Columns

There's a black mutt rolling around on the carpet, a bone from her collection under her back to provide the scratch that springtime requires for most critters.

Pause the film there, please. Take a look at this bicycle in the air, front tire at 6 o'clock and back tire at 11 o'clock.

A year ago, when my garden should have been thick with zucchini vines, my crop was a flop. The plants were weak and spindly from the start. I fertilized, watered and sweet-talked, coaxing a single anemic blossom into being.

The black-capped chickadee is our state bird, yet most visitors to Maine hope to see and hear a loon during their stay. Few sounds in nature are more memorable than the distinctive calls of a loon.

It's June! When I was a full-time teacher (I still teach remotely), June meant that summer was here. It meant packing and returning home to Harpswell with my children to enjoy swimming, boats, trips to Katahdin, or lighthouses and picnics.

Two months ago in this space, I wrote about why I work at the Anchor and what I like about my work. My goal was to draw attention to the Anchor's search for a full-time reporter and to attract candidates who believe in our vision for a nonprofit community newspaper.

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.

It is summer and you've been working in your garden. You come inside after weeding and swatting mosquitoes. Your hands are covered in grime, sweat and bug guts. You go to a bathroom sink to wash your hands.

I just had my annual ophthalmology appointment and made my annual call to my parents to share the doctor's compliments on the eye surgeries I had as a child.

I admit the title above is a shameless pun. By playing off the trademarked phrase for the NCAA basketball championships, I am hoping to lure you into reading this column.