The Rain Falls Mainely On Blueberry Plains

                         

 

    Dylan....Hard Rain     A young Bob Dylan plays about what Maine is experiencing here in Maine. It is getting to the point of being ridiculous now. It has been two weeks or MORE with no end in sight….Rain….Rain….and more RAIN! I am not really sure if I remember what the sun looks like. Some days I feel like I am in a movie and the crew is going to shut off the rain machine at any time. It is not only effecting our crops that we grow here in Maine but the businesses as well. Who wants to buy ice cream when it is raining? Of course golfing is no fun in the rain! Campers at our local camp grounds are staying inside their tents and cabins. Outdoor events are being taken inside. We did manage to get one or two days of “dry” weather, long enough to mow our grass….thank God…because with all that RAIN, it sure did grow a lot!

   What’s going on in Maine? Is there a constant dark cloud that hovers over us and refuses to leave? Is it the largest and slowest stalled out weather front we have ever seen? Has someone cursed our beautiful state and made us the recipients of constantly dripping days and nights? What’s up? I’ll tell you what’s up!….cloudy…gloomy looking skies….that’s what’s up! We are ALL sick of it. Enough already! I can’t tell you the last time I watered my garden….there’s NO NEED TO….the RAIN takes care of that!! Those strange mushrooms are growing again this year because it is so WET!! Even the birds are sick of it and so is my cat Baby and my dog Obie. We need our big orange/red/yellow ball back….right now!!

I will never take you for granted again….I promise! Even if you are hot and annoying at times, I promise I will keep my mouth shut about it….really I mean it this time! Just come on back….we miss your bright, glowing face.

   I just came back in from my garden, and believe it or not it seems to be doing alright. My tomatoes are growing like weeds. The corn is getting taller and the sunflowers are as well. The pepper plants have chew marks on them. The green beans are better and the ugly bugs have disappeared in the rain. I hope they don’t come back with our red ball (if it ever comes back) and start chewing again. The grass has grown probably 3 inches in just a couple of days.

   There are a few pluses to getting this much rain. I don’t think ANYONE’S well will go dry this summer! Everything is green….green….green! My husband reseeded some large patches of our lawn that had gone bald and they are very green. The patio furniture stays clean and so do the cars. It keeps the black flies down and the June Bugs have not emerged yet….they are too busy drowning in the soil! The giant moths that come out at night when the outside light is on are gone! You KNOW how much I love those bugs! :)  So…pray for the warmth of the sun to come back to Maine…..purty please……thanks girls!!

   I hope to be all warm and fuzzy next time I write in this blog and I am hoping it will be from my good friend….Mr. Sun.

 

 

   Meanwhile……my mantra….my chant….my daily prayer will include our wonderful sun. Maybe if I say enough nice things about it, we will see it again. Here’s hoping…..

 

 

 

The Honest Scrap

                             

   Our good friend Jane Gaston at Gaston Studio has bestowed this award upon me! This is my second award since being in blog land and I am honored. Jane is a great writer, whose unbelievable stories from real life, will keep you driven to come back for more .She’s like a drug….you can’t get enough of her. You cannot  just read one paragraph and move on, it pulls you in like a great novel. When you go to her post, you’d better have a little time on your hands and a good hot cup of coffee and a comfy chair, because you are in for the long haul. Thanks Jane! Coming from you, this is pretty outstanding! Now…about the award:

   The award is bestowed upon a blogger whose blog content or design is, in the giver's opinion, brilliant. It particularly highlights those bloggers who consistently post from the heart, put their hearts on display, or write from the depths of their souls.

    I am following Jane’s lead here by listing bloggers I believe do the same.  There are so many great blogs out there….as a matter of fact they are all fantastic. Some people don’t care for the award thing and that’s ok. As long as everyone KNOWS I love you and your fabulous blogs, were good…..right?…..Yes….that means YOU!….YOU know who you are! Ok…..drum roll please………….Thank you……………Here we go:

1.  C & G Design   …..This is a warm and friendly woman named Dawn who ALWAYS writes from the heart. She is a kind and loving mom who shares stories about her kids and their adventures as well. I have come to love this blog, her writings, and her amazing crafts! I hope to someday meet her!

2. DowneastDoingStuff ……. Elenka, is a  down to earth fellow Mainer who is an incredible artist and blogger as well. She definitely writes from the depth of her soul.

3. Note Songs …..Oh my….Sheila! Talk about a sweet person, that is full of life and speaks to us all with a song in her heart….literally! Each post comes with a song she has posted along with her writings….hence the name of her blog! A great lady!

4. Rural Maine Life ….. Kathleen is also from Maine….hmm,,,is there some kind of theme happening here?…oh well…She’s a wonderful Maine gal who really knows how to get those auction deals and share them with the rest of us. She also makes some beautiful crafty stuff.

5. Smart Mouth Broad …..And Last but certainly NOT least is our girl Smart Mouth Broad….I just like saying the full name. If I ever had her for dinner, I would have to print that name on a card and put it next to her plate! Love it! You’ll get a real big kick in the (arse) reading this girl’s blog. She’s a scream and always from the heart with a little tongue in cheek thrown in for good measure.

 

  Ok….that’s my list and I am sticking to it. Thanks Jane for the award and the chance to highlight a few of our bloggers.  As long as we all remember that it is NOT about being awarded that counts, it is about being decent and kind, tolerant and understanding of one another that is important.  I don’t know many bloggers….just a hand full and that’s alright with me. Keep it simple is my motto. I can barely get to most of you now, but when I do, I am happy to be there. Hey….while I have your undivided attention….what do you all think of a once a week blog where we all submit one recipe we can all copy and use. Like for instance….one week would be a particular type of salad or ??…whatever? I am looking for a good potato salad recipe right now. I’ve never found one I liked. So….tell me what you think? Maybe some of you already do this? Thanks again Jane….glad to have you back!

                                  

Trying To Get Back Here…..

   

   Every time I sit down to start a post in my blog lately, the phone rings or I forget I have to be somewhere or my cat baby is meowing or Obie wants my attention! I can barely get to my garden to check on those weeds! It has been raining here for days. Everyone is complaining about it. It’s great for the garden but also good for those darned weeds….which are multiplying as I write. I have some weird gold/yellow/green bugs that are dining on my green bean leaves. Last year they piggy backed all over them and I hand picked them off. I don’t have time lately so I may have to re-seed the beans. It really ticks me off when bugs invade my garden. That’s the price of planting an organic garden I guess. I will have to research this some more.

   All is well over here on Blueberry plains. We had a great Fathers Day get together here. Woody and Alice were here (my father and mother in law) and Joe (my brother in law) and my kids, Kyle and Carissa. There were also many dogs! Kyle brought his dog Katie….Carissa brought her dog Piper….Joe brought his dog Jecoda, and of course Obie loved every minute of it! He thought the whole thing was about him! My cat Baby hid upstairs the whole time….sneaking down about a half hour after everyone left…..very carefully…and lurking around the corners, just in case!

   We had a nice meal of homemade chicken fingers, a pot of yellow eye beans, pasta salad, and for dessert we had a brownie pizza. That was a little rich and you really had to have a long sweet tooth to enjoy that one! We all had fun. The boys mostly did computer stuff in the living room and us girls chatted in the dining room and laughed and laughed. We had a ball.

   I had a surprise for my father in law that I had been working on for about 3 weeks. I was not able to blog about it because he reads my blog! His blog is called Good Old Beans. He loves birds and creatures of the wild and outside he and Alice’s home, he created a bird feeding station. He affectionately calls it GOODOLDBEANFEEDINGSTATION. So….I made him a sign that said just that for Fathers day. Here is a picture of it from his blog. Would you believe I forgot to take pictures that day!

  This is a picture of it once he took it home. It is made from a piece of baseboard floor molding. It was many colors as I could not choose which was best. After many layers of paint, it ended up red, white and blue. I noticed there was a flat area in the center on one side…perfect for stenciling the letters! I tried to draw a rooster and a couple of birds….Hey…I’m not an artist….I tried! On the other side, I painted a checkerboard pattern…part of it is red and white and the other blue and white. I think he was happy with it because if you go to his blog, you will see that he hung it up on his feeding station! Pretty cool. Well…..it is time for me to take Obie for his glucose level check. We are hoping this is the last time for a while. He’s lost weight but we are not sure how much? I am real curious about that. He no longer looks like a sausage shaped Beagle….he’s looking more cut and healthy and Russell Terrier like. That little bit of weight loss makes a big difference on a small dog. I will check in with you all as soon as I get more that 5 minutes in my very busy life lately. It’s been a little crazy!!! Until then…..have a great week!

                       

A Visit Last Fall…..

 

Last fall, when my garden was at it’s peak, I called my girlfriend Jo-Jo and asked her to come by. She has 3 adorable children. I thoroughly enjoy watching these kids walk through my pumpkin patch and choose their own pumpkins for Halloween. Usually I have a basket full of veggies and sunflowers for them to take home. Here are some pictures of these yummy, full of life kids, and their beautiful mom…..

All you have to do is tell them you are taking a picture and they pose!

Aren’t they adorable? the child standing is Gabe, the baby. He is so animated.

Big brother Jacob can make some pretty strange faces too.

Maya has her hands full being the only girl and big sister in the family! There’s mom….my friend Jo-Jo….they had a fun day. They took home some corn, beets, strange looking carrots and gourds, purple beans and cucumbers, spaghetti and butternut squash and pumpkins. I am looking forward to seeing them at the end of the summer once again. Jo is an awesome mom. She makes all of their Halloween costumes every year. She sews individual blankets for these cherubs too. Each child is treated like a king or queen on their birthday. She makes all of their absolute favorite foods on that day….no matter WHAT it is. When she can, she has a special day for each individual child. She takes one child out shopping, out to dinner and maybe to a movie or museum. It makes them feel important and individual. I dedicate today’s blog to my friend Jo-Jo……One of the most awesome mom’s I know! Oh and I almost forgot….she is a police liaison….which means she works for the police department as a counselor. Not just ANY counselor though. She wears a bullet proof vest and goes into dangerous places to talk to troubled people. She talks people down off bridges, she goes out on suicide calls, and deals with the homeless, just to name a few of her sometimes dangerous jobs. She does all that, and still finds the time to be the most engaging mom I know. Way to go JO~JO!!