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It was bound to happen. Momma woodchuck found a safe home under our barn and she’s going to raise all her children there from now on.
Yesterday I spotted the first baby nibbler.
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I know they eat all my flowers, but damn it. They’re so stinking cute!
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There are four children this year and they’re just starting to venture out in the open.
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As long as mom is around that is.
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My garden is doomed.
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It almost happened.
It could have happened.
I wanted it to happen.
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But sadly, it didn’t happen.
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Lord Dudley Mountcatten spotted her.
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Lord Dudley Mountcatten stalked her.
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Lord Dudley Mountcatten tried…
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But the red squirrel menace was too quick and unfortunately still walks among us.
🥴
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It’s finally time to start planting some annuals around Casa River. It’s really only safe after Memorial Day as we had frosty nights right up until the end of May.
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A few geraniums.
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Some peachy begonias on the kitchen porch.
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A line of alternating marigolds.
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And it was back to the greenhouse for another trunkful. One can never have too many flowers.
My husband disagrees, but what does he know?
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A pizza. With pickles. And pickle flavored potato chips. Christ, it might as well have kale.
🤢
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I always thought I was one of those people who said – I’ll eat anything as long as it’s covered in chocolate.
Turns out I was wrong.
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Remember those $50 blueberry bushes we bought at the nursery?
Turns out they had the same ones at the grocery store for $25.
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The husband couldn’t resist.
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There are days when I prefer to soak myself in alcohol, but apples and watermelons work too.
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I passed on the meatloaf mountain. Bread and potatoes? That’s a bit much.
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Here’s the Junior chuck, just chillin’ on the deck landing.
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Probably still full from all those flowers he devoured.
😖
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Mr. Fox brought his significant other last night for a nosh.
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See the stalks by the fox on the left? Husband found some wild asparagus in the field and thought the woodchucks would eat it. Sadly, they prefer my flowers and didn’t touch it.
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We love our foxes.
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They’re such graceful, beautiful creatures.
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If only they’d develop a taste for red squirrel.
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Surely they have hungry pups who need a snack.
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😉
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Remember the perennials I bought for the stone bordered garden bed out back?
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There was a big beautiful purple and white lupine ready to go.
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They’re iconic in Maine and I’ve always loved them.
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But apparently so did the woodchucks.
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Goodbye bloom.
Goodbye leaves.
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This is what’s left of the lupine and what used to be a lovely pink phlox.
Grrr….
😡
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The frost danger has probably but who the hell knows because it’s Maine passed and now it’s time to fill that beautiful raised stone bed my husband built last year.
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My first trip to the nursery made me realize another trip is in order. Such a hardship.
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But look at our little crabapple tree.
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Finally in full bloom.
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So far… this is what will be living in the garden.
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I realized I chose too much pink and purple so the next trip will be for peach, red and maybe white to round it out.
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Remember when my husband tore holes in the garage siding with his new and apparently quite powerful weed whacker?
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It was the first thing you see when you step out the kitchen door …
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And yesterday, he’d had enough.
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I know nothing about vinyl siding installation but was assured you had to start in the middle in order to remove the bottom piece.
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It seemed like an awful lot of work just to replace one section.
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But after a few hours the damaged section was removed…
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And everything was back to normal.
Until the next time…
😉
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When we moved to our house in 2002 most of the back yard was waist high fields. Over the years my husband… aka the Lawn Ranger… turned the fields into lawn. And in the middle of that lawn?
Nine high blueberry bushes. (So named because the famously sweet low bush Maine blueberries are literally ankle high.)
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We’ve had good years and bad as far as harvesting goes. Sometimes the birds eat them all, sometimes we have a late frost and they never grow properly.
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Pruning is important but sadly this year we lost two bushes.
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The blossoms smell divine and everywhere there’s a bloom?
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There will be a berry…
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Like this in mid to late August.
Not wanting to miss out on summer pie, the husband and I went to a large nursery and purchased two replacement bushes.
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I was a bit shocked at the sticker price of $49.99 each, but fresh blueberry lemon pound cake with lemon glaze can not be denied.
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Fingers crossed they fruit this year.
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Woke up this morning to this….
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On further inspection it looks like the raccoon has been washing up again.
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Though it could be a Pterodactyl, you never know.
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River's world..... 