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A few weeks ago the waterfowl landed.
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A pair of mallards who have since taken up semi residence.
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They come to nibble under the bird feeders and have discovered that deer grain and fox food is tasty as well.
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We wake to the sound of quacking, and when a thunder storm rumbled by the other day? They flew in and took shelter.
❤️
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When you have a lawn as big as ours, mowing can be a two day affair. The husband and I tag team it… me on the push mower for the front lawn, sides, upper back and around the barn…. him on the tractor for the large expanses. Did I mention we have a veritable mowing fleet?
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While his sections are bigger, mine are actually harder because I make a point of never blowing grass in the flower beds.
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That mulched section under the tree used to be filled with perennials…
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Until the husband flung so much grass in there all the flowers got choked out and I got tired of breaking my back weeding. But I digress..
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After mowing comes trimming.
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And trust me, there’s a lot of that. I just added these two beauties to my stone wall bed…
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And filled the baby barn’s bed with its annual marigolds. I added some tickseed (coreopsis) as well, but I’m afraid it might get too much sun… so it’s success has yet to be determined.
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Yup, it’s exhausting.
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But when everything is freshly mowed and trimmed?
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I’m a seriously happy camper.
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Though the same can’t be said for his Lordship….
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Who gives me the evil eye from the back of the couch.
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I think you all know I adore my state. It’s scenically beautiful and far enough off the beaten path for our weirdos to be considered delightfully quirky. So let me share a few other reasons Maine is a wonderful, if slightly odd, place to live.
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You’d be surprised how often these potentially fatal conversations take place.
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And yet they all try.
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If you’ve never seen a real live moose in person? Trust me…. they’re huge and will total your car when hit.
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Many people will tell you it still tastes like horrible medicine, but I love it. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream? Mm, mm, good.
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I personally know of 7 Hardscrabble Roads… but hey, no one said living in Maine is easy.
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Being fully vaccinated, I’m starting to feel safer venturing out with a friend for some long over due retail therapy. First stop? A nursery.
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Because as I’ve said previously, you can never have too many flowers.
Second stop? Goodwill… where I saw this.
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Although I had no idea what it was. At first I thought it was a cat with big tatas wearing a cape and waving. Then I figured out it was a cape wearing kangaroo with boxing gloves and an open pouch. The question is… why does such a thing exist?
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We visited a gift store with strange mossy things…
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But I did like the upside down air plant stuck inside a dried urchin.
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And if you ever want a suede comforter with barbed wire?
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Complete with turquoise stars and fringed pillow shams? I can totally hook you up. ( Although I won’t be spending the night in your guest room. Uh uh. Nope. )
I had to laugh at the rainbow coalition of Crocs.
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Does anyone even wear those monstrosities anymore?
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And finally, this was the one that got away. I’m filled with regret for not scooping that little gem up when I saw it. Ice cubes in 8 minutes? I totally should have bought that for our man cave bar.
😩
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My husband has a childhood friend named Dick. As you can imagine, going through life with that name requires a sense of humor. He has one, and figures if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. So when I run across Dick jokes? I have to share. The following requires using the predictive text on your phone and some of the answers were a hoot.
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Here’s mine:
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Truer words were never spoken.
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Is it wrong I find these amusing?
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Or saluted. Tough call.
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And here I thought Dicks didn’t take time off.
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That’s one way to look at it. Or them…
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The way people are these days? I’m not sure that will work.
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A manufactured product. Does that mean Wal Mart has them on sale?
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Poor Dick, apparently not everyone is a fan.
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Heck, we’ve all been there.
Funny side note? I blogged this from my phone and every time I typed Dick… it was changed to Duck. Every. Single. Time.
🤣
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In the continuing saga My Air Smells Better Than Yours, Neener Neener, I bring you…. lilacs.
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I will forever be grateful to the previous owner of our house for planting lilac bushes 40 odd years ago.
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Lilacs are slow growers and take a long time to come into maturity.
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But when you have some that reach the height of your roof?
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Life is good.
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And it smells even better.
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Lord Dudley Mountcatten has been assisting my husband while he teleworks since day one.
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And while my husband has broken him of the laying across the laptop habit, the office chair is still fair game.
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Birds are still a fascination and the laundry room remains a favorite perch.
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A few years ago we replaced most of the windows in our home but since Dudley took up residence, we’ve realized they are not at all cat friendly.
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The ridge in the middle makes reclining a tad uncomfortable and His Lordship is not above voicing his disapproval.
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Or trying various positions.
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Someone needs to invent the technology and WordPress needs to adopt it.
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Because our apple trees are in full bloom and the scent is beyond heavenly.
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I wish the pictures did them more justice.
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The white and pink blossoms really pop in person.
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And from the looks of the quantity, it’s going to be an autumn filled with pie.
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And cobbler, and torte, and crisp, and cake, and muffins…
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Well, you get the idea.
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Day two of roof repair was not without its pitfalls.
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And Lord Dudley Mountcatten kept a close eye on the progress.
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Yes that’s a giant copper and silver cicada on my coffee table. You mean you don’t have one…? How strange.
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The weather that morning was awful.
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Rain, wind and colder than average temps. Work didn’t even start until 10:00am.
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At times it seemed like the black clouds were aiming right for them.
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But progress was made in between the showers and I was glad to see the gap in the problem corner was tightly covered with ice and water shield. A gerry rigged solution to be sure, but an improvement none the less. Had this been done the day before (as I requested, repeatedly) our ceiling wouldn’t look like this:
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But I’m just a woman. What do I know?
😡
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I don’t claim to know everything, but I do know if you’re going to strip a roof for repairs during a weekend when rain is predicted? You postpone or make damn sure you cover that sucker completely.
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My husband on the other hand, likes to gamble.
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And as you can see by what I woke up to Saturday morning…
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He lost. ( Unplug the tv and move the table? Why… when you can just cover it with trash bags? It’s times like these I question my love for that man.)
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And while I would normally enjoy a good I told you so and being right….
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The utter disaster that is our ceiling took the joy right out of it.
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River's world..... 