Maine Minutiae: Christmas By the Sea

Having been in Maine for nearly five years, I'd like to think that I know a little more about the state than when I got here. And I do. But, since starting this blog nearly six months ago, I have learned so much more about Maine, its people and its traditions - including Christmas traditions. Part of the joy of doing a blog is to be able to share what I have learned /am learning with people all over the world.

Maine has about seven bazillion miles of coastline, so it should come as no surprise that many holiday traditions are centered on the ocean, boats and other maritime pursuits. This post is one of those.

Christmas by the Sea in Camden, Rockport and Lincolnville is a prime example of Mainers celebrating Christmas and at the same time, celebrating their heritage which is linked to the sea. Christmas by the Sea takes place this weekend, December 3-5, so you still have a bit of time to insert a visit to Camden, Rockport and/or Lincolnvillle into your schedule. According to the Christmas by the Sea web site, "The Christmas season arrives in Maine’s Midcoast during the first weekend in December, when Santa chugs into the harbor by boat, a parade makes its way down the street, and unique local traditions hit their stride." I just wonder if the boat on which Santa arrives has a big red light on the front of it, like Rudolph's nose.

More from the festival web site:

•  Trish Moroz–-known locally as the “gingerbread lady”--will transport nearly 130 elaborate gingerbread houses that she has been crafting in her Rockport kitchen since last February from her basement to the holiday fair.
• Retired firefighter Bob Oxton will make his trek up Mount Battie to light the holiday star that can be seen for miles, as he has for four decades.
• Carolers and horse-drawn wagons will wind through historic downtown Camden, where the mountains meet the sea, and local shops will offer special items that you won’t find at the mall.

 What a great way to combine the celebration of Christmas with local customs and traditions! I appreciate the symbolism of celebrating Christ's birth and the traditions of the locals and the sea. Somewhere in the Good Book it says something like this: Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime. Christmas by the Sea not only feeds a man for a day, it also nourishes a man's soul for a lifetime.

Texas Tidbits : The Tiniest Birds With the Biggest Appetite

Lunch Line

My doctor's appointment got pushed back to this afternoon, so let's get busy! I love the outdoors and all God's creatures that inhabit it - the four-legged kind, scaly ones, furry ones and feathered ones. I do my best to be a good steward of the environment. I am not a tree-hugger or some enviro-weenie, I just use a common sense approach to environmentalism. Don't needlessly damage what's around you, keep it clean and harvest what you need for your consumption. I am not against hunting or guns. Those two things are basic necessities for survival, whether it be self-defense or the need to put food on the table. Hunting within the rules and regulations set by your State is designed to give Mother Nature an assist in keeping the ecosystem in balance. For example, too many deer, and soon the food source is gone and eventually the deer will be gone too. Every single hunter I personally know follows the rules and understands the reasons for such regulation. Of course, as with any group, there are dumbasses who shatter the rules, but those are usually few and far between when it somes to outdoorsmen. I might add that when someone is caught breaking the rules and regs for hunting and fishing, the penalties are swift and severe. Just ask someone who was foolish enough to shoot the wrong deer or keep a fish that's too small. Game Wardens do not mess around when enforcing the rules. That's the way it should be. Our natural resources are too precious to waste. Period. End of story.
Moving on...one of my favorite species in the entire Animal Kingdom is one of Nature's smallest and most amazing creatures, the hummingbird. These tiny birds captured my heart when I was a young child. I remember being at the babysitter's house one day after school in first grade and watching the hummingbirds zip in and out around the feeder in a contolled chaos that simply mesmorized me. I sat there for hours on end observing something so fascinating, that nearly fifty years later, I can replay that scene in my mind like I saw it ten minutes ago. A few years ago, when I lived in Colorado, I had several hummingbird feeders set up on a balcony just outside my bedroom. I was such a fixture on that balcony that I was like part of the hummingbird family all summer long. I'd hold the feeder and the hummers would zip around, in and out, making that little whistling sound they make while in flight, and drink up the nectar that they craved. There were probably 30-40 distinct individual birds that were regulars at my balcony. I even had them all named, for cryin' out loud! When it comes to hummingbirds, did you know :

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  the hummingbird is the smallest bird and also the smallest of all animals that have a backbone.

  a hummingbird has no sense of smell

  because a hummingbird can rotate its wings in a circle, they are the only bird that can fly forwards, backwards, up, down ,sideways and  hover in mid air.

  to conserve energy while they sleep or when food is scarce, they can go into a hibernation-like state (torpor) where their metabolic rate is slowed to !/15th of its normal rate.

  during migration, some hummingbirds make a non-stop 500 mile flight over the Gulf of Mexico.

  during courtship dives a hummingbird can reach speeds up to 60 miles per hour and can average speeds of 20 to 30 miles per hour.

  hummingbirds are the second largest family of birds with 343 species.

  hummingbirds can beat their wings up to 80 times a second during normal flight and up to 200 times per second during a courtship dive.

  a hummingbird has a heart rate that can reach up to 1,260 beats per minute.

  percentage wise, the hummingbird has the largest brain of all birds (4.2% of its total body weight).

  hummingbirds have very weak feet and use them mainly just for perching.

Thanks to howtoenjoyhummingbirds.com for the facts listed above. My Blog Buddy Bob Zeller at TexasTweeties has some nice photos of some hummingbirds over at his place. Check it out. One of the reasons I wrote this post is to let you know about the 2010 Texas Hummingbird Festival in Rockport next week. There should be some outstanding hummingbird viewing down there as these tiny winged wonders make their way south to Mexico and beyond for the winter. You read that right. Hummingbirds migrate thousands of miles to and from their winter destination every year! I know I have some readers in Rockport, so you guys down there spread the word that the Texas Hummingbird Festival was mentioned on Three States Plus One! Obviously, since I live 2500 miles from Rockport, I won't be attending this cool event, but I won't miss out on the hummingbirds. I'll just close my eyes and sift through the memories of a first grade boy at the baby sitter's after school, hypnotized by the perpetual motion of these tiniest of birds and most voracious of feeders, and I'll be just fine. :)

 Hat tip : PW Miller on Facebook.