New England Coast

We are at a Conservation area in Hamstead, New Hampshire while Michael processes veggie oil. It’s been a rainy day and started off rather rough. Last night we got booted out of two different places on the coast we had tried to park for the night. We ended up in a Sam’s Club parking lot in Seabrook, home of the still-operating nuclear power plant.
Tonight seems just as uncertain. There is little public land here.
The photos are of our time down the coast. We started off in Belfast, Maine, a great little town with a wonderful Natural Food Co-op and community radio station. The name was apparently chosen by coin toss by the original Scott-Irish settlers. Most of the Maine coast is private but we did get out to Popham, originally settled by British in 1660. We were able to wander the beach at low tide and the day was so mellow we were also able to canoe the bay at dusk.
Further down the coast, past the LLBean town of Freeport where even the McDonalds is in a white colonial with (fake) black shutters, we drove through Kennebunkport to the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, just five miles from the Bush estate. (Staff say they see the motorcade go by sometimes.) Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring, which is said to have woken up the nation to the dangers of pesticides and birthed the environmental awareness movement, was a profoundly grounded scientist and writer. It was moving to be within the tangible legacy of her memory.

Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life… Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. Rachel Carson, 1956