Day 14.021: Exile #2's Sunday Column #332

Exile #2 writes...

We’ve been compulsively checking the weather, as there is a storm heading our way. As usual, the forecast snow amounts have been shifting wildly back and forth, this time between a moderate 5-6 inches to a less moderate 11-14 inches. It looks likely at this point that we’ll have something at least.

Not that it will change too much. E5N1’s school is fully remote for a couple of weeks, due to a few active COVID cases. It will be interesting, though, to see if he gets a day off. Early in the season, there was a general agreement that online learning would make snow days obsolete but due to an enterprising first grader, the school district agreed that the next extreme weather day would be declared a proper day off. Turns out everyone enjoys a surprise vacation day. After all, there has to be some compensation for living in the frozen north.

Day 14.020: Cold morning

It was 1 °F (-17 °C) when we left home to go to the beach first thing this morning. That isn't unusually cold for this time of year - but we've had a fairly mild winter so far, so it was a shock to the system.

Here are three attempts to show you how cold it was.

First, cold enough for a sun dog (that bright spot to the right of the sun is not lens glare - it's a real phenomenon - also see the close up-below):

Also - cold enough to make it look like the slightly less-cold sea was boiling (and to have ice at the water's edge):

Or maybe this works best:

Day 14.019: Made it to the end of the week

Sometimes life be like...

but then it's Friday night and I have dinner and a beer and it's the weekend!

Day 14.018: A fresh coat

It's not coming to anything - but it keeps coming!

Day 14.017: Perfect timing

Snow is expected in Maine in winter - but we've had a long spell with no plowable snowfall. With snowfall comes disruption to travel and activities - but we've had a long spell with none of those (except very short journeys to work, school and volunteer activities within a few miles. 

So, it was with a little inevitability that an inch or so of snow today coincided with Exile #2 taking Exile #4 to Augusta to visit the tax office and persuade them to accept Exile #4's 2019 tax return which has been in doubt because of a clerical issue (not our fault as it turns out).

The journey was rather unpleasant I gather, but at least the situation was resolved in the end and, for those who didn't have to drive for over an hour in the snow, it was quite pretty.

Day 14.016: Fortunes Rocks Beach

It had been a while since we'd visited Fortunes Rocks Beach - after we said goodbye to the owl on Saturday, we had a quick walk there - and were impressed to see that the surfers were having some joy on what seemed like a rather calm day for that activity.

Day 14.015: Upstaged by the owl

Some of the birds at Biddeford Pool and  Fortunes Rocks Beach Saturday morning that were upstaged by the snowy owl: a pair of American black ducks (probably at least and showing some mallard hybridization), a pair of mallards (in flight), a very pretty small gull (probably ring-billed) and a bald eagle (unmistakable even at a distance):

Day 14.014: Old Orchard Beach under the moon

It was just after lunch - in the middle of the day when we managed to persuade two of the kids to join us for a walk on the beach. This time we headed to just across Goosefare Brook in Ocean Park and walked up as far as the pier - mostly deserted at this time of year (as you can see):

Visible in several of those photos is the moon - surprisingly clear in the fairly bright blue sky:

Day 14.013: Hedwig...is that you?

We knew that a snowy owl (one of the few migratory birds that comes south to here during the winter) had been spotted several times over the last few days near Biddeford Pool and we decided to go and have a walk with the camera and see if we got lucky.

We were having a nice walk and spotting some other birds on the water and would have been happy to settle for that, but we didn't need to.

I'll let these speak for themselves:

For context, it was sitting for a long time in a kind of theater-in-the-round (three sides anyway). It seemed content at least with the attention. You can see the owl in these pictures along with some of the other onlookers:

Day 14.012: The end of a week

It's been quite a week - busy at work, momentous in the country and ongoing-exhausting in the world.

I realized I'd never posted this here - a picture I took around Thanksgiving to send to a few people in lieu of school photos this year:

E5N1 is probably another inch taller by now.

Day 14.011: One final wave...

I thought I was done, but how could I resist a bit of real video?

The water in the foreground is Goosefare Brook taking a wild turn on the beach before flowing out into the waves.

Day 14.010: Ducks and clams

It's been a momentous day in America. I'm not sure I have much to say about that yet - so instead here are the last few pictures from Sunday morning on the beach:

This time we found ourselves among the big surf clams:

And caught this flyover - which I believe was a pair of American black ducks:

Day 14.009: Wave level: expert

I feel like all this passing each other on the far side of the street and video conferencing has made us all do a lot more waving, maybe we've got better at it. The sea at our local beach has been practicing too:

 

Day 14.008: Fresh; erosion

We managed to get down to the beach before (remote) church on Sunday morning. It was cool and breezy - but definitely not the bitter cold we might expect at this time of year. The waves were dramatic and I spent some time trying to take the optimum shot of the breakers.

We noticed that the high tide mark was very high up the beach as soon as we arrived. A little way along there was sign of some new erosion along the dune-line:

Day 14.007: Exile #2's Sunday Column #331

Exile #2 writes...

Exile #1 and I often celebrate birthdays and anniversaries by going to see live music. In fact, Exile #1 was reflecting the other day on how lucky we’ve been to catch so many of our favorite bands recently - not knowing everything was about to come to a screaming halt. Needless to say, we’ve been missing it dearly.

This week, however, we got a little reminder of how great it can be by watching the concert film of David Byrne’s American Utopia (directed by Spike Lee). We weren’t sure whether it would appeal to the younger Exiles, so we started watching it ourselves on Thursday night. However, after about an hour, we knew we needed to persuade them to see it.

It’s hard to describe, a wonderful blend of music, dance, and staging, We couldn’t really do it justice with words. So, we put it on and before long, they were hooked. It is quirky, as you might expect but great entertainment and irresistibly joyful. My favorite film review show described it as the movie we need right now and, in our case, I have to agree!

Day 14.006: Roast in the bag

Due to a slightly strange turn of events we found ourselves with a turkey to eat last weekend. It was a Butterball turkey that you roast in the bag. It was quite strange:

but worked out fine - and we had turkey soup and turkey curry over the following couple of days from the leftovers.

Day 14.005: Fancy?

We all agreed that the leaves indicated that this was a fancy citrus fruit:

but none of us was quite sure why.

Day 14.004: The 'verse: expanded

The Firefly board game was already our largest and most complicated one - now, thanks to an expansion that arrived at Christmas, it's even bigger. Exile #2 and I started a game this evening.

Current state of play:

Exile #2 is winning (as you can surely tell).

Day 14.003: More beachiness

More pictures from the beach - featuring Exile #2 and Exile #4, some clam diggers, what looked like the contents of some burst teabags (but was really wood chippings I think - again sorted by the ocean) and a row of seagulls:

Day 14.002: Mussels flexing

I've written before on more than one occasion about the gulls carrying clams up above the beach and dropping them onto the sand to break them open.

The other day, we saw a gull behaving similarly, but what it was holding in its beak and dropping was clearly not a clam. I worked out what it must be - a large mussel with a bit of kelp attached to it - a not uncommon sight, but nowhere near as common as the surf clams.

Then we noticed that this particular stretch of beach had a large number of exactly this arrangement:

I'm not sure what causes this "sorting-effect" at the beach where one section is all pieces of driftwood, another all snail shells etc., but we've observed it on several occasions - but this was the most specific example any of us could think of.