Dragonfly Cove Farm

Dragonfly Cove Farm is a small, diverse homestead farm located at the confluence of the Eastern and Kennebec rivers in mid-coast Maine. Joe Murray and Marge Kilkelly raise and sell Boer cross meat goats , goat meat, make maple syrup, and spend the summer canning and preserving the bountiful wealth of our kitchen gardens, vineyard and fruit trees. Dragonfly Cove Farm is in the Dresden Farmlands area which also includes large vegetable farms, greenhouses and berry farms. From spring until late fall a trip to Dresden Farmlands will yield full calendar of in season products: Maple Syrup, flats of seedlings, pick your own succulent Strawberries, amazing fresh picked sweet corn, tomatoes, cukes, and finally fall pumpkins and squash.
Goat meat is available at our farm year round, goat milk soap and fiber products from Go-tees Farm fill out a vibrant market basket, right here in Dresden Farmlands! Do visit!

Kari J Cross Photography

Capturing life's special moments. Kari J Cross Photography is a husband and wife team who covers weddings, all types of events, and on location portraits. Children, families, and graduates will feel at ease with their easy going personalities and fun approach to capturing great images. With an unobtrusive approach to their wedding and event photography, brides, grooms, and guests will be able to enjoy their event without disruption. Kari J Cross Photography is available for weddings, engagements, family & children, and senior portrait photography. We also cover big and small events.

www.karijcrossphotography.com

Christmas Tree Harvest

We don’t really think of harvest time being about Christmas or trees but it’s both in Maine.

2010’s Christmas tree crop.

These trees will go from field to fancy in less than a month.

 

What’s your favorite Christmas tree?

The Day Before THE Day

The Retreat at French’s Point’s mansion doors were flung open to make way for the bridal party to begin their rehearsal of a historic day in the lives of the soon to be Annie and Peter Gray.

Rain clouds and chilly weather could not dampen the spirits of the happy crowd – especially after they saw the feast that awaited them at the rehearsal dinner.

The wedding festivities were kicked off with an elegant, private rehearsal dinner party at the Wentworth Event Center where the two families, out of town guests and the wedding party met, mingled and ate delicious food prepared by Laura Cabot Catering.   

Photo copyright Annie Higbee/ Imagewright

Laura Cabot Catering offered an artisanal cheese table with fruit, flowers and crackers as a stationary hors d'oeuvre. Passed items included  truffle pate canapes and crudity from Laura's garden with a white bean and artichoke dip. Also circulating were two types of phyllo appetizer pastries: wild mushroom and lemon time or goat cheese with a fig confit.

The main courses were either oven roasted wild salmon filet on a bed of Caponata or grass fed beef kebabs with a ginger marinade and grilled vegetables. They also offered grey sea salt pommes frites and garden string beans with young carrots.

Photo copyright Annie Higbee/ Imagewright

Both Laura Cabot Catering and the Wentworth Event Center did a fabulous job executing a very special and memorable night for the now Mr. and Mrs, Peter Gray.

Thank you to our advertising partners who make this story possible: 

Air Companions

Summer Maine Classic Vacation Rentals

Picture Journey

Go Directly to MeanderingMaine.com

You can find new blog postings, updates on the wedding and the Great Maine Giveaway prize winners directly on www.meanderingmaine.com.

Love Maine!

May Beach Weather in Maine

This May’s weather in Maine has been fabulous.  Beach worthy – and if you strike out mid-week, you just might get it all to yourself or come close.

Steam Rising from the Sand

Maine has some of the best tide pools where kids and kids at heart can find treasures like crabs, periwinkles, shells and much more.

Seagull Prints

The fog might roll in and in less than an hour burn off.  It’s so pretty to see.

 

Check our main site www.meanderingmaine.com to see all blog postings on the wedding, the giveaway and things to do in Maine.

New Site

Our Blog has switched over to our new site.  We now have a Meandering Maine Blog and a Blog for the Wedding Event of the Year.  Both can be found on www.meanderingmaine.com.

The Bride Growing Up Maine

Annie grew up on Alford Lake in Hope and Waterville, Maine.  Ever since her birth on May 27, 1986, she and her family have been exploring secret coves along the coast of Maine in her grandfather’s boat.  This formed a deep love for Maine, Maine beaches and this may be why it was so deep in Annie’s heart to have a view of those rocky shores while saying “I do”.

Annie and her grandfather Byron on the boat.

I don't know the name of the specific beaches and islands we frequently visited during my childhood summers but the memories I have from these trips will stay with me forever (I'm also extremely fortunate that my grandfather has hours of video of these trips).  Our trips out on the "big" boat (my grandparents yacht, three bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, etc.) would typically begin with a trip to the grocery store with my grandmother to stock up on all the necessities for the weekend.  Part of the grocery fun was bringing the bags down to the boat via wheelbarrow (if you have ever been to the marina in Rockland you know how tricky this can be during low tide when the ramp to the docks is at a very steep angle - now imagine a six to ten year old pushing/pulling a wheelbarrow down that ramp.  Now that I think about, it's a miracle we didn't lose at least one trip of groceries overboard.)

Annie at her mom and stepfather’s wedding.

The weekends out on the big boat were always a new adventure.  Without fail Grampy would always wake us up at the crack of dawn (many times before dawn) to bundle up and go clamming.  "Got to get up before breakfast" is one of his famous lines.  Then we would venture to a secret spot.  Later in life we learned that Grampy's secret spots were not  truly secret spots and often had evidences that the commercial clammers had beat us there.  If you had asked us then, we all believed that we very well could be the first people to be setting foot on these beaches (secret spots, if you will:). 

When our clamming expeditions were over, a boat full of tired, wet and often very dirty kids would return to the big boat to be fed and to get ready for our next adventure.  Beach combing and a picnic were usually in store.  My grampy loves the idea of beach combing.  It is fascinating to him the different items that each grandchild treasures - and they always, without fail, differ.  We would keep these treasures to do arts and crafts at a later time with my grandmother (we made wreaths, decoration boards, you name it). 

I have so many amazing memories from these trips and could go on and on...but I think I'll stop there.

Annie with her brother, mom, stepfather, step-siblings and grandfather.

Crate to Plate will be giving away a lobster dinner for two for this week’s Great Maine Giveaway – live lobsters shipped anywhere in the US. 

You take time to go to the farmer's market; you appreciate the quality of organic foods. On occasion you like to treat your family to artisanal cheeses or hand crafted chocolates. You value the principles of the slow food movement and you like to know your purveyor to understand exactly where your food comes from.

Regardless of where you live in the U. S. you can have lobster harvested wild from the Penobscot Bay in midcoast, Maine. Captain Dan Cosby lobsters from his boat the Fisher Girl in Saturday Cove, a small homey indent below historic Bayside, between Belfast and Camden. It is a perfect place to land a kayak and collect sea glass or take advantage of the rope swing on a hot summer's day. Dan is the man who can become your lobsterman. Get to know him and Saturday Cove. Treat your family and friends to Maine lobster harvested from your personal leased lobster trap.

Contact Crate to Plate today for more information about getting the freshest lobster you will ever eat, delivered from your leased lobster trap to your door as desired.

Enter to Win:

Send an email to info@meanderingmaine.com with:

1. Your Name, Address and Phone Number (this will not be used for any other purpose).
2. Answer the question: Where did Annie grow up?  Hint: this can be found on an earlier blog.

 

Thank you to our advertising partners who make this story possible.

 

Air Companions

Summer Maine Classic Vacation Rentals

What’s to come -

Planes, cooking, golfing and boats.  Meandering Maine with future bride and groom.

Let’s Rewind a Little Bit in Annie and Pete’s Story…

A photo shoot of Annie at one of her favorite places in Maine by photographer Annie Higbee of www.imagewright.com.

A card from Annie to Pete across the pond

Let’s go way, way, way back to November of 2007…their “first date”. Pete says he remembers it was in November because his birthday is in November. They went to the local Cheesecake Factory and Annie ordered him strawberries and cool whip, because he is lactose intolerant. He says she is the most thoughtful person he knows.

Hand Made Card from Annie to Pete

Going back even before their first date Annie and Pete attended Babson College together, Pete says, “Oddly enough we had been at Babson together for two years before we ever knowingly crossed path, which was surprising given the relatively small size of the campus and student body”. They were first introduced to each other when they were put in the same group for a project in their first semester of their senior year. It was in Professor Len Green’s entrepreneurship class, and as Pete puts it he did learn in the class but meeting Annie was “clearly the pinnacle” and he will forever be grateful to Professor Green.

 

Annie and Pete first met in the library for a group project meeting, Annie had field hockey on the brain and Pete had just arrived home from London. Pete says that they both wanted to spend as little time as possible together at the first meeting, BUT…after a few group meetings and field hockey games they were finally ready to date. Pete says, “guys don’t go to field hockey games without a reason”.

They dated…they graduated…Pete moved to London…they continued to date long distance…Pete came home and proposed…they began an adventure to the altar! Stay tuned for more details about all of these events, we will definitely fill you in. We just thought you might want to know how they met. As Pete said, Annie is very thoughtful and as one could imagine as Pete has been in London Annie has thought A LOT about him. Here is a glimpse into their personal fairytale, here (and above) are some cards that Annie sent Pete all the way across the pond to his little flat in London…

Thank you to our advertising partners who make this story possible.

Air Companions

Summer Maine Classic Vacation Rentals

What’s to come -

Planes, cooking, golfing and boats.  Meandering Maine with future bride and groom.