His Lordship was on high alert after hearing something in the backyard stone wall.
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Not finding anything, he tried the front lawn stone wall.
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After narrowly missing a chipmunk there….
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He returned to the back lawn stone wall… and waited.
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Patience paid off. He snatched a mouse out of a rock crevice and ran with it to the back door, which was thankfully closed. Rodent death was fairly quick this time around …
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So Dudley got bored with his prize and headed back to the wall. Leaving another fresh carcass for yours truly.
After a beer and hard cider filled morning and early afternoon…. and a less than stellar mid afternoon chowder house lunch with margaritas, I thought we were going home. But my husband realized we were driving up on a friend’s town and gave him a call.
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Enter the Bait Shed restaurant and bar in the Pine Point area of Scarborough…
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Where our friend was sitting and thoughtfully holding seats for us… complete with waiting cocktails.
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I’d never been nor even heard of this place, but a better spot to end the day would be hard to find.
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The ocean breeze was cool, the summer tourists were gone. We had good company, potent drinks, hearty laughs and fresh seafood.
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They don’t take themselves too seriously at the Bait Shed….
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Probably because their establishment really was a bait shed in a previous life.
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It’s the type of place Maine locals avoid like the plague during the season and visit frequently once the outta staters have left the state.
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It’s the type of place where you’ll get a dirty look if you order an espresso martini, but I saw a bowl of chowder go by and damned if it wasn’t the real thing.
After a morning and early afternoon of drinking beer and hard cider, yours truly needed some food. We were traveling up Route 1 near Wells when I remembered there was a restaurant on the estuary…. so I hollered “Let’s go!”
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Billy’s Chowder House made a decent margarita and had a wonderful view, so things were looking up.
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And when you’re in a chowder house restaurant? You have to order chowder… which is when it started to go bad.
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We ordered clam chowder. What we got were thin, milky bowls of potatoes. Clams? I think the chef might have grated one over the top. A more tasteless bowl of gruel would be hard to find.
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The husband had mussels, which were tiny, overcooked and swimming in enough garlic to repel a platoon of Vampires.
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I ordered a shrimp roll which, while edible… was nothing to write home about about.
The bill was almost $100 and I made a mental note never to cross that threshold again.
A Maine chowder house with horrible chowder? There’s no excuse for that. This place needs to sink back into the sea and be done with it.
There was an outdoor wedding last weekend. If only I’d known they were taking requests.
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We have once weekly trash pick up at our house, $2.50 a bag…. But everything else has to go to the recycle barn. Decades ago when it was realized people were throwing out perfectly useable items, an idea was born.
While I don’t shop at the “Gift Store”, my husband has been known to come home with more than he went with.
😬
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This is our neighbor across the road. His fields are looking pretty spiffy…. And oh! That fresh ginger.
It started out innocently enough. We needed to replace my husband’s keg in the man cave and the store where we bought the first one was out.
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So we went straight to the source, Allagash brewery in Portland… where we discovered they wouldn’t accept their keg and return our deposit because we hadn’t purchased it there. They also wanted $100 deposit on a new keg and since the brewery is an hour away, we said to hell with it and just settled down to drink.
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At 11:00 in the morning. Don’t judge.
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Since Covid, they’ve built a large outdoor pavilion…. and we happily sampled some drafts.
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A good time was had…
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As were beer cheese dip and pretzels.
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This Belgian dubbel called Foliage Report was especially tasty.
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As we drank, a giant black limo pulled up and discharged a group of similarly dressed young men. I’m guessing it was a brewery hopping bachelor party (Maine has the largest number of craft breweries in the country. Is it any wonder I live here?) and thought that was a great idea.
👍
On our way out we had to hit the brew store…
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And purchased 2 four packs of that fabulous seasonal dubbel. 2 four packs? $24.
While I’ve been known to enjoy some oddly flavored beer …
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That’s a hearty no from me. Pretzels belong in a bowl on the bar… to make you thirsty for more beer… not in the bottle you’re drinking. Blech!
For the first time in over a year, I lost a game of Scrabble to my husband. But in my defense?
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Even Noah Webster would have a hard time with those letters.
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We had a nice rain storm pass through recently so the husband and I took to the barn porch with adult beverages. He was interested to see if his leaky gutter repair worked ( it did ) and if his strategically placed rock ( which I told him was too small ) would protect the lawn from a rain induced pothole. ( it partially did )
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And in case you’re wanting a piece of jewelry to commemorate the shit show of the last year?
River's world..... 