June Swoon

Bridgton in June is an explosion of pastels, with pink rhododendrons, yellow irises and lavender lilacs blooming with abandon all over town. I love throwing open the sashes on a breezy day and letting the sweet scent of lilacs waft through my house. I bought it in winter and was so surprised the first spring when hundreds of deep purple French lilacs burst from the scrappy hedge in my front yard. I sometimes wish they could bloom year-round, but I know they would never smell as sweet as they do the first week of June, mixing with the smell of cut grass and the first cookout of the season.

Free Fest

The annual Maine Blues Festival is rolling around again, and the party can’t happen without the help of dedicated volunteers. Organizers are looking for people willing to pitch in for a few hours in exchange for free tickets to the fest along with a bunch of free swag to boot.

The festival runs all day on Saturday, June 15, in venues in and around Naples, and you will be assigned a position appropriate to your skills and interests. Please contact Anita Preble at [email protected] or check out www.mainebluesfestival.com for info and a full listing of this year’s performers.

How Great Thou Art

I grew up in Nashville, a.k.a. “the buckle of the Bible belt,” and spent a few summers at Vacation Bible Camp making God’s Eyes, flip books and pot-holders. It didn’t save me from becoming a heathen, but I did do a pretty impressive paint-by-numbers picture of Jesus in a flowing robe.

The Bridgton Alliance Church is bringing art instructor Barry Stebbing of “How Great Thou ART Publications” to town to teach a three-day art class. Stebbing and his wife will be at the church on Route 117(Harrison Road) on Thursday, June 13, through Saturday, June 15, from 9-11:30 a.m. each day. The couple has been teaching art across North America for the past 15 years and estimate they have personally instructed more than 60,000 students. The workshop is for ages 5 through adult and includes many basic fundamentals in beginning drawing and painting, an introduction to art appreciation, and new techniques in the use of colored markers and colored pencils. Price for the class is $27, all inclusive (with the exception of colored markers and colored pencils, which can be purchased at registration). Prepayment is required. Registration deadline is June 5. Parents helping young children or observing the class do not need to pay. There will be a $3 late fee for registrations after June 5. If you have any questions, and/or would like to register for the class, call Nancy Grigg at 647-4459, or email her at [email protected], and check out Stebbing’s webpage at (www.howgreatthouart.com).

Compute This

The world truly is at our fingertips today with the Internet, but it is easy to fall down the rabbit hole if you don’t know where to walk. If you’d like a professional to guide you down the path of deeper computing knowledge, the Bridgton Community Center is here to help.

Beginner/Intermediate computer classes begin on Thursday, June 6, at the Community Center, running through June 27, from 10 a.m. until noon. Instructors will teach basic surfing skills, delving into deeper topics like programming and systems as the class progresses. The cost is $45 and will be small to allow for one-on-one teaching. For more information or to register, call 647-3116.

Best In Show

If you think your precious poodle can give “Rhapsody in White” a run for her money, you need to enter the Bridgton Vet’s annual pet photo contest. June 1 marks the opening of submissions, so send in a photo of your dog or cat and the staff will enter it into the most appropriate show category. For dogs, the categories will be Hound, Toy, Sporting, Working, Non-Sporting, Terrier, and Herding groups. For cats there will be long-hair and short-hair divisions.

Photo entries will be accepted until the end of June. After that, voting for group winners will be open from July 1 until July 20. The group winners will be on display at the Pet Community Event on Sunday, July 21, where those attending will vote for the overall “Best In Show” winner. The canine “Best In Show” will receive a free portrait session with Freeman Photography. The cat winner will receive a kitty prize pack. Please send your entries to [email protected] with the subject line “Best In Show.”

Summer Sounds

The new owners of the Noble House B&B are spicing up the scene with a series of singer-songwriter shows on the lawn of the inn. These intimate “Sounds At Noble House Inn: Music Above the Lake” concerts will be held throughout the summer, and the first one is on Thursday, June 6, at 6:30 p.m.

Join Cindy and Julie as they host award-winning songwriter Dan Weber, who has been described as “the classic mid-life overnight sensation.” A gifted storyteller, Weber was a 2012 finalist in the legendary Kerrville “New Folk” competition in Texas as well as the prestigious Dave Carter Songwriting Contest in 2010. Weber was also a winner of the West Coast Songwriter’s Performing Songwriter Competition in 2011 and 2009 along with two Song-of-the-Year awards.

Several of the shows are already sold out, and precedence is given to guests of the inn, but there are still a few tickets available to this first show (at press time). Please RSVP to [email protected] and call Cindy at 647-3733 for information on this and other upcoming special events at the Noble House. And welcome to Bridgton, ladies. It sure is nice to have a few more Southerners in town!