I finally have proof.

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Remember when I asked if anyone in our town wanted some apples on Facebook a while back?

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And a nice woman with two children came over to harvest some of the bonanza?

Well, she left me a nice surprise in the mailbox the other day.

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A jar of homemade applesauce. And while that was thoughtful enough? The best part was this…

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Proof of awesomeness to show my husband. … because for some reason he never believes me when I tell him.

🤣

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Harvest time.

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Autumn is the traditional season of harvest. Pumpkins, apples, squash. But yours truly prefers the liquid version…

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Harvest Sangria!

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This drink is da bomb and I’m not ashamed to say I had three with lunch the other day.

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Looking out the extremely dirty window is some fall foliage on the river, an old mill and the historic bridge the town keeps trying to replace.

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Inside there was a calamari appetizer with orange hoisin sauce to share, a crab roll for me….

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And seafood scampi with scallops, shrimp and mussels for the hubs.

Life is good.

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Sharing the bounty.

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I’ve eaten apples.

I’ve baked with apples.

I’ve given apples to friends, to neighbors, to a pig, to workers and to strangers.

The deer have eaten apples. The raccoons have eaten apples. Even the fox have eaten apples.

And yet…

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We’re still loaded with fruit. There was only one thing left to do.

Gather up enough to fill the trunk of our car and take them to a wildlife rehabilitation shelter in the neighboring town.

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Oh. My. God.

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I fell in love a dozen times over.

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And my heart broke a dozen times as well.

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Abused animals. Sick animals. Animals that had been hit with a car on purpose.

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How can people be so cruel.

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If you’ve ever looked into a porcupine’s eyes and heard his little squee ( it sounds just like a baby)…. you know what I’m talking about.

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More marshmallow please.

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Seeing these little guys chow down on our apples?

Almost brought me to tears.

❤️

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Something extra…

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Dropping one more post in the line up today because it’s Halloween… and some of my friends are disturbed clever.

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Creepiest costume award goes to a woman the husband used to work with. She and her wife go all out for the holiday and seeing her dressed as Pennywise will probably give me nightmares for a week.

I hate clowns!

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In keeping with the Stephen King theme, another friend had a party… and the happy couple from the Shining showed up.

Food is always important…

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As is presentation.

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Here’s hoping your Halloween is equally as creepy creative.

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Walking the cat and a demonic barn.

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Harnassing up Lord Dudley Mountcatten and taking him for a walk has become a more frequent activity….

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But it certainly hasn’t gotten any easier.

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I spend most of my time standing still, watching him wait for a mouse.

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But the other day I managed to get him out front and headed toward the barn… until he saw it.

Do you see it?

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On closer inspection the reflection from my glass table seemed possessed…

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And His Lordship was having none of it.

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Random stuff.

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For those of you who haven’t seen the header image on my blog this month…

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Flying woodchuck witches seemed more than appropriate.

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Birds?

Yeah, we got ‘em.

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Flocks of hundreds of starlings that fly in and empty our bird feeders in record time.

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I’m guessing “Your nuts are in this box” is not a package most men expect to receive.

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Can you see the beautiful buck hidden behind the blueberry bushes?

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It seems Lord Dudley Mountcatten has had enough of the glorious fall foliage.

And finally, in honor of Halloween…

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I wish I’d seen this sooner.

It’s a holiday yard decoration I could totally get behind.

🤣

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Sky high and going higher.

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I went grocery shopping yesterday…. and while I usually just buy what I want regardless of the cost, gazing down at the pot roast in my hand made me audibly gasp.

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A quite small, unimpressive rump roast had a $36 price tag… and damned if I didn’t leave it right there.

May I just say, what the utter f*ck?

I paid $17 for a pound of 80/20 hamburger and almost fainted when I saw this…

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Yes, it’s a rib roast. But so small I doubt you’d get 4 good slices. And while I used to cook them quite often… if I’m paying $25 per plate? I’ll go out to a restaurant, let someone else cook it and be served thank you very much.

Beef prices are certifiably insane right now.

And if you think it’s any better in the seafood department, think again.

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Picked lobster meat is $53 a pound. Throw in a little mayonnaise and it’s $60.

And I live in Maine for Christ’s sake!

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Let’s play.

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This one should be fun.

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For me it’s an easy choice. The Poconos.

We’d never been… and though we’re long past the heart shaped red velvet mirrored honeymoon beds the area is known for, 6 years ago we decided to take off for the mountains and spend Christmas there.

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I booked a week at an amazing place, full of atmosphere. ( Think the Overlook Hotel in Stephen King’s The Shining, minus Jack, his ax and the twins )

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It was old, built of stone, and so huge I couldn’t get a photo of it in one shot.

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It was an old resort like you see in the movie Dirty Dancing. Rich people would escape summer in the city and live here for months. It had multiple dining facilities, a spa, a theater, game rooms, multiple bars, a library, a stable and even its own post office… complete with a personal hotel zip code.

The best (read weird) part? We had the entire place to ourselves.

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I’m not kidding, we were there for a week and didn’t see another guest until Christmas Day. Talk about eerie.

And while the interior of this grand old dame was impressive…

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It was beyond strange being the only inhabitants.

Have you ever eaten dinner by yourself in a dining room that seats 400?

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Or breakfast in a room that seats 300?

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Trust me, it’s a little creepy.

Thankfully we weren’t murdered in our bed, but in retrospect the odd accommodations turned out to be the highlight of the trip.

For a full week we toured the area and never found anything the least bit scenic. Rows of strip malls, trash lined roads and extremely tacky “family fun resorts”?

There were plenty of those. And in true “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em… we’re going to have a good time if it kills us” fashion… we bar hopped every tacky resort we could find.

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Indoor purple waterfall?

Check!

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Bizarre robotic decorative Santas?

Check!

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Elephant driven sleighs at an African themed resort called Kalahari?

Check!

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Giant topiary squirrels?

Yeah, those too.

And while the husband and I manage to have a good time wherever we go?

The Poconos are definitely at the top of our been there, done that, don’t need to do it again list.

So how about you? To what place are you never returning…

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