Day 12.263: Red, white and blue

When we got home from our walk this morning, I noticed that - not only was our patriotic naturalization wreath still on the door, but the door itself and our "mums" were adding to the red, white and blue theme:

We celebrated the other red, white and blue nation by getting our UK taxes done this evening - always dreaded and never as bad as we expect!

Day 12.262: Exile #2's Sunday Column #267

Exile #2 writes...

Exile #1 and I managed our first morning walk in a few weeks yesterday. Even though it has been unusually warm, it was fresh enough for us to need long sleeves at the start. Everything was looking particularly pretty - very few things beat a red maple against a blue sky - but we did have to be careful not to get too carried away looking at the trees because this year’s acorns are turning lots of the sidewalks into roller rinks.

Not much red maple here - but plenty of blue sky

The Farmers’ Almanac would probably say that means we are going to get a tough winter. I don’t mind a bit of that but I’m hoping Montana’s 3 feet of snow this weekend is not a taste of things to come.

Day 12.261: Hickory tussock

Cricket weather seems to have given way to caterpillar weather judging from our walk this morning. This was the last one we saw as we arrived home - a hickory tussock moth caterpillar:

Day 12.260: Worry mill?

We've been to the mill on many occasions. I must have looked at this building hundreds of times:

but this was the first time that I "saw" this:

It looks a bit concerned to me, but I suppose it could be a smile.

Day 12.259: Good cricket weather?

It rained this afternoon, but we have had a lot of days recently when a full day of cricket could have been played. It also seems to have been favorable conditions for this guy and his cousins:

There seem to have been many of them around recently - both seen and heard. And, since they seem to manage to stay outside, they are staying mostly unsquashed by Exile #4's ninja insect-killing skills.

Day 12.258: Fly away home

At the end of a great visit, I took Exile #2's mum to Boston to fly home again this evening.

It was an uneventful journey and it seems her flight got away on time so we hope the rest of the trip goes smoothly.

Day 12.257: The tide also rises

As I mentioned yesterday, the pool near where we had parked on Saturday was filling rapidly as the tide came in as we returned to the car. In place of the cormorants, a greater yellowlegs was stalking in the shallows:

Day 12.256: Peekaboo cormorants

Due to the fairies, we had to park a little further away from Strawbery Banke than usual and our short walk took us by South Mill Pond. Two things struck us about it, the first was the cormorants who were all doing this:

while swimming around. The second was that the water level seemed much lower than it would appear was the normal level (from exposed mud, location of vegetation etc.). We wondered if the strange behavior of the birds was caused by the low water level and whether the low water level was due to drought or something else.

As we returned several hours later, we saw water pouring into this part of the pool under the road bridge and realized that it is just a tidal pool.

Day 12.255: Exile #2's Sunday Column #266

Exile #2 writes...

After a very full day yesterday, we took things a little easier today but we still managed a stroll around Back Cove in Portland and a meal out this evening. In between, E5N1 joined some of his friends for a bit of light entrepreneurship in the form of a lemonade stand. Apparently, another friend appeared at some point to expand the business by offering sunflower seeds. With the summer temperatures today, I expect they did rather well.

Editor's note: Unrelated sunset picture taken on our way home from our mystery outing on Friday

Day 12.254: Strawbery Banke, fairies and all

With a clear day for most of us (Exile #4 decided she had too much homework to do), we decided to head down to Portsmouth, New Hampshire to Strawbery Banke. We were a little surprised that the parking was full and that as we approached, there was a very large density of fairy wings being worn - especially, though not exclusively, by little girls. Inside, there were many more (girls and wings):

It turns out that it was the Portsmouth Fairy House Tour day and the museum had lots of fairy-themed excitement - including ice-skating on glycerin-coated plastic tiles and lots of dressing up!

We enjoyed the regular attractions - historic buildings and gardens:

and some amazing fairy houses too!

Day 12.253: Waves again

For reasons that will be revealed in due course, I was down at East Point Audubon Sanctuary for a while between work and dinner this evening with one other member of the family. The sea was in quite dramatic form once again:

Day 12.252: Karate class

This evening I dropped Exile #2's mum off to watch Exile #4's karate class. I managed to catch the last few minutes when I went back to get them but didn't take any photos during class.

Fortunately, as we walked out they offered to pose for me:

Day 12.251: Exploring Peaks

Having visited the Umbrella Cover Museum and had some lunch, we didn't have any firm plans for the rest of our visit to Peaks Island, so we set off for a little walk. Eventually finding ourselves at Ryefield Cove with a view out to sea beyond the islands of Casco Bay.

The landscape started to feel more rugged and rocky - resembling the midcoast rather than the beaches and islands of Saco and Casco Bay.

We also discovered some interesting things. The golf carts that are used to get around the island also serve as "just married" transportation at times:

and actual cars on the island do not need license plates or state inspections as long as they are "for island use only". Finally, we learned that all three of our kids can sometimes get along (even hand-in-hand!):

Day 12.250: Umbrella Cover Museum

We were on our way to lunch around noon on Sunday with a plan to discover the Umbrella Cover Museum afterwards when we spotted this sign and realized that it was only open for a few more minutes.

Lunch can wait - we have an umbrella cover museum to explore!

Yes, it is really a museum dedicated to the cylindrical covers that umbrellas have from when you buy them until the first or second time you use them. Where do they all go? Well, quite a lot of them are here! There was a tour with quizzes and prizes and even live music - with audience participation:

What a treasure to have been possibly the last group of the season in this small museum dedicated to celebrating the mundane.

Day 12.249: Casco Bay by boat

Part of the island experience is getting there (and back). It was a beautiful day to be out on the water:

We got a view of the other side of Anthem of the Seas which had just docked as we arrived in Portland and discharged what seemed like a whole city's worth of tourists in the Old Port:

from a distance, the size of it compared with the buildings of the city makes it a believable observation:

Fort Gorges was looking enigmatic, but perhaps not "gorgeous"!

but just getting a different view of the coastline and the comings and goings is always interesting.

Day 12.248: Exile #2's Sunday Column #265

Exile #2 writes...

Today we got round to taking a ferry to Peaks Island, something we’d been meaning to do for a while. It was a beautiful day for the short trip across the bay and the water was full of sailboats and schooners all out enjoying the gentle breezes.

We managed to catch the famed, and surprisingly entertaining, Umbrella Cover Museum before it closed for the season.

Then, we improvised a lunch before having a wander along the pretty and quiet island roads. We found a nice spot to sit for a while:

then meandered back for the ferry to the mainland. We had good views of three of our favorite lighthouses, and of House Island, so named, we assume, because it has a house and little more on it.

Day 12.247: Bug Light

Despite the fact that we've been there many times before - and he even did a school project about it - E5N1 had just one question as we were on the way:

Is it BUG light or BUD light?

When we arrived,

I'd like to think that he was expecting to see something like this:

I guess this might well draw a crowd, but the people were there because Lighthouse Day was finishing up and there were people waiting for the last chance to go inside the actual Bug Light:

We enjoyed our visit - including a visit to the museum commemorating the Liberty Ships built nearby during the Second World War. While the rest of us read about them:

E5N1 did a scavenger hunt looking for the names of the ships in the pictures in the list of all the ships built during four very busy years: