My long weekend in Maine was wonderful. I was able to visit with family, work by the water, watch the birds, help my father with his puzzle and relax. I appreciate James and my parents inviting me to stay with them during their vacation. This house on the lake is a sweet spot and it’s always lovely hanging out by the water in Maine during the summer. Here are some of my favorite shots.
Grant and I are away this weekend at the mountain cabin we rented for a week last year. We loved spending time here so much we decided to come back this summer, even if only for a couple days.
We arrived yesterday and were welcomed by a huge thunder and lightning storm, but also by a temperature that was about 15 degrees cooler than DC...thank goodness! The storm was a little scary at times but fun none the less. We managed to grill out a great meal between storms and we enjoyed a couple cocktails as well. The evening was spent reading, talking and listening to public radio...a fantastic way to start the weekend.
This morning I actually slept until 10am which for me is unheard of. This last week at work has been very stressful and I had not gotten much sleep so I guess I made up for it today! For breakfast we made strawberry pancakes and Grant grilled some apple sage sausage. We enjoyed our brunch out on the deck before it started to get too warm.
Today has been much of the same, reading, puzzle doing, talking and the most exciting for the day, bird watching. So far we have identified three birds we have never seen before...
It's been a great day and we're looking forward to grilling out again tonight and enjoying an evening of sitting on the deck. Oh and we're excited to try some fresh peas we picked up at a farm stand on the way here.
Here are some pictures from our weekend so far...
Today I got up early and made Irish Soda Bread. This is one of my favorite recipes from The Vegan Table. Love, love, love this bread.
After church Sarah, Amanda and Eli came over for brunch. We had the bread and some tasty tofu scramble. It was nice visiting with them and it's always fun to see Eli play in our big basket of toys. The above picture shows how much he's enjoying playing one of the musical instruments we have. We had a lovely brunch and a great weekend.
A few catch up pictures....
Grant and I dug out the car and used it for the first time in over a month. Ok, we didn't really need to dig it out, but we had to get gas. We took Kuba to the vet this morning (he's fine) and while we were out, we realized it was so nice to see a change in scenery, we decided to go for a ride to Gaithersburg and have lunch at Antonio's Cafe. We've been wanting to go there for a while and taking a drive out there seemed like a good idea.
We shared some squash papusas (picture below) and I had the jerk tofu with rice and salad. It was a yummy meal and the owner was very nice. They also carry a lot of vegan desserts from the popular vegan bakery, Vegan Treats, out of Bethlehem, PA (I love their website, check it out.) It was a nice meal. On the way home I snapped the above picture of the fabulous dog in the car next to us. He also seemed to be enjoying the ride.
I didn't have time to write about the below picture. I took it on Thursday after drinks, with a good friend, and dinner at Bread and Brew. It was a fun night.
This morning's sunrise was was beautiful and I was definitely up to see it. I woke up at 4:30 and couldn't get back to sleep, so I did some reading and then enjoyed the sunrise.
In the afternoon we decided to take a drive to Harrisonburg, Va. It was kind of hot in the house (and outside) so we thought a road trip was a good plan. Why Harrisonburg? I'm not really sure. It's a larger nearby town and after doing a little research we learned they have a restaurant with vegan options and that sounded good to us. We headed out and on the way we met up with this guy...
We've seen a lot of deer on this trip but this one was different. She didn't run. She just stopped and watched us for a long time. As you can tell we were pretty close to each other. It was a sweet moment and she had the most beautiful eyes.
After our friendly deer encounter, we headed to Harrisonburg and walked around the historic downtown. We stopped at a used book store and picked up some cool postcards. We checked out a wine store just in time for a beer tasting of Terrapin beer from Athens, Ga (oh and we picked up a six pack). Lastly we went to The Little Grill Cooperative for dinner. It's a cozy little place that has been around since the 40's and it's actually owned by the people who work there. It definitely has character and they serve up good comfort food including many vegan options. Both Grant and I ordered the barbecue tempeh sandwich and shared some nachos. It was all very good. The tempeh had a lot of flavor and it's something I might try to replicate at some point. We ended the meal with a coffee and oatmeal cookie to go.
Now we're back at the house, sitting on the deck enjoying the cool weather. I've put on a sweater and I have a blanket wrapped around my legs. What's not to love about that in the middle of August?!
As many of you know, Grant and I are camping at Greenbelt National Park this weekend. We're home for a little while to feed the cats and get out of the heat! I've made a slide show of some pictures I've taken so far, but here are a couple of the red-bellied woodpecker family that kept me entertained most of the morning. The female is inside the tree, sitting on eggs I assume, and the male visits her often, especially when she calls him.
More pictures and news to come.
Grant, Grant's mom and I just left the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge. It's a favorite place to visit when we're in town. Today we saw many beautiful birds and 4 alligators sunning themselves. One interesting thing I noticed when I was looking at one of the alligators with binoculars, less than a foot away from the alligator, just hanging out next to it was this good sized brown rabbit. Yes a rabbit and it was alive. We thought we might witness some national geographic but the rabbit did hop away, at least for now...thank goodness.
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One thing I love about being at my parents is watching the birds and squirrels eat together at the feeding sanctuary my father keeps stocked (and shoveled out) during the winter months. Each day you can see blue jays, finches, doves, downy woodpeckers, chipmonks and squirrels. There's a place for everyone to feed and it's really quite something. My dad has always had a soft spot for animals (I could actually see him being a vegetarian.) and he nutured, or at least understood, my compassion for animals when I was growing up.
More shots from the Thurston Winter Feeding Sanctuary...
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As you can see I'm up in chilly Maine. There's lots of snow and it's really quite beautiful. This picture is of my parent's front yard. My parents made the big welcoming snowman a couple days ago. You can read more about that on my mother's blog.
Last night we had dinner with my brother. He made a fantastic lentil soup (read more about that here). It was good to visit with him, Mira-Su and Chris. Their tree looks beautiful and the house is festive!
It's nice to be home for the holidays. I'm looking forward to when Grant, James and Daryl join us.
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We visited the pigs after a great (and sometimes treacherous) walk in the woods. The pigs were sunning themselves and happily eating grass. Dina is currently taking care of 12 pigs.
