4586-R1_CIC_December2016_Calendar_Web

Chebeague Island Library

846-4351 phone • 846-4358 fax cheblib@hotmail.com http://chebeague.chebeague.lib.me.us/winnebago/search/search.asp Did you know? • The Library has photo albums of old Chebeague—people, places, boats, and events. Come pull up a seat, and we’ll make you a cup of tea.

Note: unfortunately, our online catalogue isn’t functioning. Please either call or email if you are looking for a book. The Giving Tree program sponsored by the Library and Church is back! Administered through the Root Cellar on Portland’s East End (http://www. therootcellarport.org/), the program has given us a list of five children

who could benefit from your generosity this Christmas season. Please stop in to the Library or call to see how you can participate. Thank you! Poet Sheila Jordan’s new collection of poetry “Blue Ceiling” is for sale. All proceeds to benefit the Library.

Winter Hours

NEW MOVIES Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Everything is Illuminated, The Jungle Book, The Natural, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot NEW BOOKS Night School by Lee Childs, Nutshell, by Ian McEwan, Red Right Hand by Chris Holm, Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult, Trespasser by Tana French , 2 by 2 by Nicholas Sparks

Sun & Mon

Closed

Tuesday

4 p.m. – 8 p.m.

Wednesday 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Thursday 4 p.m. – 8 p.m. Friday 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Saturday 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.

One Man’s Island by Bob Libby

The Julian calendar named December the tenth month and we now treat it as the twelfth month, but on this island, astronomically it is the first. The way the Earth tilts makes the seasons change, and around the third week of December the last solstice daylight recedes over Aaron’s Wharf in early afternoon. Our place on the planet turns away from the light for the year’s longest night. Living on Chebeague has made us acutely aware of night skies and the spinning of the planet while the ever-orbiting Earth teaches us daily about change. This mid November offered for view a Super Full Moon rising huge out of Casco Bay, so called because it was closer than it had been since 1948 and will not be this close again for decades. The tides responded, and fortunately, no storm surges drove high waves. Just extra steep ramps on low tides and higher floats at high tides reminded us of how the oceans rule. All the lobstermen had to adjust to the sea levels as they carried traps back to shore.This ritual reminds me of Louise Rich’s great painting “Winter Wall” and Sheila Jordan’s poem that celebrates it. Welcome to the Anthropocene of rising sea levels. Chatting with a young, seafaring father at the Green A while raking leaves, I lamented that when his children reach my age the Hook will be permanently under water, the rocks off Division Point will be another fathom below sea level, and the Stone Wharf— unless vastly rebuilt—will be gone. The report of the Casco Bay Watershed investigation on climate change a decade ago predicted the change in temperature and the resulting changes

in sea level, effect on seasons, riverine flooding, and increased winter and spring participation, concluding that only a reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions can slow the life-altering effects of climate change. Each day, standing in our front garden we observe the changing angles of the sun’s disappearance behind the near landmarks of Hussey Sound. Start the year with gorgeous sunsets over Division Point, by March’s vernal equinox the sunlight’s bright sky embers glow behind the spewing stack of Wyman Power Station. By the summer solstice in June, the sun disappears behind Moshier Island and the Royal and Harraseeket rivers. Geological climatologists predict that the melting of billion tons of Greenland ice will change the tilt of the Earth.Will that change the tilt we have relied on for so many centuries? When Henry Thoreau visited Maine and kept his journal of the North Woods, he could tell the date within a day or two by observing blooming flora. Now, all those patterns are changing. Migratory birds that used to fly south stay for the winter. Black-legged ticks thrive where they were once frozen out. Last month experts meeting in Augusta to discuss the special effects of acidification on the Gulf of Maine found considerable evidence that the Gulf will no longer support our traditional fisheries. Living here and being observant reveal the subtle changes of the Anthropocene. I wonder if we will be clever enough to survive.

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DECEMBER 2016 CHEBEAGUE ISLAND COUNCIL CALENDAR