Full Workshops

Good Sunday morning!  Here's a list of full workshops.  A lot of people have already registered, but remember, we ask that you register by September 19th, one week before the event so we can make sure to have enough of everything for you.

Stained Glass
Truffles
Yoga
Me Time Crafts: Custom Mugs
Art Journaling
Decorated Wooden Cigar Boxes
Holiday Yarn Wreaths
K-cup Crafts
Letterboxing and Geocacheing

Halloween Yarn Wreath

Here's a sneak preview from Kathy's yarn wreath workshop.  Isn't it gorgeous?   Kathy's workshop is full but some still have openings!

Two Weeks To Go

Great Escape starts two weeks from today - you still have time to register!

The Menu - Note From The Kitchen Crew

Our kitchen crew has put the finishing touches on the 2014 menu.  Sarah wrote me this note:

It's that time of year again... We start refining the recipes, reassessing quantities, and adding the special touches that help to seal the theme of "Gracious Living in the Outdoors". The kitchen crew has been hard at work over the last week pulling all the details together for this year's Great Escape.

We hope you are bringing your appetites! Friday night we'll fill the dining hall with the aroma of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. Saturday morning brings the favorite pancakes and bacon. Of course we'll have Danielle's hospitality folks providing the coffee, tea and hot chocolate that's always available, as well as a large supply of bagels and sweet pastries!  

 

Join us at lunch for the baked potato bar and salad bar. This year's soups are a hearty vegetarian chili and a creamy cheddar broccoli soup. 

Dinner is maybe our favorite meal to cook. We'll start with appetizers including homemade salsa. The main meal will include BBQ chicken or tofu, vegetarian baked beans, mashed potatoes, garlic sauteed spinach and cornbread. (Hungry yet? We are!) 

Last year's dinner service.

Dessert... Where do we begin? Join us this year for an old-fashioned ice cream parlor. Homemade chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, marshmallow sauce and topping galore. It's bound to be delicious and we've got a few surprises in store for you as well.

 

Sunday morning we'll close out with French toast and sausage. 

On Friday, Sarah and Andrea will start the massive shopping spree needed to feed 80+ folks. We make quite the impression at Costco and Market Basket, let us tell you. This year's shopping includes:

24 pounds of bacon

6 gallons of milk

2 gallons of Half & Half

110 ounces each of kidney, pinto, and garbanzo beans

80 chicken breasts

18 pounds of fresh spinach

160 potatoes

2 large tubs of sour cream

5 dozen eggs

and the biggest container of minced garlic we can buy.

Last year's little pies!

But the best part of this year's shopping trip? Andrea bought a minivan! So much more space...

We can't wait to see you all in just a few weeks. Make sure to stop by the kitchen and say hello!

Sarah, Andrea, Beth, Jess, & Brenna

 

There's still a little time to register - hope to see you there!

Summer Escapes - The Boundary Waters

http://dmg-photography.com/blog/2014/09/a-boundary-waters-travelogue-day1

The plaque gets down for some real, nitty gritty, and occasionally dangerous travel through the boundary waters (between the US and Canada) with Dave, Betsy, Pat, Paula and Donna.  Go to the link above to find words and photos!

Pat and Paula, Betsy and Donna on Gunflint Lake

Pat and Paula will be offering a canoeing session at GE this year, as every year, weather permitting.  Join them and us! 

Donna, Pat, Paula and Betsy plus the lucky laminate at Journey's End.

Summer Escapes - Maine Means Lighthouses!

The plaque cares deeply for our environment and our history!  On a recent voyage to the great state of Maine, it took time to salute the mother of modern environmentalism, Rachel Carson, at the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in Wells, ME.

GE's accountant and bird expert, Laura, was the plaque's escort on the Maine Lighthouse Ride, a benefit for the Eastern Trail, a rail trail being built from Kittery to Portland.  Here the plaque visits Spring Ledge Light in South Portland.

Laura cycled 100 miles with the plaque!  You can congratulate her at GE.  Here's her photo of Portland Head Light.  Having fun, doing good.  Well done, Laura!

What Happened to the Grasshoppers?

When I was young and looking for something to do on a summer's day, my mother often sent us out with a jar to catch grasshoppers.  We ran around the grass patches of our city home, stirring up the grasshoppers and trying to capture them in the jam jars lovingly prepared with perforated tops and blades of grass inside.  It seems to me that we seldom see grasshoppers any more.  Have they fallen victim to the chemicals every suburban family seems to lavish on their lawns?

And this year I noticed many fewer cicadas singing - is it just the lack of hot weather or are they leaving us too?

Let's look and listen at GE and remember to get the girls looking and listening too.

 Here's a poem by John Keats about the sounds of these little creatures.  Don't be turned off by the author - the poem is a simple one.

The Cricket and the Grasshopper - John Keats

The poetry of earth is never dead:
When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run
From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead.
That is the grasshopper’s – he takes the lead
In summer luxury, – he has never done
With his delights, for when tired out with fun,
He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.

The poetry of the earth is ceasing never:
On a lone winter evening, when the frost
Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills
The Cricket’s song, in warmth increasing ever,
And seems to one in drowsiness half-lost,
The Grasshopper’s among some grassy hills.

On the Grasshopper and the Cricket – by John Keats (1795-1821)
The poetry of earth is never dead:
When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run
From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead.
That is the grasshopper’s – he takes the lead
In summer luxury, – he has never done
With his delights, for when tired out with fun,
He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.
The poetry of the earth is ceasing never:
On a lone winter evening, when the frost
Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills
The Cricket’s song, in warmth increasing ever,
And seems to one in drowsiness half-lost,
The Grasshopper’s among some grassy hills.
- See more at: http://www.wartimehousewife.com/page/2/#sthash.sHrhRLhn.dpuf

On the Grasshopper and the Cricket – by John Keats (1795-1821)
The poetry of earth is never dead:
When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run
From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead.
That is the grasshopper’s – he takes the lead
In summer luxury, – he has never done
With his delights, for when tired out with fun,
He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.
The poetry of the earth is ceasing never:
On a lone winter evening, when the frost
Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills
The Cricket’s song, in warmth increasing ever,
And seems to one in drowsiness half-lost,
The Grasshopper’s among some grassy hills.
- See more at: http://www.wartimehousewife.com/page/2/#sthash.sHrhRLhn.dpuf