September Sunshine on Damariscove Island

I am happily painting many new illustrations for my upcoming book. I try to blot out the loss of the last 238 and just forge ahead. In my California studio, I have a quote about the people who succeed. "You can tell by the long scratch marks on the wall that successful people hold on no matter what!" That's me, not necessarily successful, but stubborn. I just hold on and try to keep creating with the foremost thought of reaching and somehow touching the lives of children and their significant grown-ups. Wish me luck!



Saturday we traveled from Boothbay Harbor, Maine, to Damariscove Island, which was settled in the early 1600s. Luckily for all of us, Damariscove was purchased by the Nature Conservancy and is now owned by the Boothbay Region Land Trust.

The only remnants of the early settlers are some fragments of china and glass, old pipes and metalwork, and the lovely stone foundations of barns and homes.



Later buildings (late 1800s), clad in shingles and silvered by the seasons, house the tiny museum and caretaker's cottage. My heartfelt thanks go out to the volunteers and Board of the Trustees–caretakers of both the past and the future of our Maine history and nature.





That is me, hiking the island, but taking time out to have a heart-to-heart talk with my tender granddaughter Sara, who called me with a pressing problem. I could be President of the U.S. and I would still let my grandchildren interrupt me anywhere and anytime. My pleasure and joy!