Vacation for Real!

Ah...Fall...so...well...dazzling!  It is a pleasure to live in the country and lift your head from ones work and find beauty all around.  But, a body needs a rest now and again, beyond those moments of head lifting.  If you know us or follow this blog regularly you have probably become aware of the fact that DH & I, just, might be workaholics.  I am not a real fan of that term but, I will admit that we need a bit more R & R in our lives (Rest & Relaxation for my foreign friends)  Just as we scheme the latest project we also scheme for ways to have more fun.  Three or four years ago we had a very wet year and the gardens drowned.  I gave in and called it a bust year for vegetables.  It turned out to be one of the most fun summers ever.  We started going out in on our canoe almost every weekend!  At the time we had an 18 foot lake tracking trekking canoe.  Before we had our son (& gardens) taking week long canoe trips was a big part of our summers but those days seem to have passed.  So we got the bright idea of selling our big canoe and downsizing thinking that it would be much simpler to transport a smaller canoe in our truck for a quick day trip.  Well, we got the smaller canoe, an Old Town 13 footer.  But the next couple years were busy garden and building years.  Last year we never went out once and this year it nearly didn't happen.  We analyzed the problem.  The conclusion was at the end of a day or even the second half of the weekend were just plain pooped.  Solution::: small, quiet, electric motor!

We bought ourselves a Minn Kota Motor for vacation instead of a camping trip.  The maiden voyage was in our own pond.  DH loves it!  I stood and watched him go around and around as long as I could take it.  I had canning to do..... 

A few days later we went to a local lake that is only 15 minutes from our home, Branch Pond.  Maine is blessed with many lakes.  There are quite a few we can explore with in 45 minute drive from our home.  I made a sandwich and grabbed a couple of water bottles and away we went.  Branch Pond is long, narrow, and shallow.  It has only a few homes and camps on it's shores.  It is beautiful and quiet.  Lots of wildlife around.  We saw and Osprey this day.  I didn't get a photo of the Osprey but, here is some of the autumnal splendor we experienced on this day.

Love those hipster sunglasses!  Matching the life jacket was NOT by design! ;)

This is the old mill at the end of the pond.  It was a, totally, lovely ride!  We paddled a bit but, mostly, we let the Minn Kota do the driving for us.  Definitely, a relaxing afternoon.  Packed the canoe away for the winter now.  But next year things should be different!  DH is even threatening to get a fishing license!  This could be a whole new chapter in our lives!

Yes, we have matching hats...too cute!  

Mine is the original..after years of hat envy he got himself one too!

☼ Forest & Field Happenings ☼

Gardening and harvest is winding down... a bit.  I still have a pretty long list of things to do in these final days... some potatoes to still dig, garlic to plant, holding out until the last possible moment before calling it with the eggplants, peppers, beets, carrots, & leeks.  I don't really want to think about the firewood.  I have been so busy in the gardens and the kitchen that I haven't found time to slip into the woods...until today.  DH offered to chainsaw anything that might be obstructing my trails but, before he lugged the chainsaw into the woods I needed to make an exploratory walk and assess what was needed.  I knew this old pine needed to be cut and it is near the house.  I was sort of dreading what I might find as to the state of my trails.  I am not sure I will have time to maintain them this year but, I was pleasantly surprised!  I think I can get by with very little brush cutting before the snow flies!  Also, only 3 spots for chainsawing and not in the way back part of the trails.  So here is a little explore down the too long neglected woods...though I am sure "they" don't feel neglected, except for, maybe, the Ravens.

The Ravens have returned to our woods from wherever they go for the summer.  They have been croaking and swooping at me for the past week or so.  I grabbed a handful of duck food to leave them below their nest.  But, they better hurry since it looks like a squirrel is occupying the stump I use to leave offerings!

~~Pausing & Seeing~~~ small beauties along the way.  Oh how, I have missed the woods and the slowing it brings to my busy self.  This time of year is a mix of worn down life as well as brilliant beauty.

Autumn

BY GRACE PALEY

What is sometimes called a   

   tongue of flame

or an arm extended   burning

   is only the long

red and orange branch of

   a green maple

in early September   reaching   

   into the greenest field

out of the green woods   at the   

   edge of which the birch trees

appear a little tattered   tired

   of sustaining delicacy

all through the hot summer   re-

   minding everyone (in   

our family) of a Russian

   song   a story by

Chekhov or my father on

   his own lawn   standing   

beside his own wood in

   the United States of   

America   saying (in Russian)

   this birch is a lovely

tree   but among the others

   somehow superficial

“We depend on nature not only for our physical survival. We also need nature to show us the way home, the way out of the prison of our minds. We got lost in doing, thinking, remembering, anticipating; lost in a maze of complexity and a world of problems. We have forgotten what rocks, plants and animals still know. We have forgotten how to be – to be still, to be ourselves, to be where life is: here and now.” -Eckhart Tolle