Smackdown!

Strolling through downtown Lebanon today at lunch - a beautiful Winter day - I found this flyer for a Rumble in White River Junction coming up soon...

Nina and the Deer

Nina has come to enjoy watching the deer visit the "bird" feeder in the late afternoon...

Blue Sky...

After quite a bit of grey, we had an absolutely beautiful blue sky this morning...

The Logical Conclusion...

Gravity is a bitch...

Tired...

The Jack O Lanterns continue to evolve...

Jack Frost?

After a couple weeks, our Jack O Lanterns have become much older and more grim!

Jack! You Home?

We carved some Jack O Lanterns this year and have made them last. Here they are with a little age on them...

Colorado and Nebraska

In mid-October, my brother Rod and I accompanied my Dad out to Colorado and Nebraska to tour some of the areas he grew up in. To do so, we rented a Chrysler 300M special gangster edition.


The hay bales in Nebraska are bigger than I'm used to...

A lonely fellow we saw on the way to Chadron NE.


The town of Riverdale, NE where many of my Dad's family are buried.

Paris!

Meg and I were able to spend a few days in Paris. What a beautiful city! We took this shot of the Eiffel Tower from near the Pont Alexandre.


This is at the Place de la Concorde and includes the Oblisk and the fountain. The Eiffel Tower is in the background between the two.This is from the top of the Arc de Triomphe looking towards La Place de la Concorde and the Louvre.

We stumbled on Nuit Blanche or White Night. The walk from the Louvre up towards La Place de la Concorde was all aflame. It was amazing!

Gent Belgium

Here are some night shots from my trip to Gent in early October. It's a beautiful city, especially at night...

I Really Can't Stand Roger Clemens.

Through five innings, Roger is no-hitting the Red Sox. By contrast, our young buck Josh Beckett is struggling and has given up three runs so far. I can't believe that I have to put up with Roger freakin' Clemens no-hitting us through five. How hard can it be to hit that tomato?

Here's hoping for some chin music from Beckett to keep them off the plate and to some more patience from the Red Sox hitters.

Beckett is gaining some control and some focus. I smell some good stuff in the later innings...

Deva the Cat.

Deva, who is the bookish cat you never see, recently caught up with our new giclee that we found in New Harbor on our vacation. We've never noticed this artistic side of her before...

Speaking of strange connections, in researching giclee, we discover that this form of high quality ink jet reproduction was pioneered by Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills and Nash.

Summer Balloons

After an unsettled day, the late afternoon yesterday was gorgeous with lots of slanting orange sunlight. The ballooners must have sensed that as they were up and enjoying the evening.

Bear Strike.

We got hit this morning.

We put up some seed feeders this summer near our new backyard garden in an effort to promote bird habitation. It's worked wonderfully as we've had assorted birds there that we've not had since we moved into the house.

This morning however, the feeders attracted another kind of wildlife. Nina (aka "The Black Sentinel") alerted us about 5:30AM and we looked out to see a Momma and two cubs. The Mom raided the feeders - we tuned in as she was lumbering back to the cubs with one of the feeders in her mouth. After some dining, all three moved off into the woods.
Once there was no sign of the black marvels, I wandered out to see what had become of our feeder area. Hmmm...

More Kayaking...

Well, not really. As we were finishing up our paddle yesterday, we came back by The Contented Sole, a dockside restaurant that we've enjoyed. As we approached, we realized that the music we were hearing was indeed live. In fact, there was a Dixieland Band playing Sweet Georgia Brown as we made our way underneath their wharf! Meg snapped this picture with the tuba player and a gull enjoying the show!

Kayaking...

We did a little kayaking this afternoon in the Damariscotta River and St. John's Bay. Meg snapped this picture of me, with an amazing sky overhead outside St. John's Bay.


We got a nice look at a number of cormorants. This guy decided we were getting too close for comfort.


The really good news is that neither Meg nor I dumped ourselves or our cameras into the water. That's 2-0 we're ahead! Not clear we should press our luck next year...

Back Cove...

A shot of the Back Cove at New Harbor through the trees from across the cove...

Rachel Carson Salt Pond Preserve.

This may be our favorite place in New Harbor. We stopped by near low tide as the day was turning towards sunlight. Meg found this crab and got him to pose for the camera.

This is the view from the salt pond over towards Long Cove...

Puffins!

We went on a Puffin cruise tonight and though the fog was *very* thick, we saw a lot of puffins. Here are a bunch taking off as those pesky humans get too close...

Foggy Morning...

It was a foggy morning here after a considerable amount of rain yesterday afternoon and some more overnight. Though I slept in, it was still foggy when I took the short walk over to the Back Cove and took this sleepy shot.

This is the bridge that crosses over the stream into Back Cove. It's often filled with folks dropping a line in the water but not this morning...