Happy Birthday to my beautiful niece, Brynne, today. Halfway around the world and I miss her so much. Sending her best wishes for health, happiness and love today and in the year to come.

Finally got the new charger I bought to work on my camera and was surprised to find these pictures of Pumpkinfest in Maine. Seems like eons ago. But here are a few of the pumpkins.

Permaquid lighthouse

Goose on the golden egg

 My sister and niece, Ryder, came for a visit and this picture is what $18.00 will get you with Ryder. We bribed her to eat an oyster. Went in her mouth and came right back out. We started to take our money back but she stopped us, cut the oyster in half, doused it in lemon and down the hatch. She was not amused. But we were!!!  hahaha

 King Eiders Pub pumpkin, always a good one.

There was a little stage set up on a side street and we happened upon this sweet old couple. I didn't hear which one of them was 93 years old but I think it was her. They sang a romantic duet and there was not a dry eye in the house. (Yours truly was sobbing behind her sunglasses.)

Then there was the pumpking drop. Ah yes. Biggest crowd I've ever seen for it and biggest crane. Yes, that's a pumpkin up there.

And I took this picture of the aftermath from my car as I was leaving. Those, my friends, are a car and a truck filled with and flattened by the giant pumpkins dropped from the aforementioned crane.

I have to say it is a very satisfying splat!

* * * 

Ok, in other news, I arrived in the Fabulous Florida Keys to 84 degrees of heat and humidity, got my car completely unpacked and then it started raining. Hard. And it is still raining. Pretty exciting to be in my little house but so much work to be done. Below is a picture of my pool!! That's right, I'm getting a pool!  It had been set in the hole and the guys were there to plumb it. That night, I think it was Tuesday, we had serious torrential downpours with a thunder and lightning accompaniment. When I looked out in the morning, a bunch of the sand and dirt had washed under the pool and it was listing to the right as you can probably see. The guys are Not Happy. Now it will have to be hoisted back out, the hole re-dug and in it goes again. That's if it ever stops raining. Still pretty exciting though, right?

And lastly, guess where I am this weekend??  You got it! In Miami to visit with my girl, Oprah! The whole reason I am in Florida so early this year.

Drove up from the Fabulous Florida Keys in heavy rain and checked into my hotel. Met a new friend (who looks eerily like my mother-in-law) and we shared a cab to Museum Park where we went through the O Marketplace in the pouring rain. 

Picked up some freebies and a yellow Oprah's The Life You Want Weekend rain poncho, and then my friend, Daphne, and I went over to Bayside for a two hour lunch. Fun! Now back in my room watching the news and getting ready to go over to the American Airlines Arena for the opening even with the Lady herself tonight. Wohoo!  I'll keep you posted. Nice to be back online.

And now you are caught up with my little life. What's new with you?

Are we there yet??

I've gone from just past peak colors in Maine to barely any in North Carolina, like traveling back in time. Always makes me happy to notice my first palm tree and that happened in South Carolina today. Woke up to a light frost this morning and stopped at a rest stop this afternoon to walk the girls and it was 84 degrees. Stepped off the pavement and got a fire ant bite which is now the size of a golf ball. yay

9 long hours on the road today and happy to cross into Florida and check into our Days Inn in Palm Caost, which is unfortunately showing a little wear and tear (The door to my room looks like a pry bar was taken to it.) Thrilled to tell you that it is "Biketoberfest" here and they are all staying at the hotel. Lots of revving bikes and beer drinking in the parking lot. Super.

Can't wait to get home sweet home tomorrow. Won't have internet - Zoiks! Monday will be a day of unpacking, replacing phone and camera chargers and going to Comcast. The girls and I will be happy to be out of the car. It is especially hard on Lucy. Although her hearing is gone and her eyesight spotty, she feels it is her duty to boldly take the lead, no looking back, which results in me running after her constantly and wildly signaling with my arms. Sophie just rolls her eyes. Here is a stock picture of the two of them in our hotel room. I always book a room with two beds and they love it.

our room in N.C.

Lizzie Update

So I'm headed south - sans phone and camera chargers, and dogfood and . . .  I trust I didn't forget anything else. Zoiks! Remembered to close the chimney flu, got up on the ladder to latch and cover the windows, took my lawn ornaments in, arranged for the dock and Miss Barbie Dreamboat to come out, mulched my hydrangeas and loaded up the girls and off we went. 

Stopped in Meriden, Connecticut the first night and then in Philly the next day for lunch to see my sweet niece, Annie, and the gorgeousness that are Micah and Lucia. Annie took us to Material Culture where we had a fabulous FABULOUS meal at the famous Chef Aliza's Baba Olga's Cafe. I had a wonderful arugula salad with proscuitto and figs and fennel. Yum. The shop - more like a warehouse really - attached to the cafe, is an indescrible delight of ancient and merely old and some new: gigantic wooden gates to little wooden alters to kilim rugs. Just fabby. Funny, because when I was in Frederick, Maryland yesterday at an antique store, a customer was telling a clerk about this cool place in Philly called Material Culture . . . I said oh yes, I was just there yesterday don'tcha know.  sniff

So, I was in Frederick, Maryland because the girls and I stopped off to visit with my bestie, Stacy, for a couple of nights and our bi-annual shopping trip in Frederick. I started to tell you the name of this place we stayed but then I wouldn't feel comfortable telling about how I was greeted by some creepy white supremacist types in a 50-year-old campground with some rather frightening permanent trailers on premises. We rented a cabin there and I'm pretty sure we won't be going back. Beautiful staying in the forest though (well, in daylight) and happy we weren't running through the dark wood while scary music played and heavy footsteps behind us in the leaves were heard and then looking back fearfully and tripping and falling so that the horridness came down upon . . . WHOA. Let's put an end to that visual. Did I mention we probably won't go back? 

And tonight the girls and I find ourselves in North Carolina, happy to have landed in the ONLY decent hotel - and paying the price - on my route thru the south. Balloon festival here this weekend so the hotel is full up and I am lucky enough to be across from the ice machine. NOT! We'll be up early and on our way, planning to arrive in Florida tomorrow night.
Sorry there are no pictures. Going to have to find a Radio Shack at some point so I can charge the phone and the camera. It's always somethin'.

Nothing like waking to a dog hacking up a lung right next to you. Lovely. But even better is getting out of bed and stepping in it. Luckily it was caused by eating an apple. Don't ask me how I know - I'm sure you can guess - and no I don't know where she got it. Just grateful it wasn't something worse.

Look at this gorgeous picture I took of my view yesterday. I'm getting ready to pack up and head south which seems to make every moment on the Lake even more precious.

Listening to Leonard Cohen this morning and counting my blessings. I've decided that for this move south, I'll embrace my self reliance, independence and strength instead of resenting that weasel for leaving me alone to do it all myself. Off to walk in the woods with my girls and then to packing.

Found my camera. It was in the pocket of my winter coat from when we went out for a sunrise trip on Barbie Dreamboat.

Florida girls all bundled up

Happy birthday, Sessie!

Shout out to my sister, Leslie, 50-something and Fabulous!

Meanwhile at my little house in Florida . . .

So, once again I have misplaced my camera. No idea where it is but I haven't torn everything apart yet. Figure it will turn up. So just to catch you up, Sue and Katrina and I had a whirlwind week. We went to the beautiful Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens where the trees were a blaze of color, each one screaming, look at me, no look at ME! We went out to eat just about every day, did Boothbay Harbor, Pemaquid, Rockland, Damariscotta Mills and on and on, shopped at Mexicali Blues (my fave)  and for Sue's birthday, celebrated with a lobstah dinnah. It was devine!

We had a sunrise boat ride on Barbie Dreamboat and on our way to the airport we stopped off in Portland where we visited Soakology for foot soaks and massage. LOVE that place! It is awfully quiet around here - but just for a few days because my little sis and my beloved youngest niece are coming for a visit next.

Well, it's been a wild and wonderful three days since my friends, Sue and Katrina, arrived from the Fabulous Florida Keys. Here are a few snaps to show you what we've been up to. 

Pemaquid Light

We paid a visit to Pemaquid Point and toured the lighthouse and admired the gray view over the Atlantic.

Katrina is a million miles away

Went over to Shaw's for chowdah. And if that isn't a picturesque Maine harbor, I don't want to know about it.

Sue channels her inner lobstah

so true!

Yesterday we took a trip to the Farnsworth Art Museum and saw the Shaker exhibit - interesting but not as good as I'd hoped - and visited my beloved Wyeth paintings which made the trip worthwhile. We walked around Rockland and I topped up my olive oil supply and visited Trilium Soaps !shout out! to restock there as well.

Sue at the Farnsworth. I told her to "do a Cleopatra" hmmmm

We had lunch at a new place called Claws. Super cute and when we got to the window, there was my friend, Luanne! Have not seen her since forever and it was a wonderful surprise. We had her lobster rolls and they were awesome! If you are ever in Rockland, you really must go and tell her Lizzie sent you. They were so good, I never even went for my camera - we just devoured them.

This is the view from the back deck of the Sweetgrass Winery and Distillery. We went for a tasting and some laughs. Bought a bottle of their cranberry smash to take out on Barbie Dreamboat.

And here is sweet Sophie in front of a roaring fire. We've had a fire every chilly evening. Very pleasant.

JUST ONE MORE:

Kind of a blurry picture but I wanted to share with you what happens when you go to my little town offices. I went to pay my taxes the other day and the clerk was a young great dane. Very polite even when I complained to him about the exorbitant amount I had to pay.