A few thoughts, as I look forward to good weather this summer:

- Where is my copy of "The Maine Sportsman." I sent the check for a subscription in early April, and it cleared April 10. So why does it take so long to process an order? No wonder newspapers are struggling - and that Augusta-based paper is a monthly.They couldn't be that busy!

- What a generous article about Biddeford in the recent "Down East" magazine. About 99 percent of the article was praise about the city's amazing comeback. About once sentence touched on the fact some looney-tunes politicians permitted a sewage-processing plant to be built in the middle of the city more than a decade ago, and they can't get rid of it now. (An aside: I can opine on Biddeford. I lived in that York County city for four years. I was there the night back in the '70s when the city council "claimed" by eminent domain a good part of private beach. A compromise was reached years later, but politics in that mill city tend to be bizarre.)

- I haven't seen my osprey this year. In the past few years, we've seen an osprey soaring over the Sandy River. No sightings yet. The brown and white wide-winged bird just about disappeared here in the '50s due to DDT poisening, but supposedly is on a comeback. I hope my Sandy River osprey comes back this summer.

- I vow to visit Montpelier, in Thomaston, this summer. It was the home of Henry Knox, Revolutionary War general and prominent politicians who apparently tried to copy Thomas Jefferson with a huge mansion on a hill. Like Jefferson, he couldn't pay for it. But the facsimile, very visible on Route 1, is something I must tour. I thought I'd hate Jefferson's Monticello but it was very interesting.

- I also want to visit the Nordica Homestead near Farmington. It was developed in honor of Lillian Norton, who grew up to be a world-class opera singer. She changed her name to Nordica to reflect her northern roots, and eventually settled back home. (An aside: It might not sound exciting, but what are YOUR plans for a rainy day in Franklin County.)

- Your Scribe is (still) mulling an offer to sell two acres of his land at the camp. I own 18 acres. The proposed purchase would not cost me any water frontage. And my little "Walton's Mountain" is seeing much change anyway. I don't mean that a subdivision is planned on our sketchy dirt road, but four houses have gone up in the last three years. The Big Variable: How much does my suitor want to pay for two acres?

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