Tag Archives: animals

First baby sighting…

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Just when I was getting worried we hadn’t seen any baby woodchucks?

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One brave little guy followed momma out of the shed.

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At first he didn’t know what to make of the carrot buffet…

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And wanted mom to feed him.

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But momma chuck isn’t exactly a hands paws on parent…

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And let him figure it out for himself.

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Before long he was happily munching alongside her.

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Porch furniture and a four legged pillow thief…

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Our new barn porch furniture has arrived.

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And it’s a whole lot bigger than our old ancient set.

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I can’t say I’m overly thrilled to have an outdoor recliner, but my husband sure is.

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You may notice that something is missing.

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And by missing, I mean on a table inside the barn.

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You’ll see there are five throw pillows. The set came with six. But the day after I set up the furniture and went outside to read?

There were four.

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I retrieved number five from under the barn.

Number six seems to be gone for good and I’m sure Momma Chuck is to blame. She’s been on an insane search for nesting material this year and it seems our porch furniture is irresistible.

😡

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So since I can’t have color contrasting pillows due to thieving critters, I’m thinking of adding a rug .

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Even she won’t be able to steal that.

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Meet the mayor.

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This is Sunshine Larry, the unofficial Mayor of Bath, Maine.

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Sunny was a stray cat who lived in a public park and made a lot of friends.

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And even though he has a nice home with a loving family now….

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Sunny still likes to wander.

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And has become a bit of an internet sensation.

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Sadly, I’ve never met Sunny in person.

(In feline?)

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But I sure would like to .

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Sunny is a local celebrity.

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But he doesn’t let it go to his head.

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❤️

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Skeleton bikinis and a naughty woodchuck.

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As seen down the road from our house.

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This giant skeleton was installed last Halloween and has been making me laugh every holiday and season since.

He was a pilgrim for Thanksgiving, Santa for Christmas, Cupid for Valentines Day, and a very large leprechaun for St Patrick’s Day, For Easter he wore colossal bunny ears and now that summer is near?

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Someone sewed him (her?) a seriously plus sized bikini.

🤣

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Proof positive tequila and online bumper sticker shopping are not a good mix.

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Momma Chuck.

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She takes her carrots seriously.

And speaking of chucks, we noticed our grill cover had been looking a little worse for wear…

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We have hellacious wind here and if it’s not tied down? It’s going to blow. If it is tied down? It’s going to flap.

So we figured this cover had seen one too many N’Or Easters over the winter.

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Until….

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Damn.

Stealing the seat cushion off the barn porch clearly wasn’t enough nesting material this year.

🥴

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Random nonsense.

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This first one is slightly exaggerated, but not by much.

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And by the looks of things in the backyard?

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I think there are baby woodchucks in our future.

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Remember the days of mixed tapes?

I stumbled across a few of my old ones and had a flashback of sitting on the floor by the stereo manically timing the recording sessions.

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Some of the songs are questionable, (Richard Marx? 😳) but I’ll stand by the Fleetwood Mac and Neil Young.

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A lesson I learned early in childhood that still holds true today.

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Worst. Coffee. Advertisement.

Ever.

🥴

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Sliding squirrels, creamy shrimp and disgruntled chucks.

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Our grey squirrels are determined fellows. As evidenced by the never give up attitude of this little guy during a recent rainy morning attempt at reaching the bird feeder.

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Wet poles be slippery.

🤣

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If you like shrimp?

Give this recipe a try.

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In a large stainless steel skillet over medium heat, melt 1 Tbsp. butter. Pat shrimp dry; season all over with Old Bay.

Arrange shrimp in a single layer in skillet and cook, turning halfway through, until translucent, about 1 minute per side. Transfer to a plate.

In same skillet over medium heat, melt remaining 1 Tbsp. butter. Add shallot and cook, stirring occasionally, until beginning to soften, 2 to 3 minutes .

Add garlic and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring, until garlic is fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes.

Add wine to deglaze skillet, scraping up any browned bits, and cook, stirring, until liquid is almost completely evaporated,

Stir in broth and bring to a boil over high heat.

Stir in orzo and return to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low to maintain a simmer and cook, stirring frequently, until orzo has absorbed most of the broth and is almost cooked through,

Add cream and cook, stirring frequently, until slightly thickened and reduced,

Return shrimp to skillet along with any accumulated juices.

Stir in lemon zest and lemon juice; season with salt. Top with parsley.

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My tweaks – I didn’t have vegetable broth but used low sodium chicken broth and it was lovely. I used salted butter, so I left off the salt at the end. And since my husband isn’t a spicy food lover, I ignored the red pepper flakes. There was plenty of flavor so I think that was overkill anyway.

Use large or jumbo shrimp. You won’t be disappointed.

Yum!

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Mother Chuck is back and her runt from last year’s litter is still here.

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Though not for lack of trying to kick him to the curb.

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There are daily squabbles over food and squealing arguments over bolt holes.

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Momma isn’t subtle, but Junior refuses to take the hint.

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Blowing coat and taking name.

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We have green grass!

And deer.

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Our resident buck has finally dropped that pesky second antler and is in the process of blowing his winter coat.

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No, we don’t say shedding in Maine.

No, I don’t know why.

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I always think adult male deer look wonky with those big knobs on their heads in the spring.

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But judging from the tongue sticking out of his mouth, he doesn’t much care what I think.

😉

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Random snippets.

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We’ve had rain, rain and more rain. Which makes for a gloomy month, but after one warm day? Green grass as well.

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And happy deer at the backyard buffet.

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Are you a Wordle or Spelling Bee addict?

If so, have you tried this new game….

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It’s quite addicting.

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A few relevant quotes for the world in which we live at the beginning of a book I read recently.

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Lord Dudley Mountcatten likes the new couch in our den. He started sleeping on the back cushion to the right so I laid a towel to catch the cat hair. Then he started sleeping on the back cushion to the left so I laid a towel to catch the cat hair.

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His Lordship has attitude to spare.

🥴

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