Southern Charm Up North: Tales of a Maine Magnolia

09/06/2025

Fall in Maine doesn’t tiptoe in—it sweeps across the land in bold strokes of color. The blueberry barrens blaze crimson, rolling out like a velvet carpet against a backdrop of golden birches and maples. Apples hang heavy on the trees, the kind you can pluck straight from the branch with the lake sparkling just behind you. At the market, pumpkins and squash pile high, their muted oranges and creams reminding us that abundance often comes in humble shapes.

And then, there are the quiet corners—the wooden bench by the water, the hush of leaves drifting down, the way the cool air makes you breathe just a little deeper.

This season doesn’t just change the landscape—it changes us. It asks us to slow down, to gather in, to look at the world not for what it lacks but for the beauty that’s right here, ablaze and fleeting.

Here’s to Saturdays that hold both the harvest and the hush. 🍂✨

09/03/2025

At 62, I thought I had left teenage woes behind. But this morning I woke up with a zit shining bright like a badge of adolescence - right on my chin! Life’s little reminder that time may add years, wrinkles, and wisdom… but it still circles back around just to laugh at you. Of course, that zit is the only thing on me that looks 13 these days.🌸😂

09/01/2025

Some mornings, the world insists you pause. You can’t rush past a sky like this — painted in shades of fire and lavender, as if heaven itself took out a brush and said, watch this.

Maine may always hold my heart — the rocky shores, the salt air, the steady resilience of it all. But some days, Mississippi rises up and reminds me she’s got her own kind of magic. The soft roll of the hills, the hush of the trees, and a sunrise that sets the whole day aglow.

Maybe that’s the gift of living between two worlds — your heart is never in just one place. It stretches, it learns, and it finds beauty wherever the sun decides to show out. 🌅💗

08/30/2025

🎶🍻 In Seven Points (Florence, AL) today for the Hootenanny! Nothing better than free beer, great vendors, and awesome music filling the streets.

Stopped by North Wood Social for good drinks and seriously delicious eats (highly recommend the pierogis 🙌). Don’t miss all the great shops around here too—there’s something new tucked in every corner.

Small town charm, big time fun. 💛

08/28/2025

Yesterday’s shooting at Annunciation broke my heart. It’s not ok. We are not ok.

And before anyone jumps in with the same tired line—no one is trying to take away your gun. Hunt, protect your family, go to the range if that’s your thing. But the nonsense has to end.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with background checks and reasonable measures to reduce gun violence in this country. I once had to wait two weeks to pick up a gun my son had won in a raffle—because I was former military. Guess what? The world didn’t stop. No one’s rights were stripped away. And no one was hurt because of that pause.

I’m sick of the excuses. I’m sick of the gun lobby. And if this were your child dead—or the one holding the gun—you’d be sick too.

We owe our children better. We owe each other better.

08/26/2025

🌿 Tasty Tuesday: Southern Soul Meets Italian Comfort 🇮🇹

Some days just call for a bowl of something warm, simple, and satisfying. This one is a regular in my kitchen — humble ingredients, bold flavor, and a whole lotta heart.

It’s one of those “clean out the fridge” recipes that ends up tasting like you’ve been simmering away all day, apron on, wine in hand. But really… it comes together in about 30 minutes, start to finish. And it makes your house smell like you know what you’re doing. 😉

🍲 Italian Sausage & White Bean Skillet

Ingredients:
• 1 lb Italian sausage (mild or spicy — you do you)
• 1 small yellow onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cans white beans (cannellini or Great Northern), drained and rinsed
• 1 can diced tomatoes (optional but I love the acidity)
• 1 tsp fresh rosemary (or ½ tsp dried)
• Salt + cracked black pepper to taste
• A pinch of red pepper flakes
• A splash of broth or dry white wine if you’ve got it
• Spinach or kale (a handful or two at the end if you’re feeling virtuous)
• Olive oil

To serve:
Crusty bread or over creamy polenta

Instructions:
1. Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a large skillet.
2. Brown your sausage, breaking it up as you go. Once it’s cooked through, remove and set aside.
3. In the same skillet, sauté onion until soft, then add garlic, rosemary, and a pinch of red pepper flakes.
4. Stir in the beans, tomatoes, and a splash of broth or wine. Let it bubble for a few minutes.
5. Return the sausage to the pan. Taste, season, and stir in greens at the end just until wilted.

Y’all. It’s hearty. It’s cozy. It’s “please make this again” good.

Whether you’re hunkered down in the South or tucked away in the wilds of Maine, it’s the perfect dish to warm your soul.

08/23/2025

A funny thing happened… it’s been awhile since something made me double over laughing. But sometimes the funniest things are the ones we do to ourselves.

As you all know, I have a certain disdain for Walmart. Rarely do I go, and when I do, I’m already a little grouchy. On this particular day, I was especially so.

I pull into the lot, dodge through the usual Walmart circus, and rush to do my shopping. Bags in hand, I head back to the car and start loading. Then—out of nowhere—my car starts rolling backward.

Panic sets in. I run around, slam my foot on the brake—everything looks fine. Still in park. So I go back to loading.

But then…it rolls again. This time I grab the door frame and push with all my might, like Hercules at Walmart, grunting and sweating to hold this beast in place. It stops. I breathe.

And then—it rolls again. I lunge, headfirst, through the seat, butt in the air, hand on the brake, yelling like a madwoman. I look to my left and see the driver in the car beside me, eyes wide, quickly backing out to escape whatever chaos I’ve unleashed.

And then it hits me. My car never moved. Not once. It was their car backing out each time, and they probably thought I was absolutely nuts.

Walmart: 1.
Gentry: 0.
Well played.

08/22/2025

Worth a drive by folks!

Just outside of the Yardarm Motel in Searsport, chainsaw carver Josh Landry was given a special opportunity - to carve a 20-foot-tall sculpture of a Greek god. https://www.wabi.tv/2025/08/21/searsport-motel-to-receive-a-20-foot-tall-wooden-sculpture-of-poseidon/

08/21/2025

I try not to be a Debbie Downer, but today is hitting differently.

Scrolling through all the back-to-school posts, I remember those days so clearly. The obligatory first-day pictures, the packed lunches, the hugs at the door—always sweet, always a little bittersweet. But one year, it shifted. That year, along with their sandwiches and juice boxes, I slipped a rubber doorstop into each of their backpacks. I hugged them a little harder, a little longer. Earlier that week, I had explained how to wedge it under a door if they ever had to. My mama-heart broke wide open. Their innocence was being chipped away by a world that should protect them.

And I worry. I worry about the violence that has somehow become “normal.” I worry about the earth we’ve abused, the greed that never seems satisfied. I worry about how quick we are to excuse away suffering: the unhoused, the different, the broken—written off with a shrug instead of seen with compassion.

My heart is heavy today. My head hurts from all the noise.
So, I’m going to do the only thing I know to bring me back: throw on some clothes, kick off my shoes, and walk barefoot through the grass. I’ll stop and smell every flower, watch every bird, every bug, every living thing that still whispers—there is beauty, there is hope.

Tomorrow, I’ll show up again to fight for better. For my kids, for yours, for all of us.
Join me? 🌸