Day 10.324: The exploding glass mystery

The other day, having finished unloading the dishwasher I closed the cupboard where the glasses go and started to reload with the dirty dishes.

A few seconds later I heard what sounded like the tinkling of broken glass from the cupboard and opened it to find this:

One glass - in the middle had spontaneously exploded. Several of the pieces had broken into circular sections:

I can only assume that the glasses were packed slightly too tightly and under the stress caused by gravity, one finally gave out, but we were a bit unnerved!

Day 10.323: Bluebirds

Although it was always a nice surprise, it wasn't particularly unusual for us to see an eastern bluebird from time to time when we were in New York. However, when I spotted one on our walk on Saturday I wasn't sure if it was the first one I'd seen in Maine. If not, it must have been among the first two or three:

Sadly, I only had my phone to capture it. Later we saw maybe six or seven more in the low branches of a small copse of trees.

I also only had my phone on Monday when another six or so bluebirds decided to perch on the low wooden railings by my work. Here are two of them:

So, whether they were the first or not, I've seen at least a dozen bluebirds in Maine now.

Day 10.322: Pleasant Hill Preserve

Although we had only managed to get E5N1 to join us for a walk on the beach on Black Friday, we did all venture onto the trails on Saturday for our first visit to Pleasant Hill Preserve in Scarborough. We had a great walk there through the small but varied pocket of land:

Day 10.321: 19th century cookies?

Last Friday we took advantage of the late opening hours to visit the Festival of Trees at the Saco Museum - we had a great time looking at the trees (including several dress-tree crossover items) and choosing our favorites (not hard for E5N1 since someone had made a Pokemon tree!):

The funniest moment came when I pointed this out to Exile #4, "Look - a cute village made of Girl Scout cookies!"

To which she replied, free of irony, "Really old cookies."

1885!

Luckily she is very patient when we repeatedly make fun of the things she says because she gives us such a lot of material to work with.

Day 10.320: Exile #2's Sunday Column #182

Exile #2 writes...

I stayed home today as, to my surprise, I woke up with a sore throat and full-blown cold. Still, the timing could have been worse. Fortunately, it held off long enough for me to cook for and enjoy Thanksgiving. Some of what I made was what you would expect to find at a traditional Thanksgiving: pies (pumpkin and chocolate), roast potatoes, cranberry sauce (albeit a fancy one with nuts, orange, and port in it), and mashed potatoes (with a little celeriac mixed in for interest). Other things may have betrayed our British roots, such as the sage and onion sausage stuffing, and bread sauce. I think it’s safe to say no one had ever heard of, let alone tasted that!

While the others were out for much of the day today, attending church, and later decorating it for advent, I stayed home and started stirring something up for the the next celebration.

Day 10.319: Thor: Ragnarok

We managed a short hike and another momentous game of Evolution Climate today before we ventured out again to watch Thor: Ragnarok.

What a fun ride! We all enjoyed it a lot.

Day 10.318: Shelling out on Black Friday

We could only muster three for our traditional Black Friday shoreline adventure today - but we did watch some hardy folks surfing and find some more large shells:

Although they rejected this outing, we did manage a game of Evolution Climate with the whole family and another outing that will can wait for another day.

Day 10.317: A musical Thanksgiving

This evening, we were invited to an international Thanksgiving celebration at fairly new friends from church who live less than 15 minutes away from us. Guests included three new Mainers from Congo and four visitors from Newfoundland. We ate very well, enjoyed conversations and sung each other some songs and ate some more and sang some more (but I didn't think to take any photos except these two). It was a fantastic evening!

Day 10.316: Dance photos

We haven't found a home for these yet, but we have them framed and ready!

I think they look pretty great!

We have a busy day lined up for tomorrow. After we all have taken turns at being unwell this week, we're just hoping that we are all in good health when we wake up in the morning.

Day 10.315: More storm damage

My last two Saturday runs have taken me to the beach in Ocean Park which involved running past the historical buildings - the Temple and the two Memorial Halls. As you can see, the Temple itself (the octagonal bulding which dates from the 1880s) was spared by the recent storm, but one of the halls right next to it (dating from 1902) caught a glancing blow from a large falling tree and is a little the worse for wear:

Day 10.314: Unseen shells on empty beaches

On Saturday morning I ran to the beach. It's beautiful all year round, but I particularly love it when it is empty which is really reserved for the cold months. In the summer months, as well as having to share the views, we will rarely find an interesting shell on this stretch of beach as there are so many treasure hunters around. Not so at this time of year. I saw these surprisingly big mussel and snail shells (it was cold enough for me to run in two pairs of gloves - but no so cold I couldn't take one off for scale!) in fact I saw several of each about this size along a short stretch of the sand.

All of which reminded me of this - one of the first songs we wrote about life in coastal Maine:

Day 10.313: Exile #2's Sunday Column #181

Exile #2 writes...

E5N1 and I were feeing a little off-colour this morning, and Exile #3 was still catching up with herself after Friday night’s dance show, so only Exile #1 and Exile #4 headed off to church in Portland this morning. They enjoyed a pizza lunch together afterwards, then Exile #4 joined her youth group for a trip to the newly opened Escape Room.

From what I understand, participants find themselves part of a story (this one was based in WW2 London) and they have to solve puzzles in order to proceed - a bit like the Crystal Maze TV show - except, maybe, with fewer players locked in and abandoned along the way! Anyway, you’ll be pleased to know that Exile #4 did escape, although apparently they’d have let her out anyway. You’ll also be pleased to know that Exile #3 and E5N1 were both in good enough shape to make it to dance rehearsal later in the day. They only have two days of school to go this week, anyway, then they’ll be off for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Day 10.312: 80th Birthday

Exile #2 and I ducked out for a while this afternoon to attend the 80th birthday party of a friend from church. He's a retired bishop and the crowd was a mix of family, clergy (many also retired) and current church acquaintances like us. It was fun mix!

As he doesn't like cake, they had arranged for ice-cream sundaes for dessert and he blew out his birthday candles in a carton of ice-cream:

Day 10.311: Dance show

This was us a few hours ago...

...getting ready to watch the missing one dance with her company and a lot of other dancers at a charity show. It was a great two and a half hour celebration of dance - even if that made for a rather late night!

Day 10.310: Throwback Thursday: Karate test

While I was recapping our Mount Desert Island adventures I seem to have missed mentioning Exile #4's karate test back in October. Here are some frankly terrifying kicks and a happily promoted smile:

(photos courtesy of the dojo).

Day 10.309: Another sign of approaching winter

A beaver pond mostly frozen over:

It probably wouldn't be thick enough to support a duck at the moment. Certainly not a beaver or me, but ice it was!

Day 10.308: Modern-day miracle

This is a real undoctored photograph of Exile #3's room:

She got it to this state on her own and even tidied inside drawers boxes and her closet:

We are both amazed and impressed.

Day 10.307: Unlucky for some

When I came home at lunch time it was raining, except the rain seemed a bit strange. By the time I stepped out in the middle of the afternoon it was even stranger - as it landed on my sleeve in little white clumps. When I left work it was starting to cling to the ground and the car and other objects. Weird.

Day 10.306: Exile #2's Sunday Column #180

Exile #2 writes...

Just a quick post tonight, as I am off to HopeGateWay to sleep over and be available to three families who will be guests with us during the week. Exile #1 will be holding the fort at home, and making sure that E5N1, in particular, leaves the house with all the necessary accoutrements in the morning. It’s been a busy weekend, with fun things like baby showers, dance rehearsals, and karate workshops, yet somewhere in the midst of that Exile #3 managed to fit in her 6 monthly room overhaul. Of course, this had the inevitable knock on consequences for the rest of the house!

Day 10.305: Baby shower

We've been invited to a few baby showers since we moved to Maine, but this was the first one we were able to attend. It was at our church and the space ended up with a joyful mixture of church and baby party decorations.

It was great to share this moment with them as they prepare to embark on the wonderful journey of parenthood.

Meanwhile, our babies were elsewhere - Exile #4 at an all day karate masterclass with a visiting sensei and Exile #3 and E5N1 stayed home where Exile #3 is in the throes of a multi-day major tidy-up operation in her room.

Day 10.304: Exile #4's idea of a hug...

...generally involves her dumping her whole weight on you. When she "hugs" Exile #2 it's generally fairly peaceful - if not exactly comfortable for both of them:

When she "hugs" me, it generally turns into some kind of a fight (it usually starts out as a test of strength and then I resort to tickling) but after one such incident ended in a minor injury at the beginning of this week - we're trying to be a bit more careful now!

Day 10.303: Treble trip

Exile #3 was dressed a bit differently from normal as she prepared to walk to the bus stop this morning:

The cardigan was a new purchase last weekend that she has worn nearly continuously since, but the rest of the outfit is her uniform for her treble choir (all girl audition choir) that had their first performance of the year today at a local choir festival. That means that she missed a whole day of classes today and since tomorrow is another holiday for her (Veteran's Day) the smile for the camera came pretty easily this morning.

Apparently it all went well and she saw some friends from church who go to different high schools in the area too.

Day 10.302: Wordless Wednesday #11