Hyla Neighbor!

We were rushing out the door to get to an appointment this morning, when we spotted this Gray Tree Frog (Hyla versicolor). He/She was clinging to our storm door, about halfway up. Despite his thriving conservation status as “least concern” neither of us had ever seen one before. Clearly the appointment would have to wait a couple of moments!

After I snapped a few pics, he leapt down to the stoop. While the “versicolor” in his Latin name does mean Gray Tree Frogs can change color, they do so fairly slowly. So I think it was my camera being challenged by the different backgrounds, not his own physiologic magic, which accounts for the different colors between the two photos. I would say he was really somewhere between the two.

Thanks to the Brookhaven National Laboratory you can listen to some (very noisy) Gray Tree Frogs.

Yum!

If you are anywhere near a Trader Joe’s drop what you are doing and head directly for their freezer case. Look for their "Caribbean Fruit Floes". Buy a box. Eat one. Come back and thank me. Repeat.

They are like sorbet on a stick, only chewy. They are meaty popsicles. That sounds bad and these aren’t bad. These are delish.

Please buy them. Please save us from being the kiss of death to another yummy Trader Joe’s product.

Thank you!

Seven Years and Counting...

Today is the seventh anniversary of the legalization of Same Sex Marriage in Massachusetts. Happily, despite repeated attacks, equal marriage has remained the law of the Commonwealth. All those specious arguments; all those dire predictions about how so called “traditional marriage” would be undermined, yet here we all are. The sky did not fall.

Image from Mass Equality’s website.

What A Week!

Tomorrow is Roo’s 50th birthday! It’s also Jake’s birthday. Tuesday is Sue’s (Jake’s Mom) birthday. Thursday is Wendy’s birthday. And my birthday is Wednesday. Which one? Let’s just say my 50th is in the rear view mirror - but not very far!

”Happy Birthday to us,
Happy Birthday to us,
Happy Birthday dear all of us
Happy Birthday to us -
and many more!
Wheeeeeee!!!”


Spring has been arriving at a leisurely pace this year. I snapped the photo of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail lighting on the lilac last year.

Left Behind

As the tide draws down and out across the sand, it leaves so much to see. Ever changing, it reveals new stones, shells, flotsam and sinewy tracks from rivulets of sea water. All quite fascinating and beautiful.

She Was Wonderful

I was very lucky. I had a second Mom, my maternal grandmother. Her given name was Marion, but we all called her Gagee. She was terrific. Intelligent, warm and funny; she was a woman who epitomized unconditional love. And she was a hugger; eager to wrap you up in a big embrace.


That’s Gramps and Gagee, with Gagee holding Carrie Elizabeth in her arms. Gramps was 76, Gagee 75. When the photo was snapped, they had been married for almost 54 years; parents to two daughters, grandparents to ten, great-grandparents to - well, the arithmetic fails me. Were Gagee to magically be alive today, she would be crocheting up a whole bushel of booties for Isabella Rose. And she would surely be looking at Izzy with that same joyous smile that beamed at Carrie almost 35 years ago.

Happy Mother’s Day!

I Kid You Not

Ralph was there again!

For many years, on Park Loop Road, in Acadia National Park, just past Otter Cove, near Little Hunters Beach, a seagull has been waiting for us. O.K. I have no proof that it’s the very same Herring Gull, season after season, but it’s pretty darn cool. We pull up in the car, roll down the window and snap away. I usually get out of the car and continue taking pictures. Dollars to doughnuts, Ralph (or Fred or Harriet) stays patiently in place as if it is his or her pleasure to be part of our travelogue. And every single time, it makes me very, very happy.

After The Rainbow

Frenchman Bay and the Porcupine Islands at sunset

You can see why we never tire of Acadia, Bar Harbor and Mount Desert!

At The End Of The Rainbow

...is Maine.

This rainbow appeared Sunday afternoon, April 17th, several hours after a powerful storm had lashed Mount Desert Island. The wind had howled so fiercely our hotel door whistled and rattled relentlessly! But as the tide rolled out, the clouds followed suit. I shot the photo across Albert Meadow and Shore Path to Frenchman Bay, in the general direction of Egg Rock.

Death Comes

As we listened to the President address the nation tonight, we cried. The horror of September 11th was enormous and life changing.

There has been so much death and destruction since then; loss and pain; so many wrong moves with dire consequences and long lasting repercussions.

We do not yet know the ripples from this moment. But I have no problem with the killing of Osama bin Laden.

We are grateful to President Barack Obama; grateful to all who serve and have served in our military and to the intelligence services personnel around the world.

May we all, some day, know peace...


The full text and video of the President’s speech can be found here

More Maine

Looking our toward Otter Cliffs from Park Loop Road in Acadia National Park