One minute you’re happily eating dinner side by side with your woodchuck brother.

Until he realizes his lettuce and carrot tops might not be as tasty as what you have….

And moves in on your watermelon.

If looks could kill.
That’s one dead chuck.
One minute you’re happily eating dinner side by side with your woodchuck brother.

Until he realizes his lettuce and carrot tops might not be as tasty as what you have….

And moves in on your watermelon.

If looks could kill.
That’s one dead chuck.
Because it’s time to clear out the photo files again.

Momma chuck has been packing on the pounds with an eye toward winter..

But it doesn’t stop her from scrambling up and over the rock wall quicker than I can move my shutter finger.

I have a feeling at least one of her two remaining offspring will be sticking around when the snow flies.

I keep catching him rooting around under the daylilies, filling his mouth with dead leaves and making off for parts unknown with nesting material.

Last year’s fawn comes every night, and since his new antlers are decidedly unbranched, I’ve taken to calling him the antenna buck. Because I’m old… and remember when you had to wiggle those things every afternoon to watch Dark Shadows.

Though these next two pics were at the outermost limit of my zoom, I’m including them because we rarely see momma turkey and her young.

She raises them in the woods and neighboring meadows, never crossing our large expanse of open lawn.

And finally, a few Bambi shots.

Because they’re so damned sweet, I can’t help it.

We’re rapidly running out of fresh blueberries thanks to the crows…. so it was time to whip out my all time favorite blue recipe.
Lemon blueberry pound cake with a lemon zest glaze.

Ooh la la…. the batter has a stick of butter in it.

And once you add the berries?
I eat it like ice cream.
Do I make a mess when I bake?

You could say that.
But it’s so worth it.

Three loaves of buttery berried goodness.
I ran into a little SNAFU after they cooled and I started to make the glaze.

2017? No problem….
Expiration dates are for the weak.
But settle down, I Googled it.

There.
If Google says it’s alright? Who am I to argue.

Lemon zest glaze.

I tend to do more than drizzle.

Because when have you ever heard someone say, “I’ll take mine with less fabulousness please?”



Recipe as requested.
It should be noted I double…. oh alright, sometimes triple…. the glaze ingredients.
As this fellow did.
Loud and proud.
All the way down our road…..
( Turn your volume way up to experience it as I did. I swear you could hear him half a mile away. )
It’s happening.

Red squirrel.

And woodchuck.

A common goal.

A shared food source.

An alliance.

Partners….

Synchronizing positions.
I’m doomed.
These two cuties came running up from the woods the other day while I was reading on the barn porch.

They’ve grown so quickly.

Getting taller every day.

We have a total of four fawns who visit.

But I’m guessing these two are twins since they’re always together.

Mom wandered up shortly after.

And kept an eagle eye on me and my camera.

No worries momma.

Bambi is safe with me.

Still stealing deer food.

And when it’s too big to finish in one sitting?

They’re still planting.

And I’m still cleaning up scattered dirt.

And squirrel poo.

Help me out with this…
Aren’t teenagers supposed to grow up and move out?
It’s a conspiracy.
I know it.
Those damn red squirrels have been plotting and now they’ve got corporate behind them.
How do I know this?
Because yesterday I got this box from Amazon:

Race cars….
For squirrels!
I’m doomed.
Ever since we installed the new deck railings we’ve needed to re-stain the deck. And by we, I mean me… because while he’ll constantly remark it needs to be done? The husband never does it. Not once in 18 years.

Problem is, we needed to buy a new pressure washer to clean the siding and I didn’t want to stain until that happened.
So I waited. And waited….. and waited some more.
( Never nagging. No. Not me.)

But after the husband saw the prices of a new Honda pressure washer?
I feel confident saying it’s not happening anytime soon.
So I moved things to the lawn, grabbed my brush and went to work.

Many holy hell why is it surface of the sun hot hours later…

I was done.

And pretty pleased with the results.

Dirty siding aside, it looks nice.

Clean, fresh and ready for the red squirrel family’s onslaught of poo.

Next morning fog shot just because.
A slightly smaller bounty this week as the neighbor we split with liked more of the offerings than we did.

But there were fairy tale eggplants, so I should probably start this blog with Once Upon a Time.
Once Upon a Time in Maine…. a local grocery store advertised their weekly ware.

Squid jigs at the grocery store.
You know you’re in Maine when….

And meanwhile down at the River ranch, there was pie.

Glorious lattice crust fresh blueberry pie.

No, I couldn’t wait for it to cool completely.

And yes, I had pie for breakfast the next morning.
If that’s wrong?
I don’t want to be right.