No leaves yet but these buds are ready to pop and the hosta and bleeding hearts are pushing up towards the sun. We're having beautiful sunny days in the 60's and cold nights in the 40's and for all of us who are pushing the season and planting, frost tonight! Honestly! It's May! No black flies yet so the girls and I are enjoying some nice long walks in the woods.

view from my window

I've been nose to the grindstone, cleaning up my house and my yard and (finally) finishing up my taxes. I did make a brief trip with my friend, Maine Sue, up to Rockland to restock my olive oil and balsamics. Fiore! Represent! Oh, I have missed you, my Portuguese, Spanish and Greek friends! I love when the northern hemisphere olive oils are here. I think I ran out at the end of January, however, the owner visits the Keys every winter and has promised to make a special delivery next year if need be. Thanks, Pat!

So, in celebration of being all moved in and taxes done, I felt I deserved a treat and off we went to Reds Eats. Now, I would not be caught dead there in summer and here is why:
 check out the line!!
Here is what it looked like yesterday  :)
 so I had their fabulous lobster roll and Sue had . . . wait for it . . . a cheeseburger! Seriously, go figure.
 Now THAT is a lobster roll!

Can I just say . . .

. . . I miss my BFF Sue, all the way back in Key Largo.

love you!

I have been having severe sewing withdrawal, so yesterday I spent six hours cleaning and unpacking my studio. Finally in the 60's so it was the perfect day for it. No little dead bodies this year - I went with these all natural peppermint bags which are supposed to repel mice - but they must have been really really repulsed because they obviously came in and used every available space as a toilet. I try to pretend I'm cleaning up birdseed but can't help thinking about death by Hantavirus. ick
My plan is to finish spring cleaning the house and the garden and then I've got a date with Miss Elna. Can't wait!

my sweet little studio

The girls were experiencing a little spring fever themselves and nearly took me out with a huge stick behind the knees. I'm pretty sure it wasn't on purpose . . .

And, I'm off to shovel the ashes out of the fireplace but I don't really like making plans for the day, because then the word "premeditated" gets thrown around in the courtroom.  haha

Here is my little cottage, looking barren in the watery spring sunlight. Not much in the garden yet. The temperatures finally got into the 50's yesterday and I snapped this picture of the girls soaking up the sun in the yard while I unpacked.

 No leaves out yet but no bugs either so we had a nice long walk.

And did I tell you the pipes burst in my washing machine this winter? Well they did and that's how I found myself downtown at the laundromat - oh joy. And who should I see running at me like a crazy woman?  My friend, Sarah, proud owner of King Eider's Pub - only the best pub on the Eastern seaboard! Here is her smiling face and it was oh so great to see her and hug her after so many months. Oyster madness at the pub (half price oysters all day) so of course I took full advantage!

 Now, I really feel like I'm home.

Today marks the two year anniversary of my divorce. I can't believe how that thought still has the power to make me feel sick and sad. I will say I now realize that I am 100% better off without him. He sucked the air out of a room and I am definitely my own person now, not just an extension of him, which is what I'd become. But, that's life with a sociopath. I do still miss my best friend and the laughing, how we "got" each other, but that person is in the wind. Maybe never even was. And, that hole will fill up altogether soon enough. Those things were not worth the other mean ugly parts anyway. Especially since I have such wonderful friends all my own now, and a better life, albeit quieter. So I really can't complain. Just mark the day and move on and probably next year, April 26th will just be another lovely day and I won't think about such things at all.

So, I take this as a good omen. I'm driving along, camera at the ready to take my usual picture of crossing into Maine on the Piscataqua Bridge when I hear a horn. And then I hear it again. I look over and it is Joyce! My friend Joyce from New Hampshire whom I haven't seen in a couple of years. We took the first exit and had a little reunion. So GREAT to see her. Don't you think that's a good omen?

And, home again. No dead mice this year, at least so far, so that is a plus. However, nobody told me it is still winter here!! It is COLD. There is a hint of green in the garden, well maybe more of a suggestion of green. But the temperatures are supposed to climb to the 60's in the next few days and that sounds lovely. Here is the sunset to welcome me on my first night back in Maine, The Way Life Should Be.

Saturday

Had another fun day in Frederick. We visited the Community Bridge, a trompe l'oeil project that is simply amazing and if you are ever in the area, you must visit. Everything you see, the stone blocks, the alcoves, everything is painted on flat concrete. Wow.

the view from in front

the view from the window of the art school

faux!

even the ivy is not real! 

So, yesterday we got up early and Stacy departed for points south while the girls and I loaded up and headed north. It was our longest day on the road but I was determined to get to Massachusetts to my sister's house, wanting to hug every one of them and see their faces, after all the crap that went down in Boston. We were on the road for well over nine hours, had terrible traffic in Pennsylvania this year, but flew through Hartford which felt like a miracle, and was mos def a first! We arrived in time for dinner and I loved sitting around the dinner table with everybody, just being in the bosom of my family. (that is such a weird expression, isn't it?)
Also, got to meet the newest member of the family, G, named after Mr. Callum in NCISLA and if you don't get the reference, it doesn't matter. Suffice to say, he/she/it - we're not sure yet - is the cutest little black kitten ever. I did not take one picture. I was so tired that I squirted face wash on my toothbrush and didn't realize it until I put it in my mouth! oy
Final lap today!