Archive for the ‘Photography’ Category
As I roll out of bed this morning it’s done with the beginnings of a mediocre and annoying hangover. It all started with the arrival of my nephew from Dallas at midnight last night. Unlike my better-half and me, his air travel from Texas went as well as could be expected and he arrived on time with all of his luggage (miracle of miracles).
We arrived home where he desperately needed food and drink and some time to relax. We finally made it to bed around 2:30 am after being finished off by a large bottle of really excellent Sangria. Boy is my head throbbing this morning.
Our plans for today, if the weather cooperates, include a touristy trip along the coast to Portland Head Light (Lighthouse) at the entrance to Portland Harbor. We cruised through a number of towns on the way including Old Orchard Beach, Scarborough, Cape Elizabeth, and South Portland. The weather was a huge pain like always but we muddled through.
Later this evening with my better-half in tow we’ll be off once again for a night of excellent food and drink at one of Portland’s best pubs, The Great Lost Bear. Hundreds of beers on tap and the super hot chicken wings that could possible set your hair on fire. A perfect time to kick back, relax, and enjoy the interesting atmosphere and even more interesting people.
‘One Lone Lobsterman’
The rest of the week should be fun if the weather cooperates. Later in the week we have a deep sea fishing trip scheduled and a few hours on the water chasing and catching a few fish will cap off his visit.
The rainy days continue here in Maine. All the better for our gardens but a little annoying as well. The better-half surprised me yesterday with an adlib Father’s Day celebration. We’d leave the house early and look for a small out of the way place to have breakfast. The only requirement was that the restaurant be small and some where we’d never been before.
This was the best scenery shot of the morning because it rained the entire time we were driving.
After driving along the coast to several small restaurants we were becoming frustrated. In one restaurant there was not only a forty-five minute wait for a table but a half-hour wait to get into the stupid parking lot. We quickly decided that wasn’t the place we were looking for.
Twenty minutes later we cruised into the city of South Portland, just across the harbor from Portland. As we turned a corner what did we stumbled onto but a Mexican restaurant called Taco Trio. The entire town was barely awake and moving but this tiny little place was bustling with customers.
After some discussion we both decided on a breakfast burrito with everything. The order arrived twenty minutes later at our tiny little table with two four pound burritos with everything in them. And I do mean everything!! We had sides of freshly made tomato salsa, a pineapple and cilantro salsa, and enough hot sauce to float a boat. It was the best Father’s Day meal I’ve ever had and I suspect my mouth will still be burning in three more hours.
One last thing. The war between me and all of Mother Nature’s critters has come to an end. Rather than kill as many of them as possible I decided on a more peaceful solution. Thanks to a nearby Lowes and three hours of hard work I was able to fence in my garden frames. It’s been two days now and there’ve been no further middle of the night raids. Here’s a couple of photo’s of the new setup.
For the first time in my life I was able to get the upper hand on Mother Nature. I hope my late father is up there watching. He was never able to win using electric fencing, human hair, guns, and any thing else he could think of.
HAPPY FATHER’S DAY DAD – We finally won one.
I thought I’d take a little time today to give you a general update of the garden. I realize that it’s still early in the season but with the warm weather finally arriving the plants have really begun to grow. As usual there have been a few fatalities in the garden. Two jalapenos dried up and fell over and three of the cucumber plants followed suit. The peppers had their stems cut which confused me for a time. I thought it might have been deer but a nearby nurseryman advised of a rash of cut worm complaints in recent weeks. They love chewing through the stems of healthy plants. I’ll have to keep an eye out for them and squish as many as I possibly can.
The cucumbers were ones I purchased from Lowes and I’ve come to find out that most plants purchased from local nurseries seem to thrive much more than those purchased from these big box stores. I think it all comes down to how the plants are handled. Unfortunately at any big box store, they hire a bunch of high school or college students at minimum wage and set them loose on the plants. Too much watering is just as damaging as too little and those kids are clueless.
With the new plants in hand I replaced the dead ones last night. I spent some time chopping down the seed stalks of my rhubarb plants too. This should help them fill out a little more and give me a better harvest when it comes time to make jam. I was surprised to find a number of rhubarb seedlings in one of the other frames. The seeds must have blown there last year and took root this spring. I replanted them nearer the rhubarb patch will I’m going to be forced to enlarge next season.
‘There always seems to be one on these guys hanging around.’
I finally began caging the tomato plants when I found the first bloom on one plant. I was going to wait until later in the month but the plants are growing so quickly they’ll need the support from the cages to keep the fruit off the ground.
As you can see by the photos the entire garden including the herbs are looking good. If this keeps up for another couple of months we will have a ton of product to deal with this Fall. I have a feeling we’ll be canning a lot more than we did last year with a much larger variety as well.
After our fun day trip to Portsmouth and Kennebunkport we decided we needed some additional cruising time but a little further north in Maine. It was one of those days where we just drive. No GPS, no real destination, just drive until we get lost. The above photograph illustrates why traveling around in Maine is such fun. It seems that you can’t drive for more than a few minutes without seeing these kind of picturesque scenes.
It makes driving a real chore because you want to stop at every location but they’re everywhere. There are hundreds of lakes and ponds and any one of them would result in fantastic photographs.
It was getting to be lunch time and we were starving and craving some good old Maine seafood. This place pictured below was just a shack along the highway and since we had nothing to lose we stopped. It’s places like this that always seem to have really good food and fresh from the ocean seafood. We pulled in, ordered, and weren’t the least bit disappointed.
‘It doesn’t look like much but don’t be fooled.’
‘The prices were reasonable and the food terrific.’
We sat at a picnic table in the parking lot and pigged out. A sunny day, fresh fish, and and a huge container of iced tea. It just doesn’t get much better than that. We ended up driving more than two hundred miles before finally finding our way home.
‘Another great Maine day.’
‘One last scene from the drive.’
As I promised, today’s posting will conclude our day trip to Portsmouth, NH and Kennebunkport, ME. I left off last time as we were leaving the Red Hook Brewery in New Hampshire after a nice lunch and a tour of the brewery. I still was loving that beer buzz I had from tasting the many beer samples on the tour. Unfortunately by the time we reached the Kennebunkport area the glow was gone.
Our last visit to Kennebunkport had been prior to Memorial Day and things have changed dramatically in the last week. The tourists were out in force and the parking difficulties have returned. As much as I hate paying for parking there really isn’t much of a choice in such a small village directly adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean. Three bucks an hour is enough to keep our visit to a two hour minimum.
We took a quick walk around town hitting a few shops and generally getting a feel for the place. Many of the shops from last year were gone and replaced by new owners wanting to make their fortune. Good luck with that.
As always we hung around just long enough to make a visit to Federal Jack’s restaurant. We never miss that stop when we’re in town because the food is great and the beer is plentiful. This is the original microbrewery location that eventually spawned the Shipyard Brewing Company. I switched back to white wine for my meal of freshly caught and cooked Fish & Chips.
The town is famous for the Bush family and as you can see the entire population is celebrating the 90th birthday of Barbara Bush this month. As we left town we took a short ride up the coast past Walker Point where the Bush family has their summer residence. The day remained gray and chilly but that’s just life in Maine in early June.
We arrived back home with a camera full of pictures and full bellies. Now it’s time to relax for a while and watch a movie. We’re both hoping for warmer weather soon but I suppose that’s Mother Natures decision as always.
Last Wednesday was a day we don’t often have. My better-half and I were able to combine some semi-decent weather with one of her rare days off. We decided to start our day in Portsmouth, NH where we could shop a little, enjoy people watching, and take a few updated photographs of the waterfront and harbor.
Even though the weather wasn’t perfect (cloudy and chilly) we still enjoyed roaming around Old Town. The shops there are as diverse as they can possibly be making the visits much more interesting. Jewelry, clothing, trinkets, and of course food. We did our best to sample and purchase a little of everything.
The older part of town is filled with many interesting buildings that have been repurposed many times over the years. Lots of college and high school students filling the streets to make things even more interesting. I have to say that the new fad of coloring one’s hair a vibrant blue doesn’t do much for me but I’m acquiring a real appreciation for the women’s new obsession with tights. OMFG!
‘What’s a day without music?
‘Lady Blue’
After walking around town for a few hours I found something interesting. It was a building decoration which captured completely the message my feet were sending to me.
We ended the day with a stop at the Red Hook Brewery for a light lunch and then a tour of the facility. It never hurts to learn a little more about beer making and those free beer samples didn’t hurt either. While I’m not much of a beer drinker it’s nice to have an occasional beer buzz that early in the day. We departed the Portsmouth area for a leisurely ride up the coast to one of out favorite places, Kennebunkport. I’ll save that part of the trip for my next posting.
All in all we had a very nice day.
‘Rear Yard Water Feature’
Today I’m celebrating my release from two days of captivity in "computer hell". All of my network connected items are finally working once again and all is right in my world.
I spent four hours yesterday digging into the software on my main computer in an attempt to find that one little thing that would fix all of my networking problems. It was a mentally exhausting exercise that really didn’t make me much smarter just more frustrated.
As I peeled away the layers of this damn computer onion I discovered a lot of settings that are automatically set by the Windows program when working with local networks. After four hours of searching I discovered a small screen that I’d never seen before. I clicked on a small box on that screen which initiated some sort of BS setting, and miracle of miracles, everything began working properly. I read the small descriptive blurb near that switch but understood none of it …… but it worked.
‘It’s amazing what a little rain can do.’
Today is a day of much needed rain and I’m relaxing with the cat in front of the television. As you can see by the photo’s the rain is quickly turning our property into a jungle. I just finished watching for the umpteenth time, season one of Sherlock. It’s a modernized version of Sherlock Holmes produced by the BBC. It’s my all time favorite recreation of Holmes and believe me I’ve read and seen everything ever made or written about the great detective. It’s just a great way to spend a lazy and rainy day.
Earlier I prepared an appetizer for our dinner tonight which I hope will be spectacular. I hollowed out eight fairly large jalapeños, stuffed them with a mixture of cream cheese and spices, and wrapped them in bacon. I’ll toss them on the grill and crisp them up to start off our meal of roasted chicken. Add a small salad and we’ll should have an excellent meal. I may even throw in a few tortilla chips and a jar of my home made black bean/corn salsa. That’s hot enough to spice up any meal and to keep your mouth burning for quite a while.
I’m also spending some time planning our two day vacation for next week. It may involve a day of shopping and walking through the Old Town section of Portsmouth, NH, and also visits to a few local wineries and breweries. It should be a relaxing couple of days if the weather doesn’t screw it up.
Now that the vegetable garden has been planted I can relax and enjoy my summer a little. Since I’ve been boring everyone with a continuous stream of vegetable garden information I thought it was time to change things up just a little. I’d like to talk about flower gardens.
My better-half and I decided a long time ago to split the responsibilities when it came to yard work. I was responsible for the vegetable garden and yard maintenance and she would take care of the many flower beds on the property as well as her container garden on the deck. Her results over the last few years have been more than a little spectacular.
It’s still May and we are only a few weeks away from that cold and miserable weather of April. Her early plantings and seedlings that she started weeks ago are already beginning to bloom. We both love as much vivid color as we can get and that’s reflected in the many containers on our deck. All of these photographs were taken yesterday and will give you some idea of the variety of colors we’re hoping to have all Summer long.
In another month these deck containers will turn the deck into a wonderland of color. Late in the Summer it’s like walking through an arboretum. A wide variety of colors combined with unusual herbs help to make it a fun place to sit, relax, and enjoy a good book. It’s a win/win because the deck is on the second floor which translates to no mosquitos, bugs, or other annoying creatures except for the occasional wasp.
I’ll update these photo’s as the season progresses. It’ll be getting positively Mother Naturish (my made-up word) around here by July.
I’m suffering from a total lack of interest today. It rained through the night just a little and I’m not really in the mood to be playing in the garden mud this morning. I rolled out of bed a little later than usual and had an unappetizing breakfast of healthy cereal which tasted a lot like cardboard. I knew it was going to be one of those day when I left a kitchen cabinet door open and then proceeded to walk into it a few minutes later putting a small notch in my head. That’s what I mean when I say "One of those days."
The next thing was the damn alarm system. It’s nice to have technology in my life but when I have to put up with a smart ass alarm system telling me how stupid I am, it’s kind of embarrassing. After screwing around for ten minutes I finally set the alarm, got in the car, and left the garage. Five seconds after the garage door closed I realized I’d forgotten my camera and telephone. Back to the house, turn off the alarm, get my stuff, and then back to try and set the alarm once again. If the burglars have as much trouble getting in as I had getting out we should be completely safe.
I then headed to the first of six nurseries trying to find cayenne pepper seedlings. For some reason unknown to me or the nurserymen, there seems to be a shortage of cayenne peppers this spring. I normally can buy a six pack of the plants for a couple of dollars but not this year. My last stop was at a nursery well known for it’s impossibly high prices for just about everything. They had only three cayenne pepper plants, each planted in separate container, with a cost of $3.99 a plant.
BS I tell you!
As I was leaving empty handed I had an uninterested employee ask me in that awful politically correct tone, “Have you found everything you were looking for sir?”. I nicely told her no. I was looking for a few decent prices but couldn’t find even one.
Double BS!!
I’ve also been looking for a new garden bench for the last few weeks with no success. I stopped at Home Depot today after checking out their website which listed close to twenty different types. I searched for twenty minutes through that huge building and was beginning to get a little frustrated. Depot has never been known for it’s customer service and that hasn’t changed a bit. After tracking down a store employee who did his best to avoid me, I asked about the benches. He explained to me, the pain-in-the-ass customer, that they have no benches in inventory. He gave me one of those smarmy smiles and told me they were an online purchase only.
Triple BS!!!
Screw them, I left in a huff after wasting most of my morning. I revisited my reliable local nursery and purchased a few additional Ghost pepper plants and a six pack of orange bell peppers. Total cost, $5.20. I never did find a effing bench but I’ll sit my butt on the ground before paying $199.99 for one.
This day has sucked soooo bad. I guess it’s time for me and the cat to kick back and relax on the deck. I can sip a drink and relive the last few hours of this stupid day and try to smile. The cat could care less either way. He just lays there like he always does thinking about what cats think about. He’s not smiling either.
The final plants are being planted and within a week the garden will be left to grow and bloom on it’s own. It may require fertilizer one more time in mid-summer and steady watering but the hard work is mostly over for me. I’ll be back at it sometime in October for the final harvesting, cleanup, and soil preparation for next year.
Even though we had a frost scare the other night the plants are doing fine. A few of them were nipped by the cold but should survive without a problem. Feeling a little motivated this morning I was in the garden early to do some final plantings. It was another chilly night last night and the winds haven’t lessened in the least.
The better-half recently purchased a spaghetti squash plant and I planted it today. We love spaghetti squash but have had no luck growing our own. Maybe this year will be different.
I decided to plant another basil because our original plantings look terrible. They may ultimately recover but I thought another large plant should be planted just in case. If they all take off like I hope they will, we’ll have more than enough to dry and store this Fall.
I planted another dozen marigolds around the perimeter of the garden which will hopefully keep those annoying critters away. It’s a win/win because they also add a nice touch of color to the garden.
We’re also trying to grow leeks for the first time. I don’t anticipate them growing too large due to our short growing season. We’ll probably be eating them half-grown like scallions for use in soups or salads. I may even be able to freeze some for our winter meals. I’m crossing my fingers on this one because I love the flavor of leeks.
So we have another garden almost completed and the waiting can then begin. Barring any unforeseen catastrophes we should have great results in the Fall.
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