Tag Archives: maine

Book memories.

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Retrieving our two boxes from the husband’s uncle’s attic last week resulted in a few tears from yours truly. Bittersweet memories overwhelmed me as I unpacked a few of my favorite childhood books.

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I’m not sure how I managed to hold on to these over the years, but flipping through Moldy Warp the Mole immediately transported me back to my father’s lap, listening to that story being read in his marvelously deep and melodic Scottish voice … and I admit my eyes started to leak. No matter how old I am, I’ll always be a daddy’s girl at heart.

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The other books in the box were all over the place subject wise. Civil War buff? Yup. Sap for everything James Herriot wrote? Most definitely.

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As evidenced by another childhood book…Man, Myth and Magic…. I was a strange child. This was a 24 volume series of the supernatural that came out in the ‘70’s. My mother refused to let me have it, so naturally I found book #1 and hid it under my bed.

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Judging from the current listing on eBay, I should have smuggled in the whole set.

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Maine musings

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A quick look at what’s happening in my corner of the world.

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That’s just… wrong.

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Alpaca Black Gold. Come and get it!

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I buy grain and seed from this store and must say the welcoming committee is quite friendly.

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If you ever see this beer? Drink it. Weird and wonderful… it’s tart with a hint of citrusy sweetness and you actually get a graham cracker crust after note. It’s bizarre, but awesome.

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Random tidbits

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Because my life is a never ending series of nothing important.

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A 48 inch pike. While this man looks proud, they’re actually an invasive species that are destroying our lake’s natural ecosystems. People catch and release because no one wants to eat them.

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A blackberry lime sour from Mast Landing brewery. Pink, tart and strangely creamy. Yum!

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Our local pub has started serving Naan flatbreads. Sweet potato, bacon, caramelized onions, blue cheese with a honey maple drizzle. Double yum!

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Our resident fox is coming earlier in the evening to beat the skunks and raccoons to the buffet.

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We’ve had nothing but rain all month and our lawn is really getting torn up by the deer herd. Going to be a lot of yard work in our future.

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Apparently any attic will do.

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I think I may have mentioned my husband’s obsession with crap useless vintage items. I’ve spent nearly four decades watching him sort through dusty boxes at yard sales, flea markets and antique stores…. but last week he surprised even me.

When we moved back to Maine 20 years ago he had to start a new job before we sold our house, so I stayed down south for a few months while he bunked with a relative. Since he didn’t want to make the trip empty handed, he filled his truck with boxes and stored them in an uncle’s attic. I thought we’d collected all those boxes long ago, but after taking his uncle out to lunch last week we were told some of them were still upstairs.

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Did we find the boxes? Yes, after 3 seconds of scanning from the top step I pointed them out. Did that stop my treasure hunting husband from searching someone else’s junk for a heretofore unknown copy of the constitution or a Honus Wagner rookie card? No. It did not.

I’m happy to report he found nothing but junk which thankfully stayed where it was. And after opening our leftover boxes, I would have been happy to leave some of those there as well. They were heavy as hell and mostly filled with books and clothes.

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It was a bit like a time capsule. My Pat Conroy phase reared it’s head.. and 20 years later I had to wonder why I felt the need to schlepp those all the way to Maine. But it was when I examined the clothes that a little piece of me died.

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Because it was at that moment I realized I am literally twice the woman I used to be, and not in a good way.

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Lord Dudley Mountcatten helped me sort when we got home, though to be honest it wasn’t a tough job.

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Not one single thing fit. I mean, hell… it wasn’t even close. If there’s anything more depressing than being smacked in the face with your weight gain by a box full of size sixes and eights, I don’t know what it is.

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Oh, well. I did manage to dig out a few pieces of long lost jewelry … and they don’t care what size I am.

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Random tidbits

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Have you seen this duck?

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I really hope Crystal wanders by our house at some point because seeing a woman chase after her with a net is positively screaming blog fodder.

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We ducked into a favorite pub last week for a toddy and a nosh. The pot stickers were less than spectacular, but the cranberry ginger crush was yummy.

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Sitting at the bar I saw this…

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And while the thought of peanut butter whiskey disgusts me, the delivery system has merit.

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I don’t recommend running into a moose . Our friend did years ago… his bike was totaled and he spent a month in the hospital . The moose? He sauntered off like he’d been tapped by a fly swatter.

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Recycling can hurt.

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I try to be a good human. I reuse, I recycle and I dispose of things the legal, environmentally friendly way.

Maine is a beautiful state and we do all we can to keep it that way, including picking up trash on the side of the road. It disgusts me the amount of crap people will throw in the woods or a ditch. Tires, construction debris, carpet, bicycles, small appliances… it’s ridiculous.

So being the good global citizens we are, we recently picked up a small window unit air conditioner, loaded it in the truck and drove to a waste management site.

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Where we discovered the reason people throw things on the side of the road. If you want to encourage the public to do the right thing? I suggest making it a little more affordable.

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A new twist.

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During a recent shopping trip with a friend, we ducked into Macaroni Grill for lunch. It wasn’t our first choice, but after trying four other restaurants and being told it would be an hour wait due to short staffing…. we figured any port in the storm would do.

After a mediocre lukewarm meal that arrived late and with the wrong vegetables, the bill was presented. Now I don’t know about your part of the world, but here in Maine restaurants are having a hard time staying afloat since no one wants to work. There are no waitresses, no hostesses, no busboys, no cooks. Every where you go has the same issues. They apologize for it when you enter and we’ve come to expect the worst. What I didn’t expect was this:

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A little inflation surcharge they sneak in without telling you.

And hey, don’t get me wrong…. I understand prices are up everywhere, and naturally the increase in the cost of food has to be passed along to the consumer. But this sure seems like a strange way to do it.

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What’s in a name?

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As you know, it was me who named the current descendant of an Egyptian God in residence at Casa River.

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I chose ‘Lord Dudley Mountcatten’ as he seemed quite regal, even from day one. But I’ve taken nothing but flak from my husband who thinks it’s a ridiculous moniker and refuses to use it. Every time I introduce his Lordship to a friend? The husband snorts, informs our friend he had nothing to do with the weird name and says ,”I call him Buddy”.

And while my other half has given me a lot of grief for my name choice in the last year, today I was vindicated.

Today I read an article about a national contest for the weirdest pet name, and though a cat from Maine won….

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It was not Lord Dudley Mountcatten.

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So take that spouse of 38 years! And consider yourself lucky the name Pickles McButterpants the Muffin Slayer was already being used.

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Of baseball and cheap chicken.

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Spring is back… and so is baseball!

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Though the evil empire managed to beat my beloved Sox two out of three at Yankee Stadium in the opening series. I fear for our bull pen this year, but we have good bats, so my fingers are crossed for a good year.

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I continue to be astounded by the cheap prices at the meat counter at the military commissary in Bangor.

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We’re making a once a month pilgrimage and if I buy nothing but beef, chicken and pork it’s well worth the drive.

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But finding the laundry detergent that costs me $17 at the grocery store for $9? That makes me one extremely happy shopper.

And lastly, because it’s been a while….

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Required cute photo of Lord Dudley Mountcatten.

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Oh deer.

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Don’t you hate it when someone beats you to the buffet line?

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The only thing you can do is use your superior size to muscle out the competition.

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Or so I’ve heard.

The next two pictures aren’t the best quality…blame my zoom lens and our resident buck’s propensity for showing up at dusk…. but I thought someone might be interested to see the antler shedding process.

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One half gone, one to go. Talk about being lopsided.

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Right after the shed. What’s left are big boney bumps with an active blood flow.

It always looks painful to me, but I’m assured it’s not. Though how any anter-less naturalist can vouch for that I don’t know.

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