Coastal cleanup after last week’s storms is a bleak reminder that we are truly in January despite those first days of unseasonably mild weather in 2024. It’s time to bundle up with scarves, hats and gloves every time we venture outside to appreciate the pale sun of winter and to savor our return to the warmth of the house and the kitchen. Now is the perfect season to have a pot of soup simmering on the kitchen stove.

There was much chatter coming from the barn as I arrived for evening chores. Pickles had already alerted me earlier in the morning that the much anticipated seed catalog had arrived. When I entered the barn, the animals were enthralled with the pictures.

While there cannot be any storms in our history that compare whatsoever to last week’s devastation, it did get me wondering about others that may have occurred many years ago. As we used to call it, in the olden days. Of course you know who I called, Bethiah Callahan. She has her grandmother, Bethiah Thompson’s journals that go back to 1944. There were others previous to that but unfortunately Bethiah is not in possession of them. Her grandmother being born in 1858 and passing away in 1965 was a wealth of information. She wrote of storms here in Round Pond.

Walk into Bernard and Marian De Lima’s Jade Express Chinese Restaurant on Route 1 and you’ll see a Christian cross saying, “For with God, nothing shall be impossible;” three golden cats and one white one to welcome patrons; a figurine of St. Joseph and another of the Virgin Mary, respectively Bernard’s and Marian’s patron saints; a bowl of rice symbolizing generosity because rice expands as it cooks; and a glass of water because in Asian culture, water is a continuous blessing.

William N. Coombs of Damariscotta Mills enhanced his income in 1878-79 by catching smelts and eels in Great Salt Bay at the Mills. He was 24 years of age at that time. His catch was shipped on the Knox & Lincoln Railroad for sale by commission men at Boston or New York City.