We have two opportunities on Southport to supply food for folks who might need an extra bit on their shelves. To the Southport Memorial Library you can bring canned food for the Food Pantry. Just drop off your offering in the box by the bench at the front door. Please be sure that your donation is nutritious and has not passed it expiration date. When I scanned my shelves for a donation, I found a bottle of spaghetti sauce that I was about to donate when I discovered it had expired several years ago. Upon further examination of the shelves, we filled a whole bag with outdated products.

The other opportunity to enjoy the outdoors, curious animals, and finish last minute Christmas shopping is the Food Drive Open House at Cape Newagen Alpaca Farm on Dec. 19 from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Your price of admission is at least one can of food per visitor also for the Boothbay Region Food Pantry. To help space visitors, please register on the website: www.capenewagenfarm.com or call 633-0416. You must wear a mask and stay your distance from others, human and animal.

In addition to enjoying the animals, the Farm Gift Shop will be an outdoor pop up market on the Alpaca farm porch. In addition to the canned food you bring, ten percent of all sales at the Open House, either in person or online, will be donated to the Food Pantry. Hot cider and alpaca treats will be available for all humans. You will find cozy alpaca socks, hats, scarves, and local farm made goods such as special soap and Valor, Louie and Bert’s Body Butter as well as the unique Cape Newagen Alpaca Stuffie made from recycled material and all from on site alpacas. Another favorite stocking stuffer is the 2021 mini calendar.

Our island school continues to amaze me with its creative and timely teaching. This week the children in all grades were taking care of our environment in various ways. The youngest classes, kindergarten through first grade, were learning about Maine animals, especially the moose, making very good drawings to illustrate their studies. Grades 2-3 were learning about the transfer of energy. The older children, grades 4-6 were learning about the rain forest, how it serves all of us, and how to preserve it. In addition they are preparing for their seasonal concert, which you can learn how to view virtually by clicking on https://bit.ly/349CpFa

A snow storm will not have to interrupt this concert!

More music and thoughts can be experienced on Christmas Eve when instead of the usual gathering at All Saints by-the-Sea, initiated by the Brinegar family beginning 20 years ago, a worship service filmed this fall, will be available for viewing at allsaintssouthport.org, beginning at the usual time 10 p.m. The film of the service will be archived so that you can also view it later. Look for more information elsewhere in this paper.

So many folks are getting their exercise these days by “walking the loop,” parking at Hendricks Head beach and walking north onto Dogfish Head Road and then at the store, turning down Beach Road to complete the loop. I am not among them because I find that I walk a lot within the house because I am constantly searching for my glasses. Thank goodness our upstairs is mainly for guests, so I do not have to continually climb the stairs on this search. Isn’t old age wonderful!

Stay well, dear friends.