After our hot breakfast and other attempts at recovering from the trauma to our body heat we had incurred overnight, Emily, Charlotte and I conversed with Elisabeth, who had not returned to Hodgson House in order to avoid one-on-one interactions with our resident ghost while I was still on South Hill, about our plans for the day.
We decided the correct first step was definitely to make coffee, a big pot of coffee.
Charlotte was feeling adventurous and wanted to learn to make coffee, so I showed her the ropes with the Melitta and our efforts were rewarded with a delicious pot of Peet’s deep roast, a West Coast phenomenon I was unfamiliar with before coming to Kent Island.
The Upward Bound students had just departed in the care of Janet, leaving as they had come: on high tide.
Janet and Mark would spend the day shopping for groceries for our last few days on the island and for provisions for the prolonged stay of Jesse and Kathryn on the island.
We spent the morning drinking our coffee and trying to stay warm by working in the lab, where Colin had built a fire in the woodstove.
At lunch, Damon was successfully heeled when Jesse offered him a bowl of food: “do you want this?”
As it seemed the rain wouldn’t pick back up but it was still foggy, we decided that we’d uncover the oven to let it air-dry some more but leave our drying sleeping gear indoors.
Since there were no longer residents in two of the bedrooms we thought the clotheslines upstairs would be less disruptive places to hang things to dry than the living room had been all morning.
Elisabeth and I, still tired from the near-sleepless night, were grateful we’d have a relatively simple meal to prepare.
While she made bread to serve with dinner (Kathryn’s almost-no-knead loaf had come out of the oven with the strangest texture any of us had ever seen, looking somehow deflated) I chopped and toasted croutons from last night’s leftover toast.
While the croutons were in the oven I went to the garden to harvest lettuce for a salad. It’s amazing how much better fresh lettuce from the garden is than even the freshest lettuce one can buy at the supermarket.
Salad and bread taken care of, I started on pasta sauce while Elisabeth moved on to dessert, a batch of the extra-lemony lemon squares that are so popular here.
We jammed to Ray Charles as we worked, and during the in-between periods when things were simmering we did the pilates exercises we had skipped earlier in the day when we felt too exhausted for exercise.
Our pasta sauce came out perfect (despite there not being any wine), and dinner conversation was a blend of reflection on our time with the Upward Bound students and planning for the few remaining days we have on the island.
After dishes were taken care of, Mark asked us all for some help moving the old asphalt shingles from the recently redone roof of the caretaker’s cottage and bringing the groceries up from the wharf (he and Janet had arrived at low tide so everything was out on Ernest Joy).
We were able to get the work done quickly with our many hands, and soon everything was put in its place- the shingles are being stored in one of the big insulated plastic bins Grand Manan fishermen use to transport their catch to market, which we had all been joking about filling with water and superheated rocks to make a wonderful steaming hot tub.
When our work for the day was done (Janet and I reorganized the freezer, finding all sorts of interesting items and Kathryn made a wonderful batch of granola with coconut) we all turned in early, seeking recovery from our sleepless night on the hill in the rain, or in the case of Christine and Haley, an adventure to the cabin on Sheep Island.
We decided the correct first step was definitely to make coffee, a big pot of coffee.
Charlotte was feeling adventurous and wanted to learn to make coffee, so I showed her the ropes with the Melitta and our efforts were rewarded with a delicious pot of Peet’s deep roast, a West Coast phenomenon I was unfamiliar with before coming to Kent Island.
The Upward Bound students had just departed in the care of Janet, leaving as they had come: on high tide.
Janet and Mark would spend the day shopping for groceries for our last few days on the island and for provisions for the prolonged stay of Jesse and Kathryn on the island.
We spent the morning drinking our coffee and trying to stay warm by working in the lab, where Colin had built a fire in the woodstove.
At lunch, Damon was successfully heeled when Jesse offered him a bowl of food: “do you want this?”
As it seemed the rain wouldn’t pick back up but it was still foggy, we decided that we’d uncover the oven to let it air-dry some more but leave our drying sleeping gear indoors.
Since there were no longer residents in two of the bedrooms we thought the clotheslines upstairs would be less disruptive places to hang things to dry than the living room had been all morning.
Elisabeth and I, still tired from the near-sleepless night, were grateful we’d have a relatively simple meal to prepare.
While she made bread to serve with dinner (Kathryn’s almost-no-knead loaf had come out of the oven with the strangest texture any of us had ever seen, looking somehow deflated) I chopped and toasted croutons from last night’s leftover toast.
While the croutons were in the oven I went to the garden to harvest lettuce for a salad. It’s amazing how much better fresh lettuce from the garden is than even the freshest lettuce one can buy at the supermarket.
Salad and bread taken care of, I started on pasta sauce while Elisabeth moved on to dessert, a batch of the extra-lemony lemon squares that are so popular here.
We jammed to Ray Charles as we worked, and during the in-between periods when things were simmering we did the pilates exercises we had skipped earlier in the day when we felt too exhausted for exercise.
Our pasta sauce came out perfect (despite there not being any wine), and dinner conversation was a blend of reflection on our time with the Upward Bound students and planning for the few remaining days we have on the island.
After dishes were taken care of, Mark asked us all for some help moving the old asphalt shingles from the recently redone roof of the caretaker’s cottage and bringing the groceries up from the wharf (he and Janet had arrived at low tide so everything was out on Ernest Joy).
We were able to get the work done quickly with our many hands, and soon everything was put in its place- the shingles are being stored in one of the big insulated plastic bins Grand Manan fishermen use to transport their catch to market, which we had all been joking about filling with water and superheated rocks to make a wonderful steaming hot tub.
When our work for the day was done (Janet and I reorganized the freezer, finding all sorts of interesting items and Kathryn made a wonderful batch of granola with coconut) we all turned in early, seeking recovery from our sleepless night on the hill in the rain, or in the case of Christine and Haley, an adventure to the cabin on Sheep Island.
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