The Wrack

Dismal weather did not dampen spirits at the 15th annual Punkinfiddle Family Festival and National Estuaries Day celebration!

The enjoyment of simple things can be the most rewarding.

The following was published in the Biddeford-Saco Journal Tribune Sunday edition, 9/21/2014.

With a too-short summer and the back-to-school fracas, anyone would be pardoned for missing the official Congressional resolution naming this coming week “National Estuaries Week,” the annual celebration of the places where rivers meet the sea.

Before you get too excited, please understand that the resolution is merely pending, and that estuaries don’t get the whole month. According to Congress, the entire 30 days of September have, in recent years, been reserved for Gospel Music Heritage, Bourbon Heritage, Prostate Cancer Awareness, Childhood Obesity, Honey, and even Self-Awareness. (And you thought our legislators didn’t do anything – shame on you.)

Resolved or not, 1/52nd of a year certainly seems like a worthy amount of time to devote to estuaries, those humble places of mud and marsh that do so much.

Many thanks to all the volunteers, trustees, and staff who made the 11th annual Punkinfiddle Family Festival and National Estuaries Day Celebration here on Saturday "one for the books." (I know, I used that for the Crafts Festival, but this was a really good "other big festival" too.)

Punkinfiddle is our last big event of The Busy Season and it always makes the fourth week of September feel like a “the turning point” – exit summer, enter fall. Frost threatens, jackets are located, the kids are ensconced once more in school.

The 10th annual Punkinfiddle festival and National Estuaries Day celebration went wonderfully from all reports we've received and if you were there we hope you had a great time, too (either way, let us know by commenting below).

Thanks once again to the Punkinfiddle committee, our fabulous volunteers, everyone who participated, and our generous sponsors — Maine magazine, Sevigney Lyons Insurance Agency, Pratt & Whitney, Kittery Trading Post, The Bank of Maine, Captain Lord Mansion, Purdy Powers & Company, Bergen & Parkinson, LLC, and Roger A. Auger & Associates / Ameriprise Financial.

Here are 18 photos that capture many of the happenings of the day…

When Punkinfiddle started out in 2003, we sponsored an art competition to find a logo that would tie pumpkins and fiddles together in a festive way. We had several worthy entries, but the standout was from Joseph Havens, a skilled graphic designer living in Kennebunk. Joe evoked our anticipated feel for the event before we had even nailed down the day's details!

Our friends at Dietz Associates digitized the art and featured it on our first poster. The logo jumped off the page, attracting lots of attention and helping to make our event wildly successful.

Pumpkins and apples, those celebrated autumn fruits, have always been featured at Punkinfiddle. This year, a 900-pound pumpkin got two facelifts from Mr. Auger and his assistant, while four crates of apples went through the grinder and press. Not far away, two culinary carvers cut potatoes, eggplants, squashes, carrots, and other veggies to cook up some pretty silly sculptures.

Rick Chase from Chase Farm in Wells brought Bud and Bill to plow the Punkinfiddle corn and pumpkin patch, which is doubling in size this year.

The Punkinfiddle 5K Run started at 9 am on Saturday, September 26. Thirty-nine runners competed in this inaugural event. Here are the results: