Spring 39: Schoodic

6:30am-7:50am, Sundew Trail, Schoodic Point, Acadia National Park, ME
cool, misty, light drizzle

I woke up hungry, stiff, and feeling a bit sick this morning. It's OK - what else can I expect after the exciting and crazy run of the last few days?

Still, being outside and exploring my new environs is enlivening, and I hear new birds the moment I step out of my apartment. The Schoodic Education and Research Institute, where the Artist-in-Residence program is housed, is on the Schoodic Peninsula, one-hour's drive from Mount Desert Island.

The Education Director (and coordinator of the A-I-R program), Kate, is wonderfully welcoming and helpful, and she clued me in on the Sundew Trail, the perfect 0.7 miles for a low-energy morning.

It's a beautiful trail, pine-y and lichen-y, with two vista breakouts - one to a bay, and one to the ocean. This second spot convinces me that the booming sound I hear is not traffic, but the waves hitting the shore. Phew!

On my way back, I encounter this new bird. The clip is short as I was trying to avoid some of the construction sounds (much of the institute is undergoing re-construction right now). Truth-seekers, fear not - you still get a bit of reversing-truck in there:


At home, I worked on my version of today's bird, and the sketch of a piece where ocean-roar and traffic-roar merge, diverge, and converge.

I'm nervous to have so little time before my public presentation here next Tuesday - but I'm grateful to be in a lovely, huge, well-heated apartment (with kitchen and laundry!) after a few days of roughing it. This is a space I can get some work done in!