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Our backyard herd is growing.
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We started with two, then five…
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Now there are ten, sometimes eleven.
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*Note to self- buy more deer grain*
😊
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Oh deer.
Tag Archives: nature
This and that.
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I love the blues and whites of a winter morning.
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Or at least I did, until yesterday’s rain melted it all.
😫
I do not love the fact that the New York Times locked me out of the mini crossword and the tiles game I’d been playing for free until I updated my mobile app.
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Boo to that.
On a happier note, there was a new bird sighting at Casa River.
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Not a great picture, but he flew off too quickly for more than one.
Evening Grosbeak.
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This sounds like my perfect retirement plan.
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Sign me up!
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Oh, hell no.
I’ve never fired a gun, but that abomination might make me reach for one.
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This.
This is why I never begrudge our grey squirrels a meal.
💕
And finally, just in time for Christmas… an epic gingerbread house fail from my pickle algorithm.
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Just….
No.
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Deer me.
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It’s that time of year!
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Temperatures have dropped and the ground is covered in snow.
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The deer are back…
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And they’re hungry.
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Such beauties.
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We love them.
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❤️
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Critters
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The temperatures are dropping in Maine and our backyard visitors are feeling it.
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They’re also probably feeling like they’re being watched…
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Because they are.
Quite regularly.
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I saw this and thought, damn. Our raccoons are total slackers.
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Seriously, all ours do is eat and poo… and occasionally knock over the bird bath.
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We don’t have kids, so I’d better get to work on our trash pandas.
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Sunrise…
With cat.
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Squirrel, defying gravity.
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Yes, you.
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Our one little opossum, who only shows up at night.
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Squirrel central.
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We’ve had a banner crop of grey squirrels this year.
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I know people hate them because they eat the bird seed, but I love watching their acrobatics.
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And they can shimmy up a pole faster than any stripper.
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Our guys are well fed.
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And don’t even bother burying anything for winter.
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😊
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Storm and fog
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We’ve been having some crazy weather lately.
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As you can see from the storm clouds rolling in around our property.
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High winds and rain.
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At times it was downright spooky.
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The next morning?
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Fog.
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Which is always hard to photograph.
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What trees are for.
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Lord Dudley Mountcatten is a fair weather cat. He doesn’t like heat, humidity, wind, rain, cold, fog or snow. Summer is too hot for backyard walkies, winter is too cold.
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But fall? When the leaves are turning and the air is crisp and cool?
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He’s totally down with that.
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And gets so frisky he thinks he can climb trees.
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Which he really can’t. Most of the time he just sits in them looking puzzled.
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Oh, he tries.
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But more often than not, he gets stuck.
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And requires careful plucking from between the branches.
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He’s awfully cute when he does it though.
😊
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Autumn leaves and antiques.
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Another beautiful fall day called for another scenic drive.
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I’m sorry, but autumn in New England is hard to beat.
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The air is crisp and the trees give us a splendid tableau of color.
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It also means the last gasp of yard sales and antique store sales that my husband can’t drive by. This particular shop had auxiliary rooms made out of tractor trailer boxes and were filled with vintage horrors.
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Ack!
😱
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Wow.
Please note the base table of this lamp lights up as well.
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Inside, my husband combed the shelves for treasure but thankfully came out empty handed.
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I’d much rather view foliage.
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Statue of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain at Bowdoin College. Hero of Gettysburg, he taught rhetoric and modern languages as a professor and later served as the college’s president. His home is across the street.
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Squirrel gymnastics.
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It’s been squirrel central at Casa River lately.
Our beef feeder pole is out in the open, and with our resident hawk patrolling the skies we usually only have a single squirrel show up to nosh.
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Seven is a record.
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But after something scared the others away one brave little guy took advantage.
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I know people hate squirrels because they eat the bird seed, but we’re equal opportunity feeders here and all critters are welcome.
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I enjoy watching their gymnastic performances.
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Rats with bushy tails?
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Maybe.
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But they’re still sweeties.
💕.
An autumn day.
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A weekend in Maine in the fall calls for a scenic drive to enjoy the glorious foliage, so that’s what we did.
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Stumbling on a covered bridge was a happy surprise.
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On our travels, the husband saw a sign for an antique tractor show and craft fair at a local farm so we detoured there.
Not our best idea.
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Yes, there was a farm.
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And yes there were some old tractors.
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Some in use.
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And while there were two miniature horses…
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And a “dining room” with the worst fried dough I’ve ever had…
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(Hard as a rock, crunchy and tasteless)
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The “craft show” consisted of fresh vegetables, a few tables of American flag boards, patriotic signs and multiple tables of right wing propaganda. There were candidates handing out pamphlets and political ephemera, trying their best to swell the MAGA base.
These are just not our people y’all. And while I respect their right to be there, I have to admit I wasn’t expecting to be arguing about restricting voting rights and ICE roundups at a craft show.
My husband is a veteran of a certain age. He has grey hair and wears a Marine Corps hat. That’s usually all it takes for people to assume he loves the Mango Monarch … which couldn’t be further from the truth.
They kept trying to draw him into discussion but my guy just brushed them off and didn’t engage, other than to make it clear where he stood.
Color me surprised.
We departed soon after and got back on the road…
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Where the husband found a barn sale.
And can you see what’s in his hands?
Another wooden ruler.
🥴
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Which called for a cocktail and some nibbles.
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And more scenic beauty.
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River's world..... 