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Summertime in the BelgradesContentsfor Printing
Article Summaries |
Fall and the Holidays: A Wonderful Time of Year
Autumn arrives, color by changing color. Winter comes, chill by increasing chill. It is a wonderful time of year near the lakes and woods and central Maine towns, wonderfully energizing. The pace is more peaceful, the deadlines more definite (winterize now, or Of all the seasons, this winding down, harvesting, migrating, hibernating time is the best for many residents and visitors alike. Qualities of nostalgia emerge: the smell of wood smoke, the warmth of lingering sunshine, the sense of community, the gathering of the crops. It is a time of fewer crowds, more friendliness, less frenzy, more conversations. It is a time to catch up, a time to plan ahead. 
Autumn for all of its finality is also all about anticipation, something definable to look forward to, holiday rituals, and traditions. The seasons within seasons, the hunting, foliage, freeze-up, and snow exert a powerful influence on the area — unpredictable but annual. Among the region's many harvest offerings are apples — that ultimate fruit of fall — once ranked highest on the list of produce exports, traveling by train to urban areas and other countries that would never know the experience of living where the apples grew. Perhaps the orchard sense of heritage still pervades the bedroom communities of the region, for there are many Apple Fests in September and October. Or, perhaps it is the silent sentinels of orchards long past — of the occasional suffocated apple tree buried in a woodland — that make autumn activity-goers attend celebrations of the fruit. Apple picking and apple festivals are a favorite outing, as are apples at roadside stands and Farmers Markets. Cider is fresh. Preserves, somebody else's labor, sit well on pantry shelves. It's time for those last great tastes of other local produce, too! And flowers, and decorative gourds, and pumpkins to be decorated. Other festivals, Autumn Fests, Harvest Fests, October Fests take their place on the region's line-up of events — almost too many to count, from the large — the two-day, 2,000 visitor, 12th Annual Hinckley event September 17 and 18, to the small — the walkaround the village festival on October 8 in Belgrade Lakes. 
On the lakes in the fall, another world exists — vast and beckoning. Will there be another boat on the water? Sometimes not, and that is a strange experience. This is the time on the lakes to explore, by paddle, by motor, quietly, silently. Sounds are accentuated. The breezes may be brisk, but a high noon sun takes care of that. On the trails in the fall, another world exists, too — leaves filter down, views open up, energy comes easily. This is the season to check out what's new, what hasn't been explored before. This region is amazing in its richness of trails, urban to remote, for all levels of, hikers, walkers, climbers, bikers. Halloween! Trick or treat: these supervised days the viewers are the ones treated. Communities provide central events. Families, parents and children make the rounds together. Hunting season arrives: the days of blaze orange, a cheerful color not unlike Halloween pumpkins and some of the late sticking leaves. There are many motivations for hunting; it's a great excuse to walk the woods roads, silently. 
And now Thanksgiving and Christmas — or whatever one chooses to call this cheerful, Santaful experience that puts stars in children's eyes. Everyone longs to believe in something magical and the sturdy figure in the red suit, arriving by fire truck in the villages, by parade in the larger towns is magic, even if just because he can be seasonally depended on like the ice that sparkles and tinkles across the lakes and eventually claims them, or like the snow that scatters and builds and covers the countryside. And because, he listens to wishes. The formal festivities around Thanksgiving and Christmas smack of the good and the wholesome in this part of the world. Commercial as they have become they do suggest sharing, greeting, giving...in the decorations that passersby can appreciate Autumn arrives, winter follows, it is a wonderful time of year! | ||