There are some places on this planet that truly make you stop in your tracks. Pumpkin Vine Family Farm in Somerville is one of those special places.

In 1932 two young men borrowed $1000 each to establish a car repair and dealership in Damariscotta, on Church Street, next to the Chapman-Hall House where Bath Savings Bank is now and where Woody Dodge’s blacksmith shop used to be. The men were Walstein Weeks and Clifford Waltz. They called their new business Weeks-Waltz Motors.

An iconic part of Round Pond was lost during the recent storm. There are not many of us, as kids and perhaps also as adults, that did not jump, leap, and flip off that dock, including a friend of mine that did the exact same thing in the early ’40s. It was difficult to be at the landing during the very high tide along with the hurricane like winds and seeing it being lifted up twice by the storm.

It was still dark out when I entered the door to the Whitefield Elementary School cafeteria kitchen at 6:30 a.m. Inside, Mike Flynn, nutrition coordinator/executive chef for RSU 12, and Vicki Dill, head of the Whitefield Elementary School kitchen, were preparing 400 pounds of haddock received through Fishermen Feeding Mainers, a program run by the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association.

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.