Thanks for the memories, old and new

A friend of mine I haven't seen for about 25 years came up to see me yesterday, from where she is visiting her children in Boston (thanks, Kathy, for letting Mom have the car!).

We picked up the threads of our lives while doing a bit of touristing in Boothbay and then headed to the river, both yesterday afternoon and this morning before she headed south. Janet is a rock collector, among other good things (I used to have her on my list of "coolest women I've ever known" and she's still up there, though the field has widened since I was 18 - how do I know these so very full of common sense women and am lucky enough to call them friends? Schmazin'). Laurie took this photo of us in the woods. Argh, not even tea yet. Thanks for keeping it dark, Laurie!

Here is some of what we did. But I didn't have my camera with me as we ate at the historically famous Red's Eats last night while watching an impossibly orange moon, almost still full, rise up over the trees, painting the Sheepscot River with its reflection. Janet described it looking as if some invisible being was swiftly pulling it up sideways by a thread, it happened so quickly. Those of us on the deck were awed and joyed by that most simple and seasonal pleasure. Aren't they the best ones? Oh, and the lobster roll was pretty darn great too.

This is going to be chock full of photos, fair warning! Also, in no particular order...I know you can deal with that. I know you will!

Heron in flight

Heron in flight dos

Bumblebee on a dahlia - I am not a big flower grower, but I wouldn't mind trying these!

Another bee, this one doing the hokey pokey; another dahlia (there are SO many kinds!)

Fishing heron

Reflection

A pair of herons - ok, I know, enough with the herons...

Lichen

Janet on the rocks

There were plenty enough rocks here for her to take a few home (sorry Andrew!)

The Little House in Boothbay Harbor - of course I love it!

House of windows...view of the harbor

Thanks, Janet, for pointing out this mushroom...is it edible?

Wood going back to the earth - I know the feeling

The world under a rock - in a minute, the ants were moving their eggs to safety
(this one is worth clicking twice)

Not a great shot, but the green is the reflection of trees on the still water - 

and the osprey had just caught a fish, which if you look really close, you can see...sort of

Good Osprey hunting

Jusy sayin'....we should have something like this! And I love the name

Rose hips from the wild roses...rosa rugosa

Best spiral staircase I've ever seen, in an art gallery, Coco Viva we moseyed through (the works of one artist, Monique Parry, were so vivid and fine, they were like tropical botanicals, plus lots of other great art by other artists and  fine art craftspeople...)

Top of the staircase

Still water

Janet musing

How good to have old friends who can remember back and back and back and still we can go forward to the now...and enjoy making new memories. Thanks for coming all the way up here, Janet! I'll see you in Florida, and it won't be 25 years this time!

Maine miscellany

First, I DID get another chance at the ruby throated hummingbird! And I saw his girlfriends as well, but they were too elusive for me to catch on pixels...this time (and it's pouring right now, so I'll be inside awhile - just wanting to relate to you all at home, who seem to be in the clear for another while! Yippie!)

I continued the lazy theme throughout the day yesterday, but at one point I did get off my butt to go for a walk in the woods down to the river. It isn't a deep and dark wood, more like an abandoned park wood, with deep leaf litter and plenty of fallen trees both large and small - some so small I could push them over - so of course, I did. But the river is timeless, its age marked by the rocky shores, worn smooth by the rise and fall of tides over a few eons.

For some reason rocks have a real appeal to me. Every time I walk the beaches of Culebra, I have this fleeting regret that I never studied geology - those rocks tell stories worth understanding, if only to respect the wonder of our earth,  and take a hint at the value (or valuelessness) of time.

Rocks here, in their vastly different setting, seem so different...even while so much the same.
And now, into the woods and on to the river. Or vice-versa.

Broken

BIG crystals

Natural shelving

Escargot on the rocks

Barbie and Ken's Hobbit House - complete with running water

That black thing is a funky river plant left by the tide

Fallen, still beautiful

I think this is fake

I love the ferns here!

Hanging on anyway...for now

We all fall down

Mushroom view of the floor

 Atlantis

 

Of course there is more where that came from, but I'm off to do something else. Like make more tea. And then to work. I love that word! Remind me I said that.

Bonus photo! Elena Jahn on Monhegan Island 

(Laurie was there for a photo workshop and they got to meet up on another rock)