Day 19.208: Hadestown: The Musical

In the end, three of us traveled to South Portland to see the proshot of Hadestown. We weren’t sure we were in the right place as this looked very much like a shutdown movie theater.

This was coming out - we were less-confident on the way in

The signs saying it was open were very much needed.

This version was filmed in the West End theatre where E5N1 saw it last year with the original principal cast. E5N1 missed it today to help his friend out with a camp. None of us who saw it today had seen the musical before although Exile #3 knew the soundtrack and therefore the story very well. It was excellent in every way. 

The inside of the building was rather more convincing that the outside with some fun vintage movie posters. 

We wondered what sign had been roughly obscured here. The wrong answers we came up with were more fun than what we decided it probably really said. 

All in all, a 10/10 experience. 

Day 19.207: At Great Pond

Our nature group gathered this evening in Biddeford Pool. We started and ended with a view of Great Pond. Here is some of what we saw there (in the dying light):

There are two black-crowned night herons in this photo

Glossy ibis (later we saw 40 of them in this pond)

Choke cherry

Great egret

Great egret

Double-crested cormorant

Glossy ibis

Snowy egret and great blue heron

Snowy egrets

Eastern kingbird

Sunset clouds

Day 19.206: Garden update

Exile #2 has been busy. Here are some updates:

Also, salad leaves, berries, flowers, zucchini, …

Day 19.205: Boat trip miscellany

Day 19.204: What’s that? Goldenrod?

We noticed several plants that looked like these on our walk at California Fields yesterday. It took us some time to realize how important wasn’t an unfamiliar plant, but just some goldenrod.

We have now discovered what was going on - can you guess (if you don’t know)?

It was the first time we’d observed this phenomenon - amazing what you can miss if you’re not paying attention.

Day 19.203: Very dry in California ... Fields

After the extremely wet week we've had, we were surprised at just how desiccated the landscape was at California Fields Wildlife Area when Exile #2 and I visited this afternoon.

So dry

We saw quite a few monarchs on the Queen Anne's lace

There was quite a bit of common mullein - this was one of the more impressive flower stems

There were lots of Carolina grasshoppers flashing their dark banded wings as they flew and then almost disappearing when they landed

Even if I saw where they landed, they were hard to pick out

A little less dry once we were into the partial shade

This oak sapling had enormous leaves. Maybe black oak?

Morrow's honeysuckle

We heard more birds than we saw: indigo buntings most prominently. We did catch glimpses of eastern towhees and goldfinches and a sparrow (likely a song sparrow). Our best sightings were of cedar waxwings.

This one was having a good "hair" day