Without letting me suit up in protective gear, 2020 hurled some pretty crazy curveballs my way. I was able to dodge most of them, but one of the filthy little suckers landed square in my chest throwing life, as I had known it for the past thirty-one years, tail over teakettle into the air.

I had just started writing the third book in the Rafe Ryder Series when the “unexpected-retirement-for-the-hubster” curveball slammed into us at the end of June. What a shock! Our life and time in Vermont had suddenly come to a screeching halt!

… But in every ending, there is a new beginning.

As it so happened, I’d left a piece of my heart in the mid-coast region of Maine where I’d grown up and where generations of my family had lived before me. The hubster and I had met in Maine, and strangely, he heard the whisper of the grand old state more strongly than I did at first. “It’s where we met,” he said. “It’s where I remember being the happiest.”

“Awww. Me too.”

Maine is an incredible place. I love each and every blue-green mountain rolling down to the sea, not to mention the sweet-smelling hillsides sprinkled with their wild blueberry fields known as barrens. The blueberry barrens are also exceptionally beautiful in the fall when they are kissed spicy red by the autumn air.

Just a glimpse of lobster boats and windjammers jouncing on the waves of the craggy blue harbors can brighten even the sourest soul.

The sound of ocean waves mingling with the cry of seabirds is surely spun from pure magic. (Wish I could capture that in a picture for you.).

Here in Maine, lighthouses beam the way home, and fog horns blast away any murkiness of heart. This is my home again. Finally.

In mid-September we arrived and settled in with the help of my eldest daughter and her beau and my wonderful younger brother, Randy. I don’t know what I’d do without them. Thank you, my darlings!

The first weekend I was here my brother coaxed me out onto the breakwater in Rockland in the fog. I felt a tiny bit trepidatious, but it was eerily gorgeous, and I’m so glad I went. Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

I hope there is a vaccine for Covid soon because I am so looking forward to spending time with family and old friends. But now, it’s time to “hunkah down for the wintah” and “getta writin'” book number three of the Rafe Ryder series.