Well, we did eat at Bob’s Clam Shack several weeks ago, sitting at a table outdoors, but that time we ordered & paid at a window and picked up a tray at a window. Today on our way to Casco we were seated at a table (outdoors) by a hostess, gave our order to a …
Author Archives: deanb
Season for First-of-Year
It’s always exciting to see the first bird of the year of a given species. This time of year that’s apt to happen more than once a day if you go out birding. Today we had our first-of-year northern oriole (for Massachusetts; there was one in our yard in Casco last Tuesday), catbird, and rose …
Pileated on the Strawberry Patch
That’s a “the title says it all” situation. Arlene looked out the window and said, “There’s a bird on the raised bed. I think it’s a pileated!” We got binoculars and took a closer look. It was. We got out our phone cameras and opened the front door quietly and took pictures. Arlene walked closer …
Maine Pottery Tour
We didn’t really get as early a start as we had hoped, but we set off today to see some of the Maine Pottery Tour, sort of a statewide open studio event for potters and ceramic artists. Part of the goal was just to visit one of the potters, a former Newton art teacher who …
Good Palm Warbler Day
We went out to Nahanton Park pretty late (around 11!) this morning. The bluebirds were nowhere to be seen, but we did hear and see a house wren, first of year, behind the lower garden plots. In the brush just off the path along the soccer field there was a towhee, which should not be …
Snowy April 16
Arlene went to the endodontist for a root canal today. I went to the CVS to fill her antibiotic prescription, and to Whole Foods to get her some yoghurt and bananas, and potatoes and codfish to make fish chowder for low-chewing dinner. The weather forecast had predicted rain today and snow for farther west and …
Bluebirds at Nahanton Park
We got up at 6 AM, had coffee, and were at Nahanton Park by 6:35 to look for birds. We expect to keep that kind of hours frequently for the next five or six weeks, until spring migration is over. Arlene has seen reports of palm warblers in Maine, so she thought there could be …
End of the School Day
We picked the grandkids up at school and went to the park with them. At their elementary school, at least in the lower grades, parents (or other caregivers) wait on one section of the schoolyard and classes come out one at a time. Kids look for their parents, tell their teacher, “there’s my (–)”, the …
Caging the Hazels
I had worried about deer eating my new hazel plants in the middle of the night. I’m not sure I lost significant sleep about it, but it was a concern. In the morning I lugged a roll of fence wire up to where I had planted them and put wire cages around them. It wouldn’t …
Pick and Shovel
I dug the last two holes for the five hazel trees that I have to plant. One of them had several stones that just don’t look natural; they have square corners and flat sides that look as though someone dressed them for building with. It felt as though I was digging up part of a …