Lisa Botshon, Curtis Memorial Library

Kuplink! Kuplank! Kuplunk! It's blueberry picking time in Maine! And while the summer season got off to a soggy start this year, blueberry fans can get a dose of the illustrated variety at the Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick regardless of the weather.

Signs of spring are popping up all over Curtis Memorial Library: The butterfly murals have been hung on the fence around the Nancy Bouchard Laffely Children's Garden, the drawers of the Seed Library are filling up outside the New Books Room, and the outdoor furniture has returned to the Reading Garden and the Middle Street patio.

If you had been an avid reader living in our area in the 1880s, you might have joined one of the few small private subscription libraries or young ladies' book clubs.

We sent our only child off to college this fall and are suffering from a form of nostalgia that some call empty nest syndrome. This is definitely a transitional moment for our family, and it has led me to revisit old photographs and memories of our son, Sam, when he was little.