I am so honored that Mohamad asked me to be a guest author for his Around the World category. I’m a little intimidated. He is one of the greatest bloggers I know and he is very generous with his time and experience to new bloggers like myself.
When most people write about their cities, they have a lot of pictures of famous buildings and lavish architecture. You won’t find that here. You’ll see scenery. It’s all we have and for most of us, it is more than enough.
When I try to explain where I live to people who don’t live nearby, it always engenders laughter. You see, I live in Cornville, Maine. It just sounds like such a small town out in the middle of nowhere. Truth be told, we are small out in the middle of nowhere. With a population of 1300, Cornville is small by any standard. As far as being out in the middle of nowhere, I’ll see if I can explain. Cornville is in the center of Maine. Maine is that crooked finger of a state in the northeast of the US that juts up into Canada.
If you were to drive through my little town, you wouldn’t even know you had been there unless you noticed the small sign when you were about to enter. It’s one of those towns where if you blink, you’ve missed it! There is nothing here to see except for a few houses, farm fields, and woods. No stores, no industry; not even a post office! In spite of being a town without a true identity, Cornville is wonderful. Maybe it’s wonderful because of that. It’s incognito in the best possible way. Living here is rather like living under Harry Potter’s Invisibility Cloak. We are under the radar, and happily so.
The nearest town is five miles (8 kilometers) away and Skowhegan has only about 8000 people. The most famous landmark in Skowhegan is the largest wooden Indian in the world. It should be the largest Native American, but things change slowly around here. We have a lot of Native American tribes in the area and they have a rich history here.
Can you imagine being a bedroom community for a town of 8000? That is the beauty of living in rural Maine. If you love country life, this is the place to be. When I say “country” I mean the sticks, the boondocks, the willy-wacks. I live on the edge of the big woods. There are townships nearby with a population of zero. There are towns with no names yet! At least I live in a town with a name! Even if it sounds like bumpkin came up with it…it’s still a name! What’s the old joke? It’s not the end of the universe, but you can see it from here! That’s where I live.
As I mentioned, we are in the center of Maine. Maine is an absolutely gorgeous place. When people think of my state, they usually think of the rugged coastline, lobsters, and islands. Here are a couple of pics from the coast…
The Maine coast is a beautiful place, but inland is beautiful, too. We have mountains, waterfalls, and pristine lakes and streams. You don’t have to go far to be in the woods away from everything.
Here are a few inland Maine pics…
A good portion of the Appalachian Trail is in Maine. Below you see Mount Katahdin which is the very end of the Trail. For many people, doing the Appalachian Trail is on their bucket list. It’s a big commitment as it is 2200 miles (3500 kilometers) long and stretches from Georgia to Maine.
Our world is full of wildlife, beautiful birds, and I hope you agree that it as some pretty nice scenery, too. It is common to see whitetail deer and wild turkeys in my backyard. Eagles fly overhead and you can hear coyotes in the distance. Every once in a while you’ll see a moose loping along or standing in the middle of the road. I always feel like a moose is sizing my car up for a possible assault. Car versus moose, who would win? Probably the mechanics and auto body people!
Our region produces products that come from trees. We have a LOT of trees. Some are made into paper, some are cut for boards, and some Sugar Maple trees give up their sap to make maple syrup. This is a sweet amber liquid that is best known for topping pancakes. Oh, but it can be used for so much more. Who needs sugar if you have maple syrup? My county is one of the foremost maple syrup producers in the world. Many say it’s the best they’ve ever tasted. It is pretty darned good!
We live in the north and it’s cold up here! We locals call our year “11 months of winter and one month of rough sledding.” It isn’t exactly that bad, but our winters are long and our summers are short. As you can see below, we sometimes get a lot of snow.
Summer here is so cool and refreshing that people “from away” come here for a holiday. If you look on our license plates, it says Vacationland. Our state motto is “Maine, the way life should be.” When visitors come here in the summer they think this is paradise. They should be here in January!
If you’d like to visit Cornville through my blog, please come along. You’ll meet my crazy Great Danes and cats. You can experience all of the funny, crazy, and outlandish things that happen here.
I’m Linda Mace and you can find me at:
You are so very kind to say so. I was afraid it wouldn’t seem very interesting compared to some of the posts I’ve seen on Mohamad’s site. Some of them have amazing architecture and cultural significance…just stunning cities. Cornville is rather understated, by comparison.
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Your gifs are hilarious!
why?
because they depict some really funny things. I’ve never been a big .gif person, but the ones you chose for you post are really fun.
I loved this, Linda. Your description of your hometown is gorgeous, and your tongue in cheek attitude is very refreshing! I’m sure it would be a wonderful retreat for the city-worn folk to visit and chill…. not meaning a pun here! 🙂
Thanks so much! Haha, and great pun, even if it’s not intended!
“Living here is rather like living under Harry Potter’s Invisibility Cloak.” I definetely want to go there now. From you post, Linda, whenever I think of Maine I’ll think of Lord of the Rings exquisite scenery, peace, Native Americans and a beautiful coast. There’s no way one can make fun of these gifts. Moose X Car? I’ve never seen a moose or snow in my life, but I guess Moose would win. They seem so powerful in the films.
Sometimes the moose wins and sometimes the car wins. Sometimes they both lose. Sadly, these things happen quite often north of here.
xD
1 difference between our hometowns: yours is paradise because it has 8000 inhabitants and mine can be hellish since it has no less than 1 million or more people. 1 thing in common: no big monuments here in São Gonçalo (Rio state) either. I must say São Gonçalo -Rio because you wouldn’t believe how many cities take this name in Brazil. Xxxx
So many Rios! I have to get a map out to see where you are. Oh! The 8000 people are in the “big” town near us. We only have 1300! I think if I were to go to your city I would be overwhelmed. The last time I went to New York City there were too many people, too much concrete and not enough trees!
Sorry I forgot to mention which ‘Rio’ I’m referring to. I live two cities away from Rio de Janeiro. You’d be so overwhelmed by how much concrete we have here. 1300 inhabitants is my new definition of bliss.
Beautiful – obviously a great place to live.
I really enjoyed reading about Maine and where you live! Especially the info on the Native American Tribes – I simply love reading & experiencing the native cultures!
I’m so glad. I love to learn about native cultures, too. Here is a wiki page on the Abnaki.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abenaki
They lived here and people still find beads and whatnot along the Kennebec river. The town of Norridgewock is one of the main sites for the Abnaki.
It’s an interesting sidenote that there is now a major disagreement on whether the local school sports teams can be called the Indians. The Native Americans find it offensive. Many of the local people think they are trying to take their sporting tradition away. Native culture is alive here and there are still modern battles to be won.
Thanks for sending me that page! That really does fascinate me. I’d love to live among the tribal peolpe for a time and experience that. The closest I got to that is the Native American Festival at Stone Mountain where i bought real moccasins (I think they were “real,”). Lol But that’s obviously not close. And I am familiar with the debate of school mascots being Indians. I am on the Native’s side. The name should be changed if an entire group finds it offensive!! Come on, where’s the humanity?! They certainly don’t get the respect the truly deserve. <3
I’m on their side, too. There was so much talk about Skowhegan being an Indian name, it should be an honor to the natives to use it. Blah! I wrote my one and only letter to the editor and suggested that if they were adamant to use something related to native culture, call them the Arrows. Fast and deadly…what more do we want from a sports team!? I never got so much as a rebuttal. Oh well, I tried!
Lovely. All my visits to Maine have been in summer, where I find it’s perfect. I love winter, but I’m not sure I can handle such long ones…
Beautiful posts!
Thank you Natasha! Your featured pic is stunning!
Thank you☺
Your skies remind me of my skies, although I certainly don’t have an ocean nearby! Oh, and on the subject of moose they’re like outfielders in baseball, they don’t bother you unless you bother them (that said, boy do they do a number to your car when you do bother them)!
You are right about the moose! Where do you live?
I’m one of your northern neighbours (although not directly north of you specifically)!
I love 🇨🇦!
Me too 😛 Although the long dark winters can get a little… mundane after the first few months!
I hear ya! Maine is thinking about switching over to Atlantic Standard Time year round. I hope we do it! It’s nice to meet you!
You too!