Hope this makes up for my prolonged absence...

....but I haven't been doing much writing here (elsewhere, yes. Lots. But not here). To keep you entertained, you need to click on this lovely, um, cake:

Just click on the picture. Seriously. It will send you to a world of culinary delights beyond your wildest dreams...

Memorial Day Part II

So Mum was too busy during the actual Memorial Day to do our Memorial Day shindig up at Addison, so we went the following week. Of course it rained the entire time, so I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked. We went to Helen's first, trying to wait out the rain. Mmmm, pies.

Then we headed out to Addison.

Here is Freddie and Papa. We just ran out of the truck, plopped down the geraniums and dove back in the truck again. So much for a long, dignified remembrance vigil.



Here are the babies, which are in the glass case. This is the only marble statue in the cemetery, and once upon a time somebody decided to enclose them in glass to protect them from the snows and the salty wind. Just about everybody I know who has been to this cemetery talks about them and wonders about them. Mum remembers Mie-Mie talking about them when Mum was small, so even back then they were quite the conversation piece.



I've always found the babies' brother interesting too. His stone is hard to read, and is now in several pieces, but it reads, "Reuben Wass, Son of Capt... & E.... Wass died on board the brig C.C... nite May 18th, 1842, AE 18 ys 11 mos. His death was caused by a fall from the fore-top-gallant-yard on the night of the 16th." If you look closely there is a carving of the brig on the top of his stone.

When you leave the cemetery road, there is this sign that always cracks me up.


We've never actually seen the blind man walking, we're just grateful there's a sign to warn us.

Afterwards we went to visit the llamas. This is also a part of our family tradition, which makes people smile and nod and back away slowly.

Llamas in the rain make me giggle.
Up at the farmhouse this poor demented rooster kept announcing that it was dawn, and the llamas kept looking up at it as if it were some sort of Llama Announcer. They all stared at it for quite some time. It was weird.


Llamas are such strange animals, especially in the rain. I kept singing this under my breath and Mum thought I was just a tad bit weird:



Runs in the family, I guess.

More pictures to come!

Memorial Day

So the day before Memorial Day I call Dad and he is going on and on about how Ellen and Kate are coming down for the parade and then he's going to take them out to breakfast, and he doesn't once invite me. So at 7:00 that morning I drive the 2 hours down to surprise them. I finally found them waiting for the parade outside of People's, which isn't a bank, and nearly caused an accident (but Ellen thoughtfully coached me on my driving practices-- it always seems like I only drive stupid when my sister is around).

We watched the parade go by, waiting for the Grand Moment when the Robotics team went by.


We were expecting nerf balls. There were no nerf balls. That disappointed us. There was a dancing dragon made from one of the big balls, though.


Afterwards, we went home and played with the kittens. There are about 3,982,237 of them. This one is especially adorable, on it's first trip outside:


Beep, my cats' mother, sensibly keeps her two kittens away from the others. This In a nearby nesting box there are three mother cats and a plethora of squirmy babies in a cuddle puddle.


We gave one of the cuddle puddle babies to Beep to see what she would do. She sniffed it, licked it, and promptly rolled on it.


This is one of the blue-eyed wee ones that belong with the not-Beep group. So very new, can't quite focus yet:



We spent a good couple of hours on the "deck", just talking, and I made the unfortunate mistake of letting my sister play with my camera. About thirty pictures like this ended up on it:



Although I will present to you the Nose Close-ups, I will spare you the Uvula Studies. Trust me, you do not want to see eleventy gazillion pictures of my sister's throat.


And this is just a neat kudzu-like vine over by the telephone pole. I just thought I'd finish with these images to "cleanse your palate" after my sister's pictures.

Chicks dig Hamsters!

See?

Awwwwwwwwwwwwww.

I think in this next one he looks a little like those rather horrid pictures of baby Jesus blessing everybody:


However, he is quite adorable for a hamster.


I'm going to be meeting him in person in a little more than a month.


(So yeah, I know I've been lazy about posting lately...Boston? What trip to Boston?... on the other hand, my garden is all planted and growing and my house is halfway clean and I've knitted two pairs of socks. So there!)

April Vacation

I know people are waiting for updates... like, didn't you go to Boston over vacation? Then where are your pictures??? Well, like that line from Big Fish, time slowed down over vacation and afterwards extra-fast to catch up. So here I am, two weekends later, finally able to sit down and post!

The first thing I did, the day before I left, was visit some imps. I wish I still lived near them because I miss them so much! Even though they were bigger than I remember them being (how did that happen?), they are still the same mischievous little lovebugs.

(I can't wait to see you guys this summer!!!)


And then the next day I made it to Boston. There is a simple concept here, but one that evades me sometimes: the closer you get to the equator, the warmer it is. Thus, while everything is brown and mucky and lifeless here in Maine, then in Boston they are actually having this thing called Spring. Whoa.

This is a rose garden not too far from the hostel that I used as a refuge when the city was too loud or populated. As there are no roses (yet), people rarely went in there.



Much of the first afternoon I spent avoiding goose poop while taking pictures of flowers and trees. I was too tired from traveling to do anything exciting!



More later-- I promise!