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He surely is a handsome devil.
.
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Strutting out of the woods with his son.
.
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Always wary of the neighbor’s dogs.
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And the crazy lady with the camera.
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The time of year I worry about him is almost upon us.
.
.
And as much as autumn is my favorite season….
.
.
It brings with it rifles and bullets and trophy hunters.
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.
And I’ll fear for our beautiful visitors.
Our big fellow made an appearance last night.
Moseying on up the back lawn.
Nibbling along the route.
Fresh grass pickings are slim with everything turning brown from our drought..
Except for over the septic tank.
Even he knows the grass is always greener there.
Let’s start with a beautiful picture I snapped the other night when we took a ride up the coast.
Maine summer on the ocean.
You can’t beat it.
Our neighbor invited us over to see their tree house up close and personal.
Yes, the tree adjacent tree house I complained about in my blog a while back.
So… which one of you weasels ratted me out?
Adverbs.
Or rather, the death of them… is driving me to drink.
Real delicious?
Make the next one a double.
Grocery store bouquets.
Because sometimes a girl just has to buy herself flowers.
Socks… for my table?
Wonder if the dryer will eat those as well.
And finally, because you know I couldn’t resist….
You’re welcome.
And woodchucks eating watermelon is too damned cute not to share.
I never thought about giving watermelon to the chucks.
But a bowl of it got pushed to the back the fridge recently and I couldn’t see throwing it away.
Let me tell you….
There were some happy little chuckers that afternoon.
Until the last piece was in sight.
Then it was every chuck for themselves.
Our resident buck was here the other evening.
Up from the woods with last year’s progeny in tow.
The twin fawns are now young bucks themselves.
Before we knew it the whole family was here.
Chasing each other and ruining my shots.
This year’s Bambi.
And his/her dad.
Yes sir…
There are some good genes running through this family.
One minute you’re happily eating dinner side by side with your woodchuck brother.
Until he realizes his lettuce and carrot tops might not be as tasty as what you have….
And moves in on your watermelon.
If looks could kill.
That’s one dead chuck.
Because it’s time to clear out the photo files again.
Momma chuck has been packing on the pounds with an eye toward winter..
But it doesn’t stop her from scrambling up and over the rock wall quicker than I can move my shutter finger.
I have a feeling at least one of her two remaining offspring will be sticking around when the snow flies.
I keep catching him rooting around under the daylilies, filling his mouth with dead leaves and making off for parts unknown with nesting material.
Last year’s fawn comes every night, and since his new antlers are decidedly unbranched, I’ve taken to calling him the antenna buck. Because I’m old… and remember when you had to wiggle those things every afternoon to watch Dark Shadows.
Though these next two pics were at the outermost limit of my zoom, I’m including them because we rarely see momma turkey and her young.
She raises them in the woods and neighboring meadows, never crossing our large expanse of open lawn.
And finally, a few Bambi shots.
Because they’re so damned sweet, I can’t help it.
Still stealing deer food.
And when it’s too big to finish in one sitting?
They’re still planting.
And I’m still cleaning up scattered dirt.
And squirrel poo.
Help me out with this…
Aren’t teenagers supposed to grow up and move out?
A slightly smaller bounty this week as the neighbor we split with liked more of the offerings than we did.
But there were fairy tale eggplants, so I should probably start this blog with Once Upon a Time.
Once Upon a Time in Maine…. a local grocery store advertised their weekly ware.
Squid jigs at the grocery store.
You know you’re in Maine when….
And meanwhile down at the River ranch, there was pie.
Glorious lattice crust fresh blueberry pie.
No, I couldn’t wait for it to cool completely.
And yes, I had pie for breakfast the next morning.
If that’s wrong?
I don’t want to be right.
We’re extremely blue at Casa River.
And loving every minute of it.
Our bushes are full of ripe fruit and we can’t pick fast enough.
The neighbors get a bowl.
The postman gets a bowl.
If y’all lived closer, you’d get a bowl as well.
After picking, it was time to dig out my favorite blueberry recipes.
The coffee cake was wonderful.
Bursting with fat juicy fruit.
Unfortunately, the cobbler didn’t cobble.
The berries were so big the batter didn’t squeeze up through, but sat at the bottom and made cake instead.
Of course, now that I think about it….
There’s nothing wrong with upside down cobbler.
It still tastes fabulous.
So if you care to share your favorite recipe…. I’m all ears.
And blue fingers.
For Boo, as requested.
