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In Maine… you never what you’ll find around the next bend in the road.
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Yesterday it was a rather large flock of wild turkeys.
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Who were in absolutely no hurry to move out of my way.
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Since the husband chases every one of their brethren who show up under our bird feeders out of the yard due to prodigious amounts of poo….
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I was happy to stop and watch them amble by.
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Our resident herd is back.
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I hadn’t seen them in a while but they came tromping across the back yard looking for a snack early enough the other evening for me to grab a few pics.
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There were 8 total. Does, youngsters…
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And the harem master… who honestly, is a bit of an ass. No one else is allowed to eat until he’s had his share.
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Except this brave little fellow…
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❤️
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There are a lot of reasons we love living in this house.
It’s in the fabulous state of Maine.
It’s in a small town in the country.
It’s surrounded by good neighbors, as well as horses, goats and chickens.
It has enough elbow room so we don’t have to see those neighbors unless we want to.
It has a steady parade of visiting wildlife.
But best of all?
We have perfect sunrises out the back windows and perfect sunsets out the front.
And when you wake up to this?
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It’s hard to find fault with your world.
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Good morning!
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❤️
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I’m so glad winter finally showed up. Cold temps and snow! It warms my little menopausal heart, as well as cools off the rest of me.
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There’s the husband shoveling a path to the bird feeders so our feathered friends don’t go hungry. He’s such a good egg.
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We use this table as snow gauge. It piles up so perfectly, how could we not?
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Once the snow caps these boxwood shrubs, the birds take cover underneath. It drives Lord Dudley Mountcatten insane.
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Sunrise over the backyard reveals the deer superhighway.
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We don’t have virgin fresh fallen snow for long.
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❤️ 🦌 ❤️
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This winter season started off with a whimper. No snow, warm temps and entirely too much rain. But the other day?
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The sky started looking angry… and before I blinked?
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We had our first few inches that stuck.
And yesterday?
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An all day storm that really racked up the white stuff. I loved it, but our backyard birds probably disagreed.
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Poor little things. Their feet have to be cold.
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It came down for a solid 13 hours and now it finally feels like winter!
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Guess we won’t be grilling out for a while.
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How much did we get? About a foot, which was enough for our farming neighbor to come plow us out with his tractor last night.
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I love our community.
I love our state.
I love winter!
❄️ ❤️ ❄️
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Lord Dudley Mountcatten’s idea of playing in the snow usually looks like this:
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But after the first small dump of the season last week the husband took his highness out for a winter stroll.
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But as much as Dudley loves the fresh air and being outside, cold feet is not his thing.
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So he found the one bare patch of stone wall…
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Loved on his favorite rock….
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And carefully avoiding as much snow as he could, made his way back inside.
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Lord Mountcatten is a fair weather feline and was pleased when all the snow melted the next day.
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The husband and I went out for a booze filled leisurely lunch the other day at a place I’ve been wanting to try for a while. It’s the sister restaurant to one of our favorites so I had high expectations.
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Right across the street from LL Beans in the busy village of Freeport…the Tuscan Brick Oven Bistro is always packed with a long wait to be seated. We thought showing up at 2:00 in the afternoon would afford us some elbow room, but no. There was a 45 minute wait for a table which made my husband take a direct route to the bar.
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My husband does not wait well. Or at all to be honest.
No matter, I started with a lovely cranberry sage margarita which though tasty, was served in a disappointingly small old fashioned glass.
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And if I ever wondered why I was having a hard time finding vintage beer, wine or whisky crates… one look behind this bar provided the answer.
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A spiced pear margarita was round two…. and was served alongside my crab “cake” appetizer. I ask you – how can a tiny round lump of crab ever be considered a cake? These balls were delicious, but at $23 were a bit of a pricey nibble.
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Lunch was a wonderful 4 mushroom funghi pizza for me and a shrimp scampi for the husband. His lunch portion contained 4 shrimp for $29. I’d hate to see the dinner.
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For me the best part was cocktail #3.
APPLE OF MY EYE
apple infused captain morgan white rum
lime juice * cinnamon simple *
white cranberry juice
Ooh la la! It might sound like a weird combination but it was alcoholic apple pie in a glass. Be still my heart!
For the husband this was the kicker –
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I don’t care for cheesecake, but it did sound divine.
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He said it was literally the best cheesecake he’s ever had… and that’s saying something because he loves the stuff.
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With tip, a $218 lunch.
Christ. That’s what I used to pay for two weeks worth of groceries when we got married. How times change..
🥺
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Here’s the last batch of old family photos I’ll share.
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From right to left – my uncle, my aunt and presumably my father… theintrepid butterfly hunter.
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My great aunt and an unidentified child, perhaps my aunt. From the look of their clothes, I’m guessing they were not ardent PETA supporters.
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These next few shots are of the Henley Regatta.
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Part of the English social season, the annual rowing competition originated in 1839 and takes place on the River Thames.
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It also looks like a good excuse to buy a new hat.
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My uncle and aunt. Because no well dressed toddler should be without a parasol.
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My grandmother, still not smiling… with my aunt and uncle in their garden. Sadly, my uncle was another relative I never met. He was killed in a car accident on Christmas Day at the age of 30.
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My grandfather in the garden.
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And finally, another garden party shot of Wednesday Addams with my father and uncle.
🤣
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I saw this on Facebook over the holidays and thought… how weird.
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What a silly cat, afraid of tangerines.
And then I put down a bowl of leftover milk with a few soggy Rice Krispies in front of His Lordship and watched him freeze in fear.
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He was having no part of it and ran under the bed shortly after I snapped the picture.
Cats are weird.
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We had a small amount of the white stuff last night and crazy as it sounds, it was the first to actually stick on the ground this winter.
In celebration of that I thought I would share a few glimpses out our windows this morning…. because sunrise over snow is pretty damned spectacular.
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After I posted a few of these to Facebook, I saw our farming neighbor had posted some as well. Here’s his shot, with our house and barn in the background.
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River's world..... 