and still not fond of martinis, tho I like gin in other drinks.
But the lobster! Fresh out of the rural bay, boiled the barest minimum, served with potatoes and corn on the cob and a big salad, butter everywhere! Paradise.
Later this evening we’re having lobstah bisque!!
JanieM
@J R in WV: Great storues. I haven’t had lobster for ages and you’re making me hungry.
As for the pitcher of martinis — I grew up with one teetotalling Baptist parent and one parent who didn’t drink because his father had, and it wasn’t pretty. It was quite an eye-opener when I spent a college summer living with the family of a friend where they did drink socially, and it was taken totally for granted. Live and learn.