Day 14.141: Birds at sunset

We had a nice outing this afternoon (Memorial Day holiday), but before we get to that, a few more photos from our Saturday evening outing.

A cormorant that literally flew off into the sunset:

One of a few attempts to photograph gulls in flight in the low light:

and a view of the beach as we were about to head home:

Day 14.140: Light at the beach

It's been a cold and wet weekend and a mostly indoor one as a result. We managed a little post-dinner outing to the beach yesterday and the sunset light was amazing.

The sunset was inland of course:

but the views out to sea were pretty stunning too:

Day 14.139: Lemony goodness

Exile #4 decided to make a cake. Exile #4 made a GF lemon cake. We all ate the cake.

Day 14.138: Why did the turtle cross the road?

Sorry I failed to ask - I just snapped it!

 

Day 14.137: A local sign for local people

I love this sign so much, "Roof drain outlet below - do not pile snow here - thank you"

Day 14.136: Up and down in Biddeford

As we walked through Biddeford on Saturday we were amazed to see that a whole parking garage has sprung up since we last walked that way (I suppose a year of pandemic lockdown did give them a window of opportunity):

and although it has come down from its original location, it was good to see that the historic clock tower seems be heading for a permanent location rather than rotting away as seemed likely to be its fate at one point.

Finally, we spotted this rather grand take on building scaffold - a temporary external elevator. Looks rather luxurious compared with a pile of trestles don't you think?

Day 14.135: Good fishing at the mill?

On our Saturday morning walk, we crossed the river via the footbridge at the mill. As we did, we saw some people fishing just downstream of us, but it is what we saw upstream that really surprised us:

Here's a closer shot (shame I didn't have my camera with me!)

More cormorants in one place than I've ever seen and a very big crowd of gulls too. Quite a sight!

Day 14.134: Rivers and crossings

On Saturday morning, instead of a trip to the beach (it was high-tide) or anywhere further afield, we walked from our front door on the loop that for quite some time was our regular weekend morning walk.

Here are a couple of views of the Saco River as we passed by:

Day 14.133: Exile #2's Sunday Column #347

Exile #2 writes...

Exile #1 went to church today, and I mean went to church. He was one of a select few, fully vaccinated folks, who went into the building to broadcast to the wider world. It is weird to think that it is more than a year since that last happened. The rest of us are not quite through the full vaccination waiting period, and E5N1 has only just had his first injection, so we stayed home and tuned in online.

The rest of the day was quietly spent, trying to keep cool during what has been a little burst of summer. We did have some nice rain that cooled things down but I suspect it will also have washed away my cayenne pepper garden defenses. I am already locked in a struggle with our squirrel and chipmunk neighbors. I have a feeling it’s going to be a constant battle of wits!

Day 14.132: Painted trillium

Although I posted it yesterday, the picture of the small plant with a flower bud was taken a week ago. Today I happened to be in the same spot and saw that it has now revealed itself as a very pretty painted trillium:

Day 14.131: Not what I was looking for

As you may remember, Exile #4 and I spent some time last weekend searching for an escaped cat. I discovered some things in the woods behind the house (before locating the cat).

Firstly - there are lots of places a black cat could hide quite effectively - like under these root formations:

Secondly - this very pretty flowering plant pushing through the leaf litter:

Day 14.130: Slightly better

After further review, I found a few slightly better bird photos from Saturday - action shots of a double-crested cormorant and a gull and a possible loon sighting:

In other news, E5N1 was able to get a first dose of vaccine today even though he is in quarantine which was a nice surprise and gets us back on course to all be "fully-vaccinated" before our little vacation trip in July.

Day 14.129: Blurred; line

Our walk on Saturday was not very successful as a bird-photography outing. Here are some blurry photos of two swallows (probably a tree swallow in the top two and a barn swallow in the bottom two:

and here is blurry photo of an osprey:

The final mystery of our walk was this line in the ocean water. It appeared to be weed but why it was in this arrangement, I don't know. By it's position, it's possible it was marking a meeting of the water from the Saco River and Goosefare Brook, but that does not explain what we're seeing here.

Day 14.128: A school concert - for real

Surprise!

We were able to join a very sparsely populated auditorium to see and hear Exile #4's choir sing this evening. The last time we heard them sing in person was this occasion at Christmas 2019.

Everyone wore masks throughout (including the singers) but it worked surprisingly well and - despite a rather abbreviated preparation period - sounded amazing:

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Day 14.127: Saturday morning on the beach

Once again, the tides were friendly for a morning walk on the beach on Saturday.

The weather was also rather kind.

Our beach surprise this week was this very defined ridging (not usually present) with alternating bands of gravel and fine sand:

Day 14.126: Exile #2's Sunday Column #346

Exile #2 writes...

New experiences are becoming less frequent for us in the US, but last Friday brought a new, albeit sad, one for me - an American funeral. It was for a friend I made while helping at the local pantry. Until very recently she had been astonishingly energetic, independent - and very funny - despite being well into her 90s, so her service was definitely one of celebration.

We gathered outdoors at the cemetery due to COVID, but that actually made it rather special. The cemetery is the one where we like to take walks and it is full of beautiful old trees and birdsong. I had hedged my bets, going for muted tones rather than all black and wearing a scarf, in case I needed to cover my head (I knew she was catholic). In the end, I needn’t have worried. There was very little formality - rather like her really. I’m glad to have got to know her, and glad the celebration captured her so very well.

Day 14.125: Where have you bean?

We made it out for a walk on the beach this morning, but most of the day was spent doing chores around the house. At one point, I saw Exile #2 wearing boots, a hat and a small rucksack. It looked like she was going on an expedition, but the rucksack was just to hold her iPad so she could listen to podcasts while she constructed a bed for some beans on this beautiful sunny day:

Later there was some distress when it turned out that the indoor cat that our neighbors were looking after had escaped and was nowhere to be found. After about an hour of looking including some time for Exile #4 and me picking our way through the woods behind the houses, I turned around and there was the missing cat - standing about where Exile #2 had been a little while earlier doing the gardening - so I was able to bring about a very relieved reunion.