Sunshine on a Stalk

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Summer Stock Sunday - Hurricane Irene Edition

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It's Saturday night, 27 August. As I write this we're sitting in my living room back home in Israel, where the day saw bright blue skies and temperatures down to a perfectly reasonable low-90's, flying out Friday just before Irene hit the east coast. Irene's not expected to reach New Hampshire until tomorrow (and then just as a tropical storm, not a full-force hurricane) so we weren't really in any trouble leaving Boston yesterday, but my heart is with all of you in the full path of the storm and I wish you and everyone on the east coast safety for both you and your property and a speedy return of your lost power too.

In deference to Irene's fury, I thought some rain would be in order for this week's Summer Stock. These particular drops (as opposed to quite a few drops that came pouring in on us in Vermont last week and drove us from our no longer anything even close to dry tent into my parents' warm and dry, albeit suddenly very cramped, camper in the middle of the night, but nevermind) fell on a leaf by Acadia's Jordan Pond, I love the way all the little droplets reflected the light right back again. There's probably a metaphor for us all in there somewhere but I'm completely jetlagged and not feeling coherent enough to find it right now...

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Stay safe and dry everyone, and check in when you can!

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Summer Stock Sunday - Jordan Pond

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Shoot, this didn't auto-publish when it should. We're in Vermont and all is well. Sorry for any confusion.

By the time you read this I'll be camping with a large chunk of my extended family near Vermont's Quechee Gorge (in fact, it's already after midnight and I really should be packing instead of blogging). We're still having a wonderful time here in New England and have pretty much been on the go constantly. Between visiting relatives and multi-day trips around New England I feel like I've barely spent any time here in my parents' very lovely town. My "must do" list still has all sorts of things on it but we'll only have one more day here in New Hampshire after we return from Vermont, so yet again we'll have to leave some undone in the hopes of getting to them next year (note to self: buy the dang butterscotch chips to take home - out of all things, don't forget that one!).

While I'm off gallivanting around Vermont enjoy this images of Acadia's Jordan Pond. Extraordinary, isn't it? How can you not fall head over heels for a place that looks like this even on a cool and foggy day?

Hopefully I'll be able to check in while we're away, the campground says they have free wifi...

Hope you're all having a wonderful summer, wherever it's taking you!

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Summer Stock Sunday - Acadia National Park

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Jay and I are up in Maine this week celebrating our 20th(!) wedding anniversary and enjoying the wonders of Acadia by both land and sea (which now that we've finally managed to connect to the inn's wifi I can tell you about - sorry for not visiting you all earlier this week, we didn't have internet for the first part of the week). Yesterday we went hiking (me) and biking (him) and then after lunch went off to Seawall to go tidepooling. We didn't have much luck at the tidepools (I think we got the tides wrong) but to our delight right across the street, literally 4 or 5 feet from our car, we saw this not so little fellow chomping down on wild rosehips. We were so close we could actually hear him chewing!

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After the beaver was done with his dinner he took an extra branch back to his lodge for a later snack. You can see him swimming along with it in the shot below, and that big pile of sticks on the far side of the brush is his dam.

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With a sight like that on Thursday we weren't sure that the half-day kayak trip we took today (Friday) would compare but oh boy did it - first we caught a glimpse of a harbor porpoise off in the distance, then we saw a bald eagle up in a tree, and then we saw literally dozens of seals start popping up all around our boats! What an incredible sight, one even surfaced just 10 feet in front of me! (I think that was a little too close for his comfort because he took one look at me and dove straight under again, to resurface a safer 20 or 25 feet away.) I wish I had pictures of them because it was one of the most incredible things I've seen in my life, but I was scared to risk my camera in a dry bag out in the middle of the water. I shouldn't have worried, the bay we were in was as flat as glass, but I will say that not having a camera allowed me to really focus on being present in the moment instead of obsessing over getting the perfect shot, something I should probably remember to do more often. What an incredible gift we received today, even the guide was amazed at how many seals were surrounding Jay's and my boat.

Tomorrow (Saturday) we'll take the ferry over to Great Cranberry and Little Cranberry Islands for a bit of an island ramble and then it's time to stock the cooler with fresh-caught lobsters and head for home. It's been an amazing trip, reminding me yet again why Acadia is one of my very favorite places on earth, and so worth the 5 hour drive from New Hampshire to get here.

I hope you're all having a wonderful summer. Sign the linkie and tell us all about it :).
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Summer Stock Sunday - Loon on the Big Lake

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We're having a wonderful time here in New Hampshire enjoying family, watching cousins pick up right where they left off a year ago, eating ourselves silly (yikes) and staying away from the computer so we can really enjoy this gorgeous New England summer. This little corner of the world truly is paradise - at least for 2 months of the year ;).

Today's agenda included watching Maya and my niece in a play (skit) at theater camp, peanut butter fudge ice cream (and no I didn't share, the kids had huge scoops of their own choice of flavors (and by the way, cotton candy ice cream is in fact as awful as it sounds)), and an afternoon of boating on the big lake, capped off by watching this beautiful guy diving for his (her?) dinner.

So what have you been up to this week?

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