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I never used to be an early riser. When my husband and I were first married you’d rarely see me out of bed before 8:30.
Now that I’m older and hopefully wiser, I greet the dawn more often than not.
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It rarely disappoints.
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❤️
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Good morning!
Tag Archives: photos
I found a good one.
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Yes, I tried another recipe I found online.
I can’t help myself at this point, but at least this one turned out to be tasty.
I don’t know the name of it so let’s just say it’s an Italian-y tortellini soup.
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Easy to make and quick… at a little over half an hour cooking time… I’d say with a few tweaks this one’s a keeper.
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Ingredients:
½ bunch kale, stems removed and leaves
chopped
⅓ cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound Italian sausage, casing removed
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium sweet onion, diced
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to
taste
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 cups chicken stock
1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
Instructions:
Heat olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven
over medium heat. Add Italian sausage and cook
until browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure
to crumble the sausage as it cooks; drain excess
fat.
Stir in garlic, onion and Italian seasoning. Cook,
stirring frequently, until onions have become
translucent, about 2-3 minutes; season with salt
and pepper, to taste.
Whisk in flour until lightly browned, about 1 minute.
Gradually whisk in chicken stock and tomato
sauce. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer,
stirring occasionally, until reduced and slightly
thickened, about 10 minutes.
Stir in tortellini; cover and cook until tender,
about 5-7 minutes.
Stir in kale until wilted, about 1-2 minutes. Stir
in heavy cream and basil until heated through,
about 1 minute; season with salt and pepper, to
taste.
Serve immediately.
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I only changed one thing when I made this and I’m sure you can guess what that was.
Yes, I axed the noxious green devil’s weed called kale and substituted spinach.
When I make this again I think I’ll cut back on the sausage. If you like it really meaty, leave it as is… but a little sausage goes a long way for me.
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Royal feline or arctic fox? You be the judge…
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Since the renovation project is at a standstill, walkies have resumed at Casa River.
And with cooler weather coming on that means mouse hunting.
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Lord Dudley Mountcatten can hear them scurrying under the foliage and through the rock wall and after long patient observation…
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He’s airborne.
Straight up in the blink of an eye.
Just like an arctic fox.
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He chases birds in the burning bush as well but that’s not nearly as entertaining, though it is more colorful this time of year.
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No worries, he never catches any.
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Catching His Lordship in full arctic fox mode is difficult but I managed one good shot.
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Unfortunately for him none of these flying leaps resulted in a captured mouse.
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Maybe next time…
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Happy Halloween.
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Just a few holiday decorations from the state of Maine.
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One must have a sense of humor when using skeletons.
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🤣
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I love my state.
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It’s a sad irony that the following post was scheduled for today. A mere 41 hours after a gunman murdered 18 of my fellow Mainers.
Our beloved state is still reeling from the shock and my area is still sheltering in place. Crazy times.
My neighbor posted this on FB today.
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Another child has lost another parent. It’s heartbreaking… and no state, no city, no town can ever be immune.
We thought we were.
We were wrong.
And now… my post.
Even with all the bad luck we’ve been having trying to renovate our house, there’s no place I’d rather make my home than Maine. It’s laid back, scenically beautiful, has abundant seafood and the most craft breweries per capita in the nation.
Here are a few other reasons I love it.
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That’s my kind of library.
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🤣
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Thanks mom.
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Someday I’m going to have to drive by this woman’s house and take a peek at her gardens. Judging from the amount of flowers she gives away, it must be amazing.
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Halloween is right around the corner and these are some pretty impressive arachnids.
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Yes sir.
That’s a spider.
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Dinner in Bath.
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When we were finished finding a suitable microwave oven replacement, we strolled down the street.
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Downtown Bath is a quaint waterfront area filled with quirky shops and restaurants and we were hungry.
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J R Maxwells us a family run place that’s been a mainstay for 44 years. We’ve had many meals there… some were perfect, others less so.
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Starting with their signature Cosmo…
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I opted for a less than satisfying cup of clam chowder. Thankfully the homemade bread made up for the soupy disappointment.
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Bath is a shipbuilding town with a rich maritime history and the restaurant’s decor reflects that.
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But while the husband’s prime rib looked wonderful it turned out to be chewy and flavorless. Talk about disappointing.
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Thankfully I ordered crab cake stuffed jumbo shrimp and they were heavenly. Rich and buttery, filled with tender crab. A definite win.
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Photo of the second largest employer in the state, Bath Iron Works. A defense contractor that builds the Navy’s battleships.
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They’re so innocent. Until they’re not…
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Lord Dudley Mountcatten likes to nap in the sun.
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He’ll happily follow the beams of light around the house and looks oh so cute doing it.
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As I was reading in the living room the other day, he snoozed in front of the television cabinet.
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So quiet. So innocent.
Until I heard a scraping sound…
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Cats.
They’re always up to something.
😉
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I really wanted it to be true…
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Of all the awful real life pickle abominations my algorithms make me view, I finally found one worth my time.
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The Pickle Sisters!
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This was just silly enough to be true…they didn’t call them the roaring twenties without reason…. but sadly it wasn’t. Further research showed it to be a complete fallacy.
Very disappointing, that.
I mean, look how beautiful they are in technicolor.
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A lemon grows in Maine.
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Have you ever been asked to babysit a lemon?
I was.. and can now scratch it off the things I never thought I’d do bucket list.
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The lemon in question belongs to this little lemon tree owned and lovingly pampered by my neighbor who went out of town for a week. Though indoors, it’s a thirsty devil and requires a full pitcher of water every two days.
Living in the often frozen north, you don’t see many tropical fruit trees thriving in my state, even if they live inside… but this beauty is doing wonderfully well.
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If you look closely, you’ll see there are actually two lemons. And while I’m not sure what her plans are for these two precious pieces of citrus she’s been obsessing over for the nearly six years it’s taken for them to arrive…. but I hope it’s something special.
Never having grown a lemon tree, I was floored by the power of their blossom’s scent. It was positively divine.
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Ooh la la! I wish I could have bottled it and brought it home… but I dared not. With my luck plucking a flower would have disturbed some delicate balance and I’d be blamed for ruining the harvest.
😉
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Fryeburg Fair fall leaves finale… finally.
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These big guys can be prickly,
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Like this one who head butted my husband right after I snapped a picture.
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When they’ve had enough, they let you know it in no uncertain terms.
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And standing behind them?
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Not always a good idea. Let’s just say this one had to do his business and leave it at that.
By 5:00pm, we’d been walking around the fair for 7 hours, it was raining and we decided to call it quits.
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Leaving the gate, we took a right instead of a left and opted for the long way home.
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Maine, by way of New Hampshire….
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Up and over Evan’s Notch.
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A pass cut through the White Mountains.
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Again, there was mostly muted foliage …
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And not the vivid bright colors we usually enjoy.
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But even muted, it’s lovely.
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River's world..... 