September 2019

When I was a little girl my neighbor had a white flowering bush and I remember asking her what it was. She told me that’s a “school bus bush”. She then explained when the bush bloomed, the school buses followed. I’ve always remembered that as sort of the end of summer when the “School Bus Bush” bloomed. What I later learned is they are actually Hydrangeas bushes.

They are in full bloom now, but summer isn’t officially over yet, it can’t be, there is still fun to be had! We start of the “school bus bush season” with an amazing trip all the way up to Rangeley and into Oquossoc. We will be enjoying the “Oquossoc Experience”.   Which consists of a cruise on Rangeley Lake aboard the Oquossoc Lady II from Rangeley Region Lake Cruises, lunch at the 45th Parallel Wood fired Grille and then tour the Rangeley Outdoor Sporting Heritage Museum. It’s sure to be a long, but incredibly fun filled day. Plus the scenery really is stunning; they don’t call it “God’s Country” for nothing!

September 7th is the 3rd Annual Millay Fall Arts and Poetry Festival, in honor of Rockland’s own Edna St. Vincent Millay. This year Bartlett Woods will be hosting a screening of “Burning the Candle: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay”. There will be a volunteer here from the Millay House to lead a discussion as well. This event is open to the public, so mark your calendars!

We are excited to host an event with David Grima of the Maine Department of Labor with an interesting topic, “Retirees and Rejoining the Workforce”.   This event will be on Tuesday, September 10th @ 2:00 pm on the 3rd floor here at Bartlett Woods.

There are so many places here in the Midcoast to explore so we will take a short drive up the coast a bit to Northport, located between Lincolnville and Belfast; this little town really has some unique places to visit. Northport Landings Gallery and Espresso Bar has some one of kind Maine made items and let’s face it, who doesn’t love a good Espresso when you are curio shopping? From there we will go just down the road and check out the Maine Alpaca Experience. This is a shop where you can find many useful and beautiful items all made from Alpaca yarns, we might even get lucky and get to see a few of these beautiful creatures. This will be a fun trip.

In keeping with our something new every month for 2019, we have invited Nancy Lubbin to come teach a class in Zen tangle. What is Zen tangle? Zen tangle is an intuitive art from, yoga for your brain, a creativity exercise, a focusing technique, a relaxation/meditation experience. And most of all, its fun!

September brings back our Knox County Knitters group. This is a group of ladies who had been meeting at a local yarn store every week, when the store closed; we invited them to meet here.   We have many knitters in house and they all love sharing their projects. It’s a fun afternoon and there is always someone there to help you if you get stuck.

We are so excited to welcome back Compass Rose Images, two sisters, who are photographers, based in Greenville Maine who travel the world to get the most incredible shots of wild animals I’ve ever seen. They will be here on Wednesday, September 18th @ 2:00 pm, please join us, you won’t be disappointed.

Sometimes as an Activities Director you get lucky and find a real “gem” of a speaker or singer. Well a few years ago we did just that. We found Bess Jacques and her husband Tom. Together they are “The Cat & the Canary”.   We just love their music and their energy and that they are willing to travel from Portland to come play for our residents. They pack the house and everyone leaves with smiles! We can’t wait for their return on the 20th!

September 9th brings “National Housekeepers Appreciation Week”. We love to celebrate all the amazing people who work and make Bartlett Woods so special!

We will close out this month with a trip inland to Augusta for a little shopping and lunch at Kume’, the Japanese Hibachi Grill.   Always fun to get out of town and do a little shopping.

As with every month, we have our exercise classes, shopping trips, ice cream outings, card games, social hours, discussion groups, craft projects, church services, movies and more.

We’re saving a seat just for you!

 

Karen Tooley

Activities Director

August 2019

As I sit here writing this month’s blog, I’m shaking my head saying “How is it August already?” But then I think back over the last few months and all the places we have been and the things we’ve done this summer and I realize we’ve been having fun! And you know the saying “Time flies when you’re having fun!” Oh how true that is!

Fortunately we have even more fun planned for August! We start off the month with lunch at Miller’s Lobster in Spruce Head…a beautiful little spot right on the water. The very next week we will be out on the water aboard the Laura B from the Monhegan Boat Line for a Puffin & Nature cruise.   This will be our second time aboard the Laura B, last year we did their Lighthouse Cruise and once again we will enjoy a picnic lunch prepared by our very own Bartlett Woods kitchen. It’s sure to be a great day!

Bay Chamber Concerts puts on some wonderful concerts and we try to get to at least one every year. On August 14th we will be attending the “Push Farther” concert on the Village Green in Camden. “Push Farther” is a Maine based group that performs progressive folk with blues, classical and fiddle influences. Once again our kitchen will provide a picnic lunch and we will enjoy another beautiful Maine summer day.

We are super excited to bring this young and incredibly talented fiddler, Owen Kennedy to Bartlett Woods. He will be here on the 19th fiddling away the afternoon for our residents. He has his own website where you can listen to his music…be prepared to be amazed, when you learn he is only 13 years old!

Our biggest event of the year will be on Friday August 23rd, it is “Bartlett on the Boardwalk”. Picture an old fashioned “Coney Island” scene, just in our back yard. We will have games, food, music, a mime “Silent Bob”, photo booth, and more fun than you know how to handle. This will be our third year hosting this event and our residents really look forward to it, I think it’s because they get to dunk a staff member in the dunk tank. But I think it really is just all the fun they have!

Along with these great events, we have some fun speakers this month, Tom Jamrog talking about hiking in Vermont and Renny Stackpole giving a history on the Whaling Voyages.

We will also have musical performances by Josie and Sophie Davis on their violins as well as The Route 17 Ramblers.

As always we have our ever popular scenic rides, shopping trips, lunches out, a walk along the Boardwalk here in Rockland, games, discussion groups, craft groups, exercise classes, cocktail hours and more.

There is always something going on for everyone to enjoy and we’ve saved a seat for you.

 

Karen Tooley

Activities Director