Monday, May 25, 2020

Week #10 of Life at Home in the Midst of a Pandemic

A glorious spring week here in Maine! In fact, temps were high enough on Friday that it felt more like summer. With the warmth, everything has started to pop with a lot of flowers blooming and trees leafing out. Of course, that also means pollen. Achooo! But still, so nice to have the weather be good! It was definitely a perfect week for a lot of outdoor time!

Monday: A work from home day with no running, but Sam and I did get out to walk in the afternoon. Beautiful out! (1.6 miles walked)

Some sort of chokeberry or serviceberry in bloom along the powerlines




Turkey tracks 

Came home and made pretzels from the dough we had had rising since after lunchtime. They were a bit messy looking but delish! 😋


Made a few cinnamon sugar ones too. Yum!

Tuesday: A bright but cool morning for a run on the cart paths and around the Heath. Hobblebush blooming, along with bluets, wood anemone, purple voilets, and two beautiful painted trillium. So happy to see them! Such a beautiful spring sight! 😍😍 Also the first patch of budding fringed polygala in the sunlight along the Heath. Yay! Will have to head back out there in a few days to see if any are blooming. Their magenta color is unmistakable and always such a treat to see! (7.0 miles)



Came home to find the baby squirrels out back causing some anxiety in the house as one literally crawled up the screen door and then tried to scratch his way inside... Gigi is bound to protect us though 😂😂


Went into the office for the day, and after I came home and showered, the three of us headed out for a late afternoon walk. Once again, a gorgeous spring afternoon! (2.4 miles walked)

Yet another type of serviceberry or chokeberry... I really need to learn my flowering trees and shrubs...

Speckled alder in the sunlight

Wednesday: Didn't sleep well so stayed in bed instead of getting up and running, worked all day at the kitchen table and then had a meeting late into the afternoon. Was ready to just call it a really true rest day but Ryan wanted to get out and move a bit, so we took a walk at 5:00 pm and then came home and just ate whatever we could find in the fridge. It was truly another beautiful evening, and as always happy to get out once I got over the inertia! (1.7 miles walked)





Thursday: Up and out for a run even though I felt kinda meh. (Yes, even with this glorious weather it is still acceptable if you feel meh. Sam felt meh Thursday too. When I asked her why she had been feeling sad that morning, she was like, I do not like this, I do not want this, I did not need this. I feel you, kid. It's OK to feel sad and unsettled. Life is a bit of a jumble right now. We just have to do our best.) Still, the morning did not disappoint. Saw two beavers, one in the Heath and one further out along the Cathance, a groundhog, a hairy woodpecker, two painted trillium, the first patch of blooming fringed polygala and rhodora of the season (Oh, that glorious magenta, I do love it so! 😍) and a few dwarf ginseng flowers blooming too. Lovely. (7.0 miles)







Went into work for a few quiet office hours this morning and then came home to work for the rest of the afternoon. Once again, it was too lovely to pass up a walk so we all headed out at 4:00 for a walk out and back on the powerlines. Rhodora, pollywogs and two deer seen. (2.2 miles walked)




Friday: Honestly wasn't super enthused to get out, I think mostly because I didn't sleep well, but I got out the door anyway, and as usual, I felt much better for it! Yet another beautiful morning. Crisp and sunny, with the sweet scent of the flowering trees in the air and birds chirping. Rhodora, fringed polygala, wood anemone, bluets, purple and white violets, star flowers all leafed out but not yet in bloom, goldthread and so much beautiful early green on the trees as they leaf out! Ran the cart paths and around the Heath, and felt good too! (7.0 miles)



Headed to the farmer's market and to do the grocery shopping once I got home. Asparagus and cucumbers at the market, hurray! And a full aisle of toilet paper and paper towel at the grocery story too! Woohoo! Then it was home to do some laundry and cleaning and help Sam finish up her school work for the day before we had lunch.

The initial round of paper learning packets were due back to school this week, and since we were down to the last day 😂, we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and walk over to school with a detour on the way back for Dairy Queen. Honestly, it felt like mid-summer with temps in the high 70s but there was a nice breeze and pretty flowers to observe as we walked through the neighborhoods, and the Blizzard was delish! 🍦 The perfect way to kick off a long weekend! (3.1 miles walked)


Of additional interest, for me at least, was a possum sighting early in the morning and a common yellowthroat flitting around out back in the bushes later in the afternoon. I really do love the variety of wildlife and birds we see right out back 💗

Saturday: Another beautiful day! Got out for a run along the powerlines, with a loop down on the Riverside Trail out along the Androscoggin, and a few miles on the Gone Fishing mountain bike trails by the dump. Two pileated woodpecker fly-overs, beaver evidence at the beaver dam out in the woods near the river, lots of bird song, starflowers and fringed polygala blooming in the open woods along the mountain bike trails, plus a few jack in the pulpits too! Lovely. Just sort of wandered along enjoying the morning, despite my runny nose and itchy eyes (yay, pollen!). (10.0 miles)




First starflowers of the season

Jack in the pulpit

Love these rhodora!

Came home and made some blueberry muffins, because, well, why not? Seriously the best blueberry muffins! Yum!


I had seen a few people posting that the horseshoe crabs were spawning, which seemed early but I was more than willing to go take a look and see what we could find! The best spot we've found in out at Skofield Shores, so we looked at the tide charts and headed out in the late afternoon for a walk on the trails with a stop down at the shoreline to see what we could find. The tide was farther out than we had anticipated, so we didn't see as many horseshoe crabs as we have seen out there in the past, but there were still about a dozen of them digging into the mud as the waters receded. Such fascinating creatures, having survived since the age of the dinosaurs with no change in biology. Amazing. Another lovely afternoon to be out exploring, although literally about 20 degrees cooler than Friday!! (1.7 miles hiked)





















Sunday: Got up to feed the cats around 4:30 and then got back into bed, fully expecting Ronnie to yowl the morning away and force me to abandon my hopes of more sleep. However, he must have been tired too, as I managed to fall back to sleep until 7:00! Highly unusual, and very lovely. Then I lounged around for a while before finally heading out the door at 8:50 am. A very late start for me! Hit the roads and ran a loop around town, listening to I'll Have Another podcast with Amelia Boone, just running along. Nice, sunny, breezy morning. (9.0 miles)

We had almost given up on Sam ever learning to ride a bike, as when we first took the training wheels off, it was a fiasco and the last time we tried, several summers ago, the bike was by then too small and that didn't work either. As we were not convinced she would really put the effort in to learn to ride, we did not replace that bike. However, this past month during a lot of our walks, she has brought up the fact that she wants to learn to ride a bike, in fact, should know how to ride a bike. So, we bought her a bike and I picked it up on Friday. Dick's Sporting Goods had a good deal, I had a coupon on top of that, they were doing curbside pick-up and they assembled the bike for you. Perfect!

So, Sunday after lunch, we loaded the bike into the car and drove over to the new parking lot area at the high school, thinking it would offer good pavement and a big area for learning. OK, so it was still a bit of a construction zone 😉😆 but it was quiet at least! There were a few tears and some whining, but Sam didn't give up and by the time we left an hour later, she was riding on her own! 😎 She hasn't quite gotten the hang of starting up herself without a bit of help, but it was so cool to see the big smile on her face and have her say she was so happy when she realized she was actually doing it, riding a bike! Proud of her. I know it's probably a heck of a lot easier to learn at age 5, so extra proud of her for hanging tough and doing it!! Yay, Sam! 🎉🎉


We headed home, had a quick snack, and then drove out to Harpswell for a late afternoon exploration. The Harpswell Heritage Land Trust really has done a remarkable job of putting together some beautiful preserves on the Harpswell peninsulas. I think the longest is likely the Cliff Trail, which clocks around 3 miles, but each of the preserves has offered interesting viewpoints, woodland environments and a wide array of things to see, and today's walk out through the Curtis Farm Preserve was no exception.

We started at the edge of an old field, and meandered through the hardwood woods at its edges, the trees that beautiful new neon green of springtime, before dropping into heavier woods. Admist the trees, we found big patches of bunchberry, starflower and about 30 ladyslippers, the first of the season 😍😍






Adorable baby red squirrel

Gotta get up on the stumps!


We took the short side trail to the top of Basin Cove to check out the views. A cold wind was blowing off the water. Brrr!


And then continued on through the woods to the beach at Curtis Cove, which offered stunning views up into Middle and Maquoit Bays. It was low tide, so we were able to walk down along the water's edge, skipping rocks and marveling at the carpet of periwinkle shells below our feet. It really was a beautiful spot.









Then it was back through the woods for more ladyslipper spotting, and around the edge of the field, enjoying the birds chattering and the apple trees blooming.








The final surprise of this little preserve was a very short side trail out to what was called, "The Pebble," a HUGE erratic set a small way off in the woods, literally the only rock around. Fascinating.


All in all, a really neat little trip to wrap up the week! (2.5 miles walked)