July 8-15                               Southwest Harbor, Maine

David left for Texas and I happily surrounded myself with a trove of books from the local library.  Reading and needlepoint kept me busy as well as occasional visits with fellow dock residents.  My days of leisure ended with hours of cleaning and vacuuming to have the boat looking great before his return in time for the annual Flamingo Festival the following day.  I had positioned a basket of pink geraniums adorned with the famous Featherstone flamingos on the bow.

Don Featherstone, the originator of the omnipresent pink plastic flamingo, was a long-time beloved summer resident of Southwest Harbor.  In his honor (and to have lots of silly fun), the residents declare a weekend in July to be the Flamingo Festival with lobster dinners, parades, art and craft shows, and opportunities to wear silly hats and shirts.  We wouldn’t miss it!

On Friday evening, we attended a lobster dinner with all the trimmings held on the town green.  Afterwards, we drove to Somesville to the Acadia Repertory Theater for their production of Shaw’s Pygmalion.  We had seen My Fair Lady on TV only a week before and were surprised the dialogue followed so closely that of the play on which it was based.  As usual, the actors were outstanding and we admired their innovative staging and costuming.

During David’s absence, Jane, the assistant Harbormaster and an avid gardener, went with me to the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden on the former site of the Rockefeller “summer cottage” in Seal Harbor. The garden, created in the 1920’s by Mrs. Rockefeller, the wife of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and noted garden designer Beatrix Farrand, is surrounded by a tall wall with oriental tiles forming an overlapping border which looks as if it were transported from China.  The entrance opens to a setting of moss-carpeted woods filled with ferns and a double row of massive Eastern statuary.  Paths lead to a beautiful view of Little Jordan Pond.

To one side of this combination of Maine beauty and Asian influences, visitors enter a large space centered with a pristine lawn surrounded with rows of flowers, trees and shrubbery.  Most were in bloom and presented a magnificent display of color.  We delighted in watching the tiny green water frogs sitting on the lilies in the pond.  The garden and surrounding acres were presented to the Land and Garden Preserve Foundation in 2017 by David Rockefeller, Sr.  It is open on a limited basis by reservation only for two months in the summer. 

The more than 100 room home that once dominated the property was removed in 1963 but the terrace remains and is a lovely walk from the garden.  The spectacular view from this spot overlooks the outer islands and the Atlantic beyond.  In his book, Memoirs, David Rockefeller, Sr. describes in loving detail the many happy times he spent on Mount Desert Island and the incredible efforts made to transport and maintain his large family to this remote place in the earliest years of the twentieth century.