Wednesday, May 16, 2007

New Planters


H finished both of the planters he was working on a few weeks ago. They turned out great and I can't wait to plant some colorful flowers in them!


Of course, that will have to wait for a few more days. Local lore has it that one should not plant tender annuals until after the last full moon in May and I'm not one to buck the odds.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Time Out



H and I have been working like a couple of oxen, trying to get things around the house and garden prepared before the sea warms up and we get our kayak back into the water. Our first paddle usually happens around the first week in June and we take every opportunity after that to get out on the water. He has about 2 of the 5 cords of wood stacked, so far.

However, we took a nice little break from the chores yesterday to get out and have a Mother's Day hike in Acadia.

The sky was the most incredible color of blue and though a bit chilly starting off, we warmed up nicely by the time we had gone about 3 miles.

Jordan Pond is lovely this time of year - no black flies, mosquitoes or tourists. We felt as though we had the whole place to ourselves.

I took a few great pics of rocks - I know, how interesting can rocks be, but I found the colors of the granite fascinating and took quite a few photos, much to H's chagrin as he wanted to keep moving so he'd warm up.

















Once out in the sun, it felt really great, reminded me of the song "walkin' in the sunshine, sing a little sunshine song". Gratefully, I didn't have to sing as the birds trilled beautiful melodies from the treetops. It's amazing how loud a tiny warbler can sing.

Jordan stream was rippling right along. We could tell it hadn't rained in a few days as the stream was not nearly as swollen as the last time we hiked here, shortly after the last snowstorm.

Ok, fun's over - time to get cracking again at the woodpile and garden. Hope everyone has a beautiful day!



















Friday, May 11, 2007

She's Back!

Our hummingbird, Mabel arrived precisely on time last Monday, May 7th! What excitement to see her feeding at the deck feeder while we were having our lunch. Now that she's here, I feel like spring has truly arrived in eastern Maine.

Of course, with spring, also arrives tons of work getting things ready for the gardening season, putting up firewood to season for the summer and all the other chores that have been neglected all winter long. To wit, we had 5 yards of soil delivered so we could landscape the side of the driveway opposite the garage and to fill the hole I made while moving rocks on the side of the house.


H has so far stacked about 1 1/2 of the five cords of wood we had delivered earlier in the week and I've managed to fill the aforementioned hole (which was quite large) and moved more soil around the middle planting bed of the yard. This photo shows the 5 yards but it sure doesn't look like that much!





H is looking unbelievingly at the pile of wood he will have to take down to the back of the house and stack. Oh my!

Oh well, such is the life of those who choose to live here. I'm sure all this work will keep us young and hopefully healthy!

My Gnome family seems to be getting a bit larger lately. I just got an email from my parents who seem to have adopted a couple of homeless garden gnomes. I'm thrilled. Every garden should have a gnome or two! Giddy is excited about her new family members.



Monday, May 07, 2007

Signs of Spring


Spring arrives achingly slow in eastern Maine. While the rest of the country has long since heralded the season with blooming trees and the chartreuse colors of new foliage, we here, have been counting every minute, cheering every red bud on the maples and watching the birches s-l-o-w-l-y begin to open their buds, exposing the new leaves to the fickle elements.

Each day finds me in the garden, closely inspecting every single plant for signs that it has miraculously survived another frozen Downeast winter. With so little snow cover during the coldest part of the winter, I fully expect to lose a few precious plants. My Climbing America rose is toast, for sure.

So, as the moon sets on another frosty night, I'll head out to see what greenery is poking its head tentatively out of the chilly soil.

The Goldfinches began chirping long before daylight. They are better than any alarm clock, in fact, I cannot even remember the last time I set an alarm.

H is up and about around 4 a.m. every morning and the aroma of French Roast coffee slowly heralds another day.








This morning, as I look out the window, I can see even more maple leaves beginning to make an appearance. With today's warmer temperatures, I'm hoping we'll see some significant "popping".





We finally found a nice spot for Ms. Giddy, sitting near the front porch, she welcomes all visitors to her garden. In another month or so, she'll be surrounded by ferns, hostas and colorful impatiens



Thursday, May 03, 2007

Awaiting Mabel




Mabel is our resident hummingbird and according to my past years' journals, she arrives like clockwork sometime during the first week of May. So, in anticipation of her much joyous return to Acadia Cove Farm, I hung out the feeder on May first. Since I can see the feeder from my chair in the living room, I've been keeping an eagle eye on it. So far, nothing to report.

H and I spent the morning in the garage working on various projects. When we moved in to our Maine home, the first meal we enjoyed was steamed clams which we had purchased from one of the clammers digging in the cove. H went down with a plastic bag and for $5 got a huge bag full of freshly dug clams. You don't get them any fresher than that! At any rate, for some reason, I kept the clam shells.

This week, I was looking at the small wicker star baskets hanging on our bathroom wall as decoration and decided they really needed some perking up. So, with a can of silver metallic spray paint and some gold craft paint for the clam shells, I spruced them up. They look so much better hanging in the bathroom!

















Since I had lots more clam shells left over from this project, I looked around to see what else I could do with them. I had some sea heather from last season and an old grapevine wreath, so in a few minutes I had a new wreath to adorn the front door.

H was in the garage along with me, working on building a couple of planters for the front of the garage.

His project will take considerably more time than mine, so I'll have to post the finished photos at a later date.