Summer Fun, part 1

I'm not sure about the best way to organize these posts, so I think I'll try to go in somewhat chronological order.

Way, way back in the spring my parents came to visit. We drove around the area a bit (I was still learning my way around at that point), visited wetland 25 so they could see the setup, went to a few yard sales, and ate at a couple of yummy restaurants (Sea Dog Brewery and Captain Nick's (delicious stuffed shrimp!)). It was much fun.

Over Memorial Day weekend, Jackie was in the area visiting some friends who live in Orono. We drove to Belfast, which is a great town with lots of fun shops (like a fabulous cooking store where I got some cookie cutters) and pretty views of the ocean. We also ate delicious lobster rolls at Young's Lobster Pound. It was a lovely, fun day.

Upcoming: C visits (twice!) and we go to Bar Harbor to see some wildlife, I take off to Harborside to visit the Ardnoys, and Matt M. and I experience the Bangor State Fair. Plus, I go to the movies. A lot.

But before all that, a perk no one mentioned when I took the job: our field sites are COVERED with wild berries. Itty bitty strawberries in the early summer that were better than any I'd ever tasted before, plump and juicy red raspberries at the beginning of July, blueberries at the end of July through August, and blackberries (by far my favorite) from the end of July until nearly October. Yum! Most were just eaten in the field (a lovely break on some of the longer days), but I did pick some of these: About three times this many, as a matter of fact (and yes, it took forever): In order to make this: All from scratch, except for the whipped cream (and then only because we didn't have an electric mixer and whisking cream by hand sounded unpleasant). In my opinion, strawberry shortcake tastes like summer.

Homecoming

Sometimes you go away for the weekend and come home to find a chair shaped like a shoe in your living room:And not just any shoe, as you can see, but a lady's high-heeled leopard print shoe.

In other news, Homecoming was amazing. It was wonderful to see so many of my friends again, and to get a tour of the renovations to Alpha Theta. I think it'll be quite nice when it's all finished. On Friday I ventured over to Gilman (the biology building) and spent a couple of hours chatting with my professors and co-workers from my time at Dartmouth. Here is a picture of me and Xiaodong (one of Rob's research associates; I worked with her from before I graduated until this past March).

On Friday night there was the bonfire on the Green. My camera battery was dead, unfortunately, so I don't have any pictures from this year. However, here is a picture from a couple of years ago to give you an idea:The freshmen run around the bonfire and get heckled by the upperclassmen, the marching band plays, captains of the sports team make speeches that no one listens to (no one can really hear them over all the other noise), and so forth. It's a wild time.

My camera and computer are still feuding, but I managed to force them to communicate long enough to upload my pictures. However, it took me over an hour to accomplish this feat, and so it is now about an hour past my bedtime. Soon there will be pictures from all sorts of random summer fun! For now, a picture of beautiful Occom Pond in the fall. This photograph doesn't really do justice to how beautiful the walk around the pond is right now, but it will give you some idea.

Life Update

First, let me introduce you to my newest friend:Her name is Esmé, and she's a black bear hamster. She's a real sweetheart. You can probably expect more pictures of her to show up . . . once I figure out what's going on with my camera. Yes, in unhappy news, my computer and camera are not recognizing each other and so I can't upload all the wonderful pictures I wanted to show you. Hopefully I'll figure it out soon. In the meantime:
Here's a picture of me from when Dad was visiting over the summer, and it rained. A lot.


The next three pictures are from Cori, who came up with me last weekend. See that smile on my face? That's not a smile; it's a look of despair. That pretty little river is due to the 6+ inches of rain Maine got, which resulted in washing away a chunk of our road. Nothing like starting out your day with a multi-mile hike.


This is me and a spotted salamander. I think Cori's caption sums it up well: "talking to amphibians, cute? or a sign that Maine is getting to her?"


Me on Stud Mill road, the main dirt road to get from wetland to wetland.

Hunting Season

Here is a picture of me rockin' the orange vest and orange hat I get to wear now that it's hunting season in Maine:

It's beautiful up there right now, with the trees turning all kinds of colors. Now, if we could have another sunny day, instead of this dreary rainy nonsense, I would be happy.