A Day At The Beaches

Couldn’t resist taking a picture of this old time bird bath.  Makes for a nice peaceful summahtime scene.  Now for a nice glass of iced tea.

Miss Judy J wasn’t feeling exactly chipper, so I took my chair, my Nook book, my camera, and a bottle of “sodie pop” and headed for the beach(es).   Do you remember the old segment on the Wandering America website called “From Darrell’s Chair”?   Well here is a series of pictures from Belfast City Park beach that are literally taken from Darrell’s chair.

After spending some time at City Park reading, I took a little drive to Kelly’s Cove in Bayside which is part of Northport, Maine (Is that confusing, or what?). 

Now, would you come and visit Judy and I, way up here in the great state of Maine, if we lived here?  There’d be room for an RV or two parked right next to the shore.

Today is going to be another good day, before the rain sets in again, so the four of us are setting sail to points unknown.  Check in again tomorrow for some more pictures from Vacationland.

Take Care Until Next Time  - - - - - -

Ooh Rah!!!

If it’s Sunday, it’s church.  We attended Mike and Shauna’s church in Rockport.  Following the worship service we had a pot luck dinner celebrating the graduation of a half dozen students – three from high school, two from college, and one graduate student.

Being that Mike and Shauna had set up / clean up duty, we arrived around nine o’clock and didn’t leave until close to two.  It was almost three by the time we returned home, so the rest of the afternoon was spent reading and napping (not necessarily in that order).  Mike and Shauna returned for the evening service while Judy and I played hooky and “stood” to home.

Did you see the article about the 77 year old retired Vietnam Vet Marine Chaplain in Ohio who is being taken to court for flying the American Flag in his front yard?  A representative from the Home Owners Association says he is in violation of the HOA’s rules and must remove it by Monday (that’s today) or the Association will take legal action.

Apparently flags can be flown if they are attached to the house, but it’s the 15 feet high flag pole that is in violation.  The HOA’s representative stated that they couldn’t allow “rouge home owners” doing their own thing within the association.  Someone has waaaaay tooooo much time on his hands.

Wouldn’t it be a whole lot simpler (and make more sense) to just amend the HOA rules to allow displaying the American Flag on a flag pole?  Then there would be “peace in the valley” all around.  Makes you wonder; “if brains were dynamite, would some people have enough of them to blow their noses?”

It’s the Barney Fife syndrome, give some people a little authority and they want to rule the world.  The Marine Vet had better be prepared to “Semper Fi” because the HOA rep may just take the bullet out of his pocket, put it into his legality gun, and pull the legal action trigger.  But I really don’t think that that old HOA snake, “Mr. Pots, has a pit to hiss in!”   So fly ‘em high, Major!  While the rest of us just salute the HOA rules with the “Fickle Finger Of Fate” award.  “Ooh Rah!!”

Well, the sun has risen and so must I.  It’s time to decide what play clothes to put on for today.  I think a nice walk and a day at the beach is in order.  Later this afternoon we’ll have a cookout; burgers on the grill – yum, yum.  Check in tomorrow to see how it all unfolds.

So, Take Care Until Next Time  - - - - - - - - 

A Gunkholing We Will Go

A gunkholing we will go, a gunkholing we will go, hi ho the derrie-o, a gunkholing we will go!  For those of you that have never heard the term gunkholing, here’s the meaning.  Gunkholing is a boating term referring to a type of cruising in shallow or shoal water, meandering from place to place, spending the nights in coves. The term refers to the gunk, or mud, typical of the creeks, coves, marshes, sloughs, and rivers that are referred to as gunkholes. (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – highlighted phrase is mine)

Saturday, if you remember from yesterday’s blog entry, began with thunder storms and rain.  Well, the thunder storms continued through the morning so we just “stood” inside and read or played on our ‘puters.  By twelve thirty the storms had passed and it quit raining so the four of us could go outside and play.  We decided to take a trip to Rockland, gunkholing along the way.

The first stop was at Camden Custom Embroidery to see if we could find a couple of denim shirts for Judy and I.  This is where we had our “Wandering America” hats embroidered a couple of years ago.  With the “mission accomplished” we took to the streets once again continuing on toward Rockland.

Our next stop was at an antique shop, the Marketplace, in Rockland.  Nothing in there said, “Take me home”, however, ‘twas fun to look at all the “old stuff” and remember that “we had one of those when we were kids!”  “Mom had a set of bowls just like that, but she didn’t pay $62 for them!”  “Look at these old Life magazines.”

Along the return trip home we stopped at a couple of “organic/natural” food stores, the Farmers General Store and the Maine Cheese store, as well as a consignment shop, the Consignment Cottage, in Rockport.  Organic/natural food is pricey but very tasty.  The Consignment Cottage is an “upscale” second hand clothing store with good “stuff” and very reasonable prices.  Shauna found a few items that she “needed”, but the rest of us came away empty handed.

“Home again, home again, jiggity jig!”  We all decided that after cleaning up the fish chowdah for lunch, we weren’t really hungry for a big dinnah so we just had some smoked trout and cheese and crackers along with a piece of apple pie – we’re big kids so we can eat what we want, when we want, and we don’t have to clean up our plates if we don’t want to. 

So that’s pretty much how we spent our day.  Take Care Until Next Time  - - - - - -

A Hundred And One English Setters

“Raindrops on my roof make me sleepy!”  We awoke to claps of thunder and pitter pattering on the roof this morning.  I just pulled the sheet up to my chinney chin chin, rolled over, and commenced snoring once more.  Both Judy and I slept in an extra half hour this morning.

The past two days have been overcast and damp, but today is threatening more rain.  Yesterday felt like a fish chowdah kinda day so that’s exactly what we had for last night’s dinnah – a George Patterson Signature Fish Chowdah.  My brother whipped up a nice home made apple pie for dessert.  Someday, my brother and I’ll make someone real fine wives.

The four of us visited the Farmer’s Market which is held in a parking lot down on the waterfront.  Being that gardens are just beginning to spring up here in Maine, there wasn’t a whole lot of produce available.  But we did buy some goat cheese; Shauna bought a grilling cheese and I bought an aged goat cheese.

Judy has been wanting a new denim shirt so we stopped by Reny’s Department Store (we refer to it as The House of René).  Yes, they have no shirts (denim that is), however, Judy, being the astute shopper that she is, managed to leave with a few Christmas gifts – clever woman, remarkable girl!!

Then it was a stop by Hannafords to acquire the necessities for making the said fish chowdah as well as a few other odds and ends, here and there.  Once we put our wares away, we joined Mike and Shauna for some BLTs after which we hunkered down for some reading time.  Some of us took katt naps, but I won’t mentioned any names (‘tweren’t me though).

Steve, my cousin Diane’s husband, stopped over to tell us that the puppies were playing outside.  Steve and Diane live across the street from Mike and Shauna.  They have two English Setters, Pip and Emma, who just had a litter of six puppies (a few shy of a hundred and one, but it got your attention). 

Here is Judy holding one of the puppies – he almost came home with us, but Katie and Alex vetoed the idea. 

Steve has managed to get his hands on another one of the little rascals.  They’re quick, ya know!

Here’s yours truly holding one of the little dears.  They sure are wiggly little things, but do love human interaction.

Getting puppies to pose is worse than trying to march katts in a parade.  They’re just like jello, moving all the time.  Here are three in the Whine Cellar (they’d rather be outside with the humaniods so they’re whinning).

The puppies are six weeks old and will be ready for new homes in two more weeks.  You can have one if you’re ready to part with $1,200 – that’s dawg gone expensive.  None of us had the foresight to take a picture of mom and dad.  They’re beautiful dawgs as well.

So, thar ya have it.  The state of the union from Belfast.  I have a feeling not a whole lot will get accomplished today as long as it keeps raining.  We’ll just have to play inside – break out the old Monopoly game, Mike.  The game maybe missing a few pieces, but so are the participants.

Take Care Until Next Time  - - - - - -  

Additions

We have a new addition to the family.  Meet two week old Lithanna Rose Gardner, our grand niece and daughter of my brother Mike’s daughter, Angela.  What a cutie!!!

Yesterday morning Judy and I drove the Chevy to the levy and the levy was wet.  Yep, we went back to the Belfast waterfront to snap a few pictures.  Penobscot Bay is one of my most favorite spots in the whole wide world.

The Belfast waterfront was once home to several manufacturing businesses.  The only remnant of that today is the tug boats.

Here are a couple more photographs from the Belfast waterfront.

With the weather being overcast, we just sort of hung out around the house doing some reading.  Mike and I did a little “gunkholing” in Searsport at Hamelton Marine and a couple of “antique” (junk) barns.  Other than that, and stuffing our faces, it was a pretty laid back day. 

The good news is that Shauna doesn’t have any more work assignments for the next five days so she’ll be home to go out and play as well.  Once we all get up and about this morning, we’ll figure out what the agenda for the day is.

Take Care Until Next Time  - - - - - -