Sunday night Katie and I camped in the back yard. We’d done that on Friday and Saturday nights as well, no rain fly on the tent, sleeping out under the stars. Last night’s huge moon hung over the yard all night.
Occasionally I’d wake and gaze up at it. The soft light that flooded the yard, and the tent, was lovely; I wish you’d all been there for the experience.
But it would have been a bit crowded in the tent, and Katie likes her space.
Don’t you know.
Zigzag. I thought it would be hard to find a photo to represent the concept. I didn’t think I’d find it in nature. I thought of a few places to go where I might find something, commercial locations, man-made places. I thought maybe I’d skip this photo challenge because I didn’t have time to go anywhere in search of zigzag.
Then I got out of the car this evening after a long day of work and saw that the hibiscus plant is in bud. And on the still tightly furled buds were…
…zigzagging veins.
Proof once again that if you just slow down and take a moment you can find just about anything.
Right there in front of you.
You can see other zigzags here, here, here, and here. And of course the classic zigzag. Or stop by the original blog entry and look at all the comments with their photos!
Katie here!
You were all RIGHT! My mama finally took me to my park! I haven’t been there in a really really long time. Maybe 100 years in dog time. We couldn’t go in my car because it’s at ‘the shop’ whatever that means. So when we left the house I went and stood behind the other car, but mama said, ‘No baby, we’re going to take Daddy’s truck!
Driving to the park in style.
Woo Boy! I get to go in the truck! I like to do that (I used to be afraid of the truck, but I like it now. I’m a brave girl.) I get to stick my nose right in the air conditioning vent! Not like when I’m stuck in the back and no good air even gets back to me! When we got to the park I noticed it was the Farmer’s Market! I get lots of attention at the market so I thought maybe we were going there.
Farmer’s Market!
But my mama said, “No baby, we’re going to walk in your park, and you can sniff wherever you want, no rush!” Hot dog! Let’s get going mama! But you know what? My mama ended up saying “hurry up sweetie” to me a lot. She said it was because a storm was coming. But I think she’s just an impatient sort of mama, you know?
Storm clouds! (Dramatic setting on camera!)
I mean, what’s a little rain? Right? Unless you’re the Wicked Witch of the West. Hmmmm. Now that I think about it, she’s been acting a lot like that witch all weekend, so maybe she had a point. Anyway, we did get rained on a little, but we still stopped and got a picture together at the overlook. Mama was very proud she figured out how to do the timer thing. I was very proud that we could both look at the camera at the same time.
Me and my mama!
We had a good time and by the time we got back to the truck the sun was back out and it was hot. So I’m sleeping on my air conditioning vent at home. Mama says we have a bigger adventure coming up next weekend.
I’m going to dream about it now. I can’t wait!
That was FUN mama!
Katie here.
What is wrong with you people? Why haven’t you demanded my presence on this blog? You’ve been enjoying my parents’ photos of Maine, egging them on to travel more! Have you no compassion for me? The princess? You realize, don’t you, that while Mama and Dad are gallivanting around I have to go to doggie camp.
Wanna play?
And let me tell you it’s not so much camp because I know what real camping is! And I want to go camping again with my Mama but she’s all busy with work and stuff and hardly has time for me at all and I think that is just not fair!
OK, so right after I got sprung from the camp we had a whole bunch of company. That was fun. Mama’s brothers and sister and sister-in-law came to stay with us for a few days. They all thought I was pretty swell and I have to say it was OK to have them around too. I got lots of attention.
Which is a good thing because as I said my Mama seems to be really busy and ignores me most of the time. I can only get her attention at night if I bark a lot. Then she tells me “Katie! No bark!” and I sigh and go lie down on the air conditioning vent. I am trying to be a good girl. I even let her sleep until 6 a.m!
And do you know what I got in return for being a good girl while we had all that company? I got to go to the groomer today! GEEZE how much more torture can one poor doggie soul go through? I don’t really see that the groomer can improve perfection, but if it makes my Mama happy I guess I can handle it.
BUT…
…Mama owes me big time now and I’m expecting a very good adventure soon! And if I don’t get it there’s going to be no more Ms. Good Dog. No siree!
She better come through.
That’s all I’ve got to say.
Good night now.
I’m waiting.
Most people were surprised when they learned we were going to Maine for ten days. Why Maine they asked. What are you going to do there? Well, it turned out there is a lot to do in Maine. And I noticed lots of people doing lots of things.
Want to see? Click on any photo to see more details.
They capture the beauty.
They play in water.
They go fishing.
The make sand castles.
They read.
They share the moment.
They put toes in the ocean.
They look for whales.
They search for beach treasure.
They enjoy the view.
They explore mountains.
They watch waves.
They lean into the wind.
And sometimes they text.
I can’t show you everything we saw in Maine. As I’ve said frequently, you need to go there yourself and explore. But here’s just a few more instances of things unique and/or fun that we ran across in our travels.
Did you know that Maine is the biggest exporter of wild blueberries? You would if you visited Blueberry World and talked to the owner for a bit. We noticed her shop as we were heading somewhere else.
Blueberry Land!
It’s kind of hard to miss, or to resist! Inside were all things blueberry. We bought a few things and talked to her for a bit. She and her husband have a few hundred acres of wild blueberries. They used to be university professors, but they’ve ‘retired’ to become blueberry farmers.
She’s concerned that they can’t do it forever, that help to ‘rake’ the blueberries in the field is getting harder to find. She’s worried about foreign investors buying up all the farms. She’s wondering if she should develop her land, turn it into a subdivision. But she’d lose the wild blueberries, the view, her lifestyle. She says the only way they make it is through sales direct to tourists, that the blueberries going to processing plants don’t have enough profit margin.
Buy a pie!
We wished her and her 80 year old husband good luck.
Later in our trip, as we were driving through a small coastal town we saw this:
What’s going on over there?
We learned a long time ago on our travels that if you see a crowd headed somewhere you should just fall in and see where it goes. So we turned around, parked the car and wandered up onto the bridge as well. Turns out the crowd was watching lobster boats race.
Who’s going to win?
Now I ask you, where else but Maine could you see such an event?
And all along the way we saw pretty things, interesting things that just didn’t fit into any particular blog. But I thought you’d enjoy a few more shots. Wouldn’t you?
We saw lots of fishing shacks. Some looked like they were being used.
Anyone home?
And some didn’t.
Long abandoned.
We saw lots and lots of boats on trailers in yards. Some had some pretty neat names.
Resting on land.
I wonder how people are making a living if their boat is in the yard.
We saw beautiful buildings too, a school sitting in a field of clover….
Summer break.
…and a church along a river in a tiny town.
Church bells rang.
And finally, these birds just made us laugh.
Linear birds.
I hope you chuckle too.
Soon I hope to give you an idea of what people do while in Maine. There’s really too much to share.
But I’ll try.
Chainsaw man.
Change Is Hard 