Meme as it ever was

The first 10 people that respond to this post will get something made by me. It will be about, or tailored to, those first ten people who respond.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make.
- What I create will be just for you.
- It'll be done this year.
- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a mix tape. It may be fic, or a poem. I may draw or paint something. I might bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange (you really should be worried at this point).

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you have to put this in your journal as well, if you expect me to do something for you.

My first ever meme.

In other news, I just sent off a set of 11 Muppet covers I did to a gentleman who collects Muppet stamps and related material. He paid me $100!!! He actually offered me more, but I felt reluctant to take so much money for something that was fun to do. Hopefully the check won't bounce.

For each of the 11 stamps in the series I tried getting another special cancel on a second stamp that somehow tied in to the first. Some were more of a stretch than others, but all were fun.

Who Falls For That (Kenne)bunk?

Another trip down to York to pick up mail from my mail drop there. 3 pieces this month. En route Pandora and I stopped in Kennebunk to look at the falls now half frozen. I think this is the Mousam River. Some of the falls were flowing and some were frozen over. Here it looks like a low flying cloud got stuck in the ice as well.

click on the picture to get a better view of it

In York we visited the Nubble Lighthouse. It was a bit tricky clambering over the rocks on the shoreline because they were covered in snow and you couldn't see the spaces between them... Still, Pandora wanted to get as close to the water as possible and I let her up to the point where we both (within seconds of each other) started slipping on the sea spray frozen on the rocks. Most of the photos I took there this time are canted to one side. The result of my arm being tugged at by the Go-Dog.

On the way out I took the usual Route 1, but on the way back I took a side trip on Route 9 in Wells. I stopped at the first (of several) segment of the Rachel Carson Wildlife Refuge. Another hike through snow covered trees with a view of a multi-layered frozen waterway headed for the ocean. There were two elder women snowshowing along the one path. Not a very long hike, but Pandora loved it.

I missed the turnoff for Goose Rocks beach after I got through Kennebunkport due to paying more attention to a police car set up for nabbing speeders. But it was probably just as well as by the time I got back to 295 it had started snowing and the flashing speed limit signs were on to tell everybody to drop their speed to 45 on the highway.

Snowing Out On A Limb

It's snowed a bit up here in Maine recently. Not as much as some places, but certainly more than Carrie and I have ever had come down on us in Arizona. Today, Tuesday, we went out to Wolfe's Neck Woods State Park to look at snow. The top picture is right on the shore of Casco Bay. The photo on the left shows some of the shattered ice caused from the shifting tides.

Much of the park is covered with hiking trails, and in spite of the snow, you can see by the tracks in the snow going over this bridge, that people are still using them.

Pandora and I are in the last picture amidst the snow covered trees.

You can click on any picture to widen the horizons.

D'oh! A Deer!

The boss, generous fellow that he is, gave me his cold on Monday. I toughed it out through the week, but yesterday it went from my throat where it was manageable to my nose giving me classic cold symptoms: sneezing, drizzly nose, off-focused gaze, slurry voice, and a head that feels like it's been stuffed with wet cotton. I'm taking the day off work today. Pairing that to my Tuesday off might put me back on my feet for Wednesday.
It's snowing right now. Big, fluffy flakes are just drifting out of the sky. Yesterday we had wind as well as snow, so they were going mostly horizontally. Pandora vastly prefers wallowing in the fresh powder to the crusty stuff we had left over from Xmas. Snow, fresh or old, means an opportunity for tracks. We've seen deer, squirrel, rabbit, and quite a few we can't identify. Last week I tried to find a way through the woods behind our house so I could walk Pandora and avoid the multiple hazards of Durham Road. We didn't find a way through that didn't involve trespassing, but we did find a number of -ummm- signs of deer occupation. And still we have yet to site a deer! Birds are more common: plenty of crows, chickadees, blue jays, an occasional cardinal, another bald eagle, and yesterday I think I saw a pine grosbeak. I haven't seen our turkeys since autumn.
I'm trying to get into the habit of taking Pandora for special walks on my Sundays off. Yesterday aside, we've been to Wolfe's Neck Woods and Winslow Park. Both were very picturesque with access to the coast. Winslow even had a sandy beach we'll have to revisit when the weather gets warmer.

Splish Splash, We Were Taking In Bath

Another day off together saw us up in Bath, Maine. Famous for shipbuilding. I found postcards with these bridges on them as well as an older card with just the older bridge.

We actually ran errands in a couple of towns beforehand, but it was Bath we wanted to be sightseeing in. It was cold and windy, but we braved the weather to walk along the river and go in and out of some downtown shops.