... john had an idea of the direction we should drive ... "let's see some things we haven't" ... our first stop was the 175 year-old "south solon meeting house" ...
... although funds are being sought for repair and restoration of the structure, after one and three-quarters centuries the building is in remarkable condition ...
... opening the door one is compelled to enter ...
... the frescos within were done in the 1950s as the result of a search for artists in national juried competitions sponsored by the "skowhegan school of sculpture & painting" ...
... on a smaller scale, the sistine chapel in maine ...
... although used for both religious and spiritual services, the founders decreed that it “... be opened freely on weekdays, when requested, for conference meetings and for lectures and addresses on all religious, benevolent, moral and scientific subjects" ...
... not single square foot is unadorned ...
... the interior's angular geometry is complemented by the graceful art ...
... in the old style, family sections ...
... from the balcony an organist can fill the building with inspiration ...
... even the organ is old ...
... my favorite ... i think the angel is gabriel ...
... in the vestibule it's as if you are in 1842 ...
... this is neither a simple "wide-angle" nor a true "fish-eye" image, rather, it's the result of combining two vertically overlapped 12mm originals (18mm on full-frame, both visible at the beginning of this journal entry), and then to the result applying some rather exotic "skewing" ...
... "please make sure the door is latched" ... today this little note brought to my heart a needed sense of great goodness ...
... we then wandered up route 201 to the attean overlook just south of jackman ... conscious of my still-mangled ankle, john asked, "are you up for a ten-minute hike" ... i wasn't, of course, so i said, "absolutely" ... we negotiated the trail to this wonderful vantage of the pond and the dead river area ... the canadian border is just beyond the dark hills on the right horizon ... a bit of calculation on my tablet showed that in a few weeks during the dark nights of the new moon the milky way will align with the ponds ... from the rock ledge is a full panoramic view of the scene, so we instantly made a plan ...
... john tells me this is an excellent area to wanderabout in a canoe ...
... we then wandered up the height of the land to moosehead lake ... in pre-columbian times native americans prized the rhyolite rock found here ... even i often mistakenly refer to it as "flint," but it is, in fact, of igneous origin ... it was used to make beautiful and very functional tools which were traded across the entire region ... today it's a place to hike, camp, canoe or kayak, or, should one desire, at the base of the cliff play a round of golf on the spectacular "mount kineo golf course" ...
... heading home, we made a little side trip to drive the gravel road leading to these giant windmills overlooking the kennebec river valley ...
... the big cylinders are stress detectors, accessed by computers to keep the windmills properly aligned with blades angled either for effectiveness or feathered ... the little black rods are the covers for the lugs and bolts securing the windmill
... two "eclipses" in one year, i stood fascinated as the shadow of a blade from the windmill behind me masked the light from the setting sun ...
... seriously sublime, that's my impression of these stuctures ...
... we stopped for a last look of what is but few of the windmills ...
... three places neither i nor john have been, what a fabulous wanderabout it turned out to be ...