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Perhaps you’d like to hug a water buffalo.
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It’s free, and you have to admit the toddlers sure are cute.
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Of course inviting you to hug a calf and then directing you to the store to purchase a rump roast of his family is a bit rude….
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I hope no one tells this sweet little fellow Uncle Otto didn’t really go to Boca on vacation.
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*Gulp*
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We took a scenic drive down south the other day and ended up at Camp Ellis. A tiny spit of the Maine coast that suffers greatly during storms and high seas.
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So much so that their beach front is now mostly rock and concrete.
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Erosion is threatening homes and drastic measures are being employed. Because when your front lawn looks like this?
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You know something has to be done.
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I constantly wonder why people even bother. The sea will come, and nothing man can do will stop it.
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Waterfront living is wonderful, but water in your living room… not so much.
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https://downeast.com/our-towns/sweet-fleeting-season/
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The weather is warming, the grass is greening and the danger of frost has passed… we hope. (I live in Maine, it can snow on Memorial Day) So now it’s time for blooms!
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There’s nothing I love more than going greenhouse shopping. Being surrounded by bright flowering plants probably drops my blood pressure by 20 points. It also drops my bank balance considerably, but we won’t talk about that.
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I came home with this interesting shrub.
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A weigela florida. Fingers crossed it does well in the spot I picked.
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Two boxes of pretties for my front garden bed…
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Which turns out wasn’t nearly enough. Damn, I’ll have to go shopping again.
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A hanging geranium for the back deck… and for Lord Dudley to stare at. That’s him in the window directly behind it.. plotting revenge on me for keeping him in the house.
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And finally, a bouquet for the kitchen.
Flowers. They always make me smile.
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Well, almost always.
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We have a raccoon who visits nightly. And while he’s a cute, pudgy old fellow… he’s extremely destructive when it comes to our birds feeders. Every morning we wake up to one or two on the ground, often in pieces. A month ago I started taking them down at dusk and putting them in the garage overnight. When I went to bed early last week and forgot? The husband got lazy and left them on the kitchen porch.
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Not a good idea.
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Not at all good.
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The time of year Mainers go absolutely bat shit crazy over a tiny unfurled fern frond.
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The season is short and anxiously awaited. Foraging sites are secret and passed down from one generation to another.
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Cleaning methods are also hotly debated.
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Personally? I can’t stand the slimy little things… I don’t care how you cook them, they taste like swamp. But that’s okay, it just means there are more for you.
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For the first time since we moved here 20 years ago, we had bluebirds!
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They’re such bright, pretty little guys I had to run out and buy a few bags of mealworms to make them feel at home.
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They enjoy suet as well….
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Though you wouldn’t know it by their expressions.
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Is it me?
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Or do these guys just look seriously pissed off?
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Just some random photos I cleared off my camera the other day.
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This was the last sighting of our blue eyed fawn from last year.
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Photos were taken in January and though we’ve seen some full grown deer this month, it’s hard to tell if he’s among them.
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Can you see the visitor in this pic?
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It’s a Red Tail Hawk who uses our backyard as his hunting ground.
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Close proximity to the bird feeders makes for some tasty dove nuggets.
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He’s a young hawk and is still mastering his technique.
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While it’s hard to see piles of feathers litter the ground, these birds of prey really are fabulous creatures. And if he swoops down and claims a certain red rodent….. I can’t say I’ll be heartbroken.
😈
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The husband came home with yet another one of those free newspapers he picks up at the store every time he sees them. He really can’t help himself. But instead of the usual meaningless drivel, this publication had a few interesting factoids.
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A 15 inch flake? That’s almost as wide as Paris Hilton.
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We have Winnie to thank for OMG? Who knew.
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Well, alright then.
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I have no explanation for that whatsoever.
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And now my mind is truly blown.
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While at our local pub last week, a patron who was sitting on the other side of the bar bravely ordered this:
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Yes, you read that correctly. The beer was brewed with gummy bears. Why such an atrocity should take place I don’t know… but he laughed and gagged and promptly pushed the can back at the bartender who attempted to throw it away. I say attempted because you know my husband wasn’t going to let that happen.
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Yes, the beer was pink.
Yes, it tasted as horrible as you would imagine pink gummy bear beer would taste.
But you know what? The husband drank it anyway… because free beer is free beer.
🥴
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The husband’s brother and nephew stopped by yesterday to check out the man cave. (They hadn’t been in the barn in years and were suitably impressed.) Of course we heard them coming from half a mile away because they drove in with the nephew’s new toy.
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His favorite past time is buying and restoring old cars and this one is looking pretty good so far.
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Although I can’t say the same for the nephew. Pre Covid pandemic? He looked like this…
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Now?
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He’s sporting a Grizzly Adams type beard. But he brought us a jar of homemade maple syrup….
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So I guess I can overlook a little ( lot! ) of facial hair.
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He and his family do it the old fashioned way, tapping 32 trees with metal buckets.
He even built an honest to God sap house.
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Where he boils. And boils. And boils…
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In case you’re wondering, it takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. No wonder it’s so bloody expensive. ( Good stuff can go for $100 a gallon )
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River's world..... 