Fall is here and leaves are turning….though the temperatures have crept back up to summer numbers. 82 degrees is not the crisp cool air I love, but in honor of the season I wanted to share a few glimpses around my state. .
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It’s a two hour ride to this farm that takes corn mazes seriously…
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And sadly we’ve never been. Doesn’t stop me from being impressed though.
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Good news … as long as the decorations don’t block the windshield and mirrors? You and your skeletons are fine.
Our farming neighbors went away for a few nights recently and asked us to watch their wonderful dog Peaches.
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She’s the quintessential lovable mixed breed and we’ve loved her since she was a hurricane rescue 13 years ago.
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Unfortunately, Lord Dudley Mountcatten did not share our enthusiasm for a house guest.
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Peaches is extremely mellow and very used to cats. She doesn’t chase or pay the least bit of attention to them.. but His Lordship still couldn’t figure out why this creature was in his house.
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Bad timing there. Lord Dudley was so close… and then someone knocked on the door.
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It’s a credit to Peaches temperament that our cat would even be in the same room.
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Of course the fact that she spent a good deal of her time with us sleeping might have had something to do with that.
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But I still think I’m going to pay a price for disturbing His Royal Highness’s routine.
After our visit to the fair, we tried a place I’d been hearing good things about for dinner….the Old Mill Pub in Skowhegan.
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It didn’t look like much and since the inside dining room was packed, we headed outside.
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Where the view from our table wasn’t half bad.
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Things started well with a fabulous blueberry mule.
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And an amazing French Onion soup for the husband.
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This is his go to appetizer so when you’ve tried hundreds, you always appreciate when it’s done right.
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Dinner for me was yummy maple bourbon glazed steak tips with garlic mashed red potatoes and sautéed broccoli (not pictured) …. and a light and lovely lemon butter haddock and mashed for the spouse.
We’re not often in this part of Maine, but I’m putting the Old Mill Pub on my list of places to revisit if we are.
Because it wouldn’t be a fair without some chickens.
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There were quite a few prize winning divas strutting their stuff.
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But this all black rooster took the prize for bizarre.
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The next blue ribbon winner?
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Must have won for bad hair day.
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How do these Polish even see?
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There were fancy pigeons, but to be honest these made me sad.
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They’ve clearly been bred for over exaggerated foot feathers and the poor things could hardly walk.
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But the peacocks were lovely.
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And this duck who decided no one could drink because he wanted a bath was funny.
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We ended with a very curious goose who followed me all around the enclosure. I believe he was for sale and wanted to come home with us… but alas, my husband refused.
When we visit a fair, my husband is always drawn to the museums of old tools. Partly because they’re interesting, but mostly because he’s old enough to remember using some of them.
He loves checking out the antique tractors but this particular brand was new even to him.
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Cockshutt?
A more colorful name than John Deere that’s for sure.
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No matter how many times I tell him or how many warning signs he reads… he’s always touching things when he’s not supposed to. If he did this with women instead of old farm implements.. we’d have a problem.
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I always wonder where they find these fabulous wagons and carriages. Some of them are in amazingly good shape.
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Ouch!
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Clearly this museum has a sense of humor.
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A library and one room schoolhouse from the early 1800’s.
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The rig in the front of this picture is an early snow press. There were no plows to clear the roads back in the day, they just tried to flatten it as best they could.
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My husband’s father used one of these on their farm. Any guesses what it is?
Maine has a lot of agricultural fairs every autumn and over the years we’ve visited quite a few. Farmington was one we’d never hit so last week we drove west.
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This county’s fair is relatively small and focuses heavily on community involvement. Prize winning pumpkins and homemade jams were in the forefront.
As were school children’s projects.
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You have to admit this one made a valid point.
There was an entire upper floor devoted to quilt, knitting, photography and art contests. There was also a large sign stating fair volunteers did not judge or pick the winners. I though that was odd until I saw some of the winners…
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I wouldn’t want to be blamed for that either.
As we stepped out of the expo building, food.
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I was disappointed not to order a fresh lemonade from the giant lemon concession stand, but alas it was closed.
I did score my favorite go to the fair treat though.
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Fried dough with cinnamon and powdered sugar. You only eat these things at the fair and you really can’t explain why… but damn. It was good.
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Inexplicably there were multiple fried pickle stands, all boasting to be the biggest and most famous. Bypassing those we wandered around until we found something that wasn’t battered and deep fried and settled on a picnic table with our wraps to enjoy the show.
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Not being twang loving blue grass fans, we ate our lunch and left our seats to those more in tune with the genre.
I just bought the two ingredients and will report back if it’s truly magical.
Have you ever laughed at your spouse/significant other for being horticulturally challenged? I did the other day when we visited a friend and my husband asked if I had any of these bushy plants in our garden.
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Uh, no… but it is legal here now.
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Remember the photos I posted of that fantastic sunset we had before the recent hurricane? Take note of the giant ice cream cone trash can on the left and read the town’s FB page the day after the storm
As you know we have a beautifully smooth new driveway. It’s dark black and lovely… as it should be for $20,000… but I think we were making the road in front of our house look bad.
That’s the only explanation I can come up with for this..
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A paving crew….
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Redoing a ten mile stretch of road to match our driveway.
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This pleases the color coordinator in me greatly.
Our vehicles suspensions are saying thank you as well since Maine pot holes are epic and can swallow you whole.
As can our hideous new ditch shown here with uncoordinated grass.
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Where there's only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
River's world..... 