Mt. Desert Island 02/11/2010
 A couple of weeks ago we decided to take a 'detour' to Mt. Desert Island. It's quiet and remote and essentially uninhabited this time of year. In other words, our kind of place! We stopped at Sand Beach and climbed up a path that led to an overlook on the cliff in the background. The temp was around 8 degrees F ...no idea what the windchill was...but the view out over the ocean was worth every minute of frozen faces, feet, and hands!       My son and I decided to ford this stream by jumping it. He fared better than I did. The sand gave way just as I leaped and...well...you get the idea. My hip found the rocks...my foot found the water...but I'll take a giant purple bruise to a refreshing arctic bath any day!  Up the path to an overlook...    A woodpecker's hole in a hollowed out tree...  A gorgeous maze of granite rock...boulders... weathered smooth on the beach   Young Andrew was thrilled to be following the map into all these new locations...and especially thrilled to find so many signs and roads dedicated to bikes. His dream is to make bike routes...just like roads...with exits, and exit ramps, and signage...the whole deal!  A lovely house we passed as we wandered the roads circling the island...I adore this pale green with red and white trim...   And the beautiful old Inn overlooking the ocean in Bar Harbor... but our favorite part was wandering the frozen icicle and snow encrusted beauty of beach and cliffs.  Foraging Fiddleheads 05/17/2009
 Does this look like fiddlehead foraging attire?? Well, I'll tell ya somethin'...those prairie women knew what they were up to when they designed these bonnets! They keep the black flies off better than most hats do with their wide bill over the face and ruffle over the neck in the back. I was wishing I had one myself!  Families in the past held fiddlehead locations as closely held information. If you were to ask an old-timer in Maine where he found his fiddleheads, he'd probably say something like..."the woods".....and that, most likely, would be ALL he'd say!  Well, as coincidence might have it, 'our woods' seem to be a fiddlehead-growin' paradise! My husband has found the 'spots' and we've loaded up bags of these little plants...   The 'fiddlehead'...don't ask me how it got its name....I can guess...and so can you...which would be kinda fun!...is the early unfurled part of a particular type of fern. This is what they look like...   And, yes, I do definitely recommend machetes and babydolls...and perhaps a prairie bonnet and pantaloons.... for the best success in foraging fiddleheads. You can opt out on these crucial necessities if you want to....but just don't blame me if you have a tough time with your fiddlehead foraging... I warned you.... just ignore me if you want.... however I'm no longer responsible...   So go have some fun foraging! You might just hit the fiddlehead jackpot sweepstakes in an area near you!! I'll tell ya how we've prepared 'em tomorrow. Now get to gathering!! : D  Sun and Ski 01/10/2009
 We've had a couple of beautiful sunshine days...even though the temps are pretty chilly! These are our lovely birches...they're as beautiful in the winter as they are in the summer!  I do believe birches are my absolute favorite tree...Anne of Green Gables is correct in her assessment of birch trees...as always!     And the little ski bunnies have taken to the slopes! Yippee!! They've been waiting for this moment! They were bringing up snow and skis even in the summer... yep, as if they could possibly want snow in the gorgeous summertime!!     I've decided to give up my ski pants and go to wool! I shrunk down some woolen pants that are wonderfully warm...as long as I have long-johns underneath...otherwise I can't take the itch! And we're also stocked up with some great thick wool socks. I'm sold on wool for winter! Gortex has its place...but so does wool!! : )  And this little snow bunny didn't want to try her skis yet...but she DID want her ski boots on! Actually, I can totally understand...ski boots are as difficult to get used to as skis are...something I don't always think about!!  And here we go for a nice nature walk...or nature ski...    I love these lavender tones in the snow. The glaciers and water in Canada all have tints of turquoise...everything here in Maine has lavender in it...interesting! Have you ever noticed that..??    I'm enjoying our sunshine...we're supposed to get more snow tomorrow. It'll be nice to watch the feathery flakes fall again...and I'll update you on my indoor projects soon! Enjoy a beautiful weekend!! : D  A Bundle Up Day 10/18/2008
 Beautiful but brisk...quite brisk...I might add...could be the legend for today! That wind goes right through! The sunshine and crunching leaves under your feet...little ones all bundled up in bulky sweaters, mittens, and scarves...acorns falling amidst swirling leaves....bare branches beginning their winter slumber....wispy, waning seed pods fuzzy and fluttering....make braving the briskness all the more rewarding and wonderful!    So bundle up good...or at least heat up that coffee or tea....and come along with us as we revisit one of our favorite nature walks, Manson Park...and see if you can tell how much the foliage has changed over the past few weeks!  Scarf....walking stick...  basket for collecting....ummm, anything interesting....OK, let's go!!     Over the bridge and through the woods to the train tracks we go...   Just not enough leaves around here to choose from, huh!     I guess it's a good thing my camera ran out of batteries! I could've kept this up all day long!  Autumn Nature Walk 10/04/2008
 The Fall day was glorious so Jennifer and I decided to glory in it by taking the children to a nearby park over in Pittsfield that wends next to the river (yes, there are rivers everywhere up here...and I can never remember their names...much less how to spell them!) and over an old suspended bridge that is an adventure in itself! Come along with us...you're gonna LOVE this walk!    Yeah, the bridge is a little shifty...and a little long...which translates into a little spooky for wee ones! But he braved it just fine!       I took like 10 of these shots of the children...of course who can decide which one's the best...??? Not me!  The late summer, early fall wildflowers are still full of bloom...     As we meandered back through the woods, I spotted this moss covered log. Aren't the greens simply surreal? How do you capture that kind of color?    After we crossed back over the bridge, we found this fuzzy, very white caterpillar crossing our path. The fuzzy ones are usually moth caterpillars. As you can see, we need to bone up on our nature study because I cannot tell you what type of moth it becomes. But we will find out! Isn't he exotic..??  In this little puddle-pond was a cute medium-sized frog. We thought that she would scare the thing by poking it with the grass stalk. Boy were we wrong! That little frog attacked and bit at that grass with a vengeance! It was NOT gonna give up its perch...no way!  Hard to see, but that's its big mouth chompin' down on that grass! Feisty frog!  Now they're off...to the playground! A Meadow Romp 08/20/2008
 See that thin little line mowed in the grass there? You'll hopefully see it better in the next photos. These are the fields behind our log home site where the woods continue to slope on down to the marshy lake below. I mowed a path to the back in an effort to make the back of our land a little more user-friendly and accessible. As long as you have a nice breeze and bug spray, you're pretty much set! We only had the breeze and didn't bother with the bug spray, yet we were undaunted...and the sunshine made up for it all! This was Monday and we decided to go back in search of some ripened blackberries!    And here's the fork in the road....one path goes over to that side over there...  Doesn't it look inviting? Isn't it just begging you..."come follow me...come see where I go!"  We followed the one to the other side where we had spied some low vines near the edge of the woods with lots of berries--easy to get to! There was also a fallen down rock fence back in there that I wanted to inspect a little closer.  There they go...first come...first serve!!  Hmmm....now where was that spot...??? It was right in here somewhere! We did manage to find it again and scarf down a few black ones but most of them are still on the green and red side--not quite there yet. But we'll be back! We see blackberry cobbler and buckets of blackberries just calling our names! And I'm thinkin' that rock fence has lots of future potential, too! Nature Walks 06/17/2008
 Although the weather is still a bit cool-ish and the bugs have decided it's definitely OK to come out to buzz, whir, and bite now, we've been excited to get out for some honest-to-goodness nature walks!   We love Anna Botsford Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study (original copyright 1911) in which she does a masterful job of explaining the natural world in a way that's interesting and easy to understand--and even laces in some poetry to boot! My kind of nature book!  We discovered a teeny pond at the edge of some woods across a field from our house that provides fascinating fodder for all sorts of 'natural' adventures--even if it's just dropping rocks in the mud for splat contests. How long do they keep at this kinda thing? A VERY LONG time! Long enough that I become quite convinced that Cutter's insect repellent was never actually tested in the state of Maine--or on bugs that particularly like scalps, neck, and ears. However, we'll take these flying ones to chiggers ANY day. And if you don't know what chiggers are, just go to TX and walk through some tall grass--you'll soon have a very up-close and personal knowledge of what chiggers are.  Of course Daddy's nature walks are even more thrilling than Mommy's tamer (lamer) ones...they get into the furthermost reaches of the back lands of our property with 6 ' beaver dams, mysterious splashing sounds, and bugs that threaten to carry them all away! But our kiddos never want to leave--and always beg for more! |  A Winter Journal
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