We’ve had a lot of afternoon rain showers lately and with them comes rainbows.
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Too cloudy for a complete one, but with rainbows… half is just as sweet.
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Required photos of Lord Dudley Mountcatten.
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Seen here taking a bath with his blue whale.
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Round two of flowers for the new stone garden bed out back. Fingers crossed the woodchucks don’t like them.
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Family size my ever expanding *ss. These packages get smaller all the time. And if you haven’t tried the toffee flavor? Run to the store before I buy them all out from under you.
Our driveway is old and in desperate need of replacement. It’s cracked, rutted and basically caving in on itself. This isn’t uncommon in the great state of Maine, land of frost heaves and pot holes that can swallow a car in one easy gulp, but sooner or later everything has to be fixed.
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We’ve been putting off the inevitable because I knew the cost of contracting a new one was going to make me scream. But fate intervened when our neighbor told us they were redoing theirs and the paving company said we could both get a discount if we did them at the same time. Never wanting to miss a sale… we sucked it up and took the plunge.
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Mind you, our driveway isn’t huge. 92 feet long, narrow at the road end and widening by the garage with a parking bump out on the left.
Not knowing a damn thing about the process of ripping up the old and installing new, I naively guessed the cost would be eight to ten thousand dollars.
I was wrong.
By half.
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Hence the title of my blog.
Over $20,000…. and yes, I did scream. For mercy but there’s none coming.
We had a few other estimates that were similar but none of those companies could get to us until late next year, they were booked that far out. The only reason we’ll be redone next week is because our neighbor was already on the list.
Oh, the discount?
$576. A weirdly random number and not nearly enough… but it’s something.
Now if you’ll excuse me I need to go have another scream at the thought of writing an almost $21,000 check for something I’m just going to drive on.
After the pretty but oh so short Fisherman’s Walk path, we knew there had to be more to see so we continued onto the beach.
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Reaching the curve….
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We found another path.
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Knowing it wasn’t a continuation of our first walk but eager to explore new ground… we kept going.
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Past some fragrant wild beach roses.
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And up some large stone steps.
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Through some root bound trees.
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Where we caught glimpses of the ocean. Some of the walking was treacherous, but I’d figured out that we were on another of my bucket list trails – the York Cliff Walk – so we sucked it up and hiked.
It’s Japanese Iris season at Casa River and I couldn’t be happier.
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While I’ve never been a fan of the fleshy full size irises that always hump their monstrous rhizome roots out of the ground… I adore their smaller less arrogant cousins.
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Daintier, more delicate and frankly less look at me darling, aren’t I gawgous!… they’re a lovely pop of perennial purple.
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Number two rhododendron is now in full bloom though not nearly as full as it’s neighbor. Why this should be is a question that stumps gardeners everywhere. Same soil, same sun exposure yet one is always bigger and better. Personally I think Mother Nature just likes to keep us guessing.
And if you’re wondering what the woodchucks have been chewing this week ?
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The toothy little buggers are eating marigolds!.
Marigolds!
The plant so disgusting no one will eat them. I don’t even like the silly things but have been putting them in my pots on the barn porch simply for the woodchuck gag factor. I thought they’d be safe.
I was wrong.
Very wrong.
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Where there's only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
