Island in a pandemic

In a year when so much has changed, when we find ourselves doing things, thinking things, and acting in ways we couldn’t have imagined a few months ago — what a gift to return to familiar ground. The Island has always been my “still point in a turning world,” but I was perhaps never so grateful to alight to it than I was this year – beautiful, peaceful, set-apart.

Of course, not even a little remote island in Maine, reached only by boat, is immune to the coronavirus. As of this writing, it actually is free of the virus itself, but has been affected as everywhere else by stringent new rules, familiar faces missing, and the low-grade worry that attends any mixing of non-family members. Within our own cottage and family, we took a number of precautions before coming together – something we’d never given any thought to in the past.

So yes, things were different this year – but most of the things we love and treasure were the same: the beautiful forests and fields and views, the slow pace, the time to be together, the time to deepen relationships with the ones we love, the time to read :)

Longtime readers will be familiar with many of these views and faces, but it’s important to me to record them for my own memories. I hope they whisk you away for a bit of refreshment like they do for me! :)

Hard to believe these photos were taken 10 minutes apart!

Missing the napping member of the family!

Sweet Shep took a digger on the sidewalk early in the week… as my Dad says, “that’s the price you pay for an active childhood.” :)

Not every day you see a complete rainbow! So beautiful!

Those views never get old. Thank you, as always, for indulging me, friends!