August 28, 2013

It was warm this afternoon so we headed down to the water park on our lake for what might end up being our last visit this summer.  We sure have enjoyed this place!

Our neighbor took off in his sea plane while we were out and I managed to get this blurry shot as he passed overhead.

This man and his son were in the water, playing football, and the man started tossing the football to Jed.  Really made his day!

August 23, 2013

Our friends Jim & Lois, and Rod & Cynthia came over today for a late-summer picnic.  Jim and Jed headed out in the kayaks after lunch and ended up going all over the lake.  It was Jim's first time kayaking! 

 The view from our picnic spot.

Jed headed out for a swim when he got back from kayaking.  Oh how I wish I had that kind of energy!  :)

August 21, 2013 - Part 2

This is the time we were most anxiously awaiting...the dark.  We have been planning for almost a month to take the kayaks out on this night, keeping our fingers crossed it would be clear.  It was!

We switched to the little camera for the ride, which is disappointing as the low light pics are barely discernible, but with the ever-present possibility of ending up in the water instead of just on top of it, the little camera has to do.  In this shot you can barely make out Tracy & Jed's profile in the midst of the reflection.  It looks much darker in these pics than it really was...it was beautifully bright and easy to see, but dark enough to be a tad bit creepy...just perfect.  :)

August 21, 2013 - Part 1

 Tonight was the full moon.  We were anxiously awaiting it, and were not disappointed.  

August 19, 2013

Some friends of ours from Rockland came for a visit today.  I've been wanting to make these rainbow Jello Pinwheels for a while, and this was a good time to try them out.  They were super easy and super quick, and super pretty.

Jed was the one who spotted this gorgeous moon outside this evening.  I knew the full moon was going to be this week, but I didn't expect it to be this beautiful 2 nights before.

I think the reflection in the water was even prettier than the real thing.

August 17, 2013

Today was really pleasant.  I started it by running errands - 8 of them! - and getting back home before Tracy and Jed were even really awake.  :)  I love Saturday morning errands.  One of my stops was at a nursery to get flowers to replace the ones I planted at the beginning of summer...they didn't make it, unfortunately.  No one has ever accused me of having a green thumb.

After lunch Tracy took Jed to a bluegrass festival in nearby Palermo.  I'm not a huge fan of bluegrass, but I am a huge fan of peace and quiet and I took advantage of the rare opportunity to enjoy it at home alone. 

Jed had great fun with this game - rubber ducky races using old-fashioned water pumps.

Of course, this was Jed's favorite activity - ice-cream eating. :)

Apparently bobbing for apples was on the schedule for today's games and Jed was disappointed to find that it wasn't happening at the festival after all, so we picked some apples and set up our own bobbing station.  I was the first to get an apple but thankfully there is no photographic evidence of that feat.  haha

See why I'm thankful?!

August 15, 2913 - Part 2

Tracy took the little camera with him to the stream where he and Jed went fishing.  We discovered the stream, at the southeastern-most point of the lake, a couple of weekends before and had a great time exploring the 1-1/2 mile waterway that leads to a man-made dam just shy of Weeks Mills Road.

I love how the water is blue near the mouth of the lake, but as you can see in the following pictures, it mutes into something more greenish as the light changes in the stream, which is rather narrow and surrounded by growth.

My favorite part of this stream was the beaver dam we found, which at one time had stretched across the stream but had been washed away (or torn down) on either side, leaving large piles of sticks on either side of the stream as well as in the middle.  I barely got over it on the way back, and was hoping my activity around the dam, using my paddle to push off, would arouse the beavers but no such luck.  We didn't take a camera with us that day, and Tracy didn't get far enough down the stream during this fishing trip to get a pic of the beaver dam.  I suppose that's another trip we'll have to make.

On the way home at twilight.

August 15, 2013 - Part 1

Tracy came home from work today hankering to go fishing, so he and Jed hopped in the kayaks and headed down to a stream off our pond/lake (it's called a pond but it's the size of a small lake) that we had found the weekend before. 

Jed likes it when I don't go kayaking with him and his dad, because then he gets a kayak to himself.  :)  He's getting quite adept at paddling.
 

August 12, 2013

Boy, does it make my heart sing to see my son reading for pleasure.

The best part of summer!

August 7, 2014 - Part 7

We stopped to take a few more pics on the way home....this restaurant has been closed, so we won't get the chance to enjoy Jed's cooking till he is a little more accustomed to the inner workings of a kitchen.  :)

We've passed Lake St George State Park numerous times and never knew what was inside the park, so we stopped and looked around a few minutes, and were sorry we had never been before...it's beautiful!  There is a small fee and we were on a 5 minute fee-free take-a-look-around time limit, so I didn't take time for pictures until I saw these little dragonflies flitting about.  We went back to the park a couple of weeks later with some friends from the area, but I didn't take a single picture...too busy enjoying myself.  I suppose that means we'll have to go back.  :)

Our last stop of the day was in China, just a few miles from home, where this sign always makes me laugh out loud.  Early Maine settlers weren't very creative in naming their towns!

August 7, 2013 - Part 6

There is a spot on Route 3 near Searsmont where you catch your first glimpse of the ocean.  It always makes me catch my breath a bit to see it, so today on the way home I turned the car around at that spot and took some pictures.

I was tickled to see this message to bicyclists at the spot...apparently I'm not the only one who appreciates it's proximity to the coast.  :)