Snail Spirals

Good grief, has it really been more than a week since I've posted? Part of the problem is that I can't really write a post easily during the day. I'm reduced to "stealth blogging," since Dad doesn't know about the blog, and I really want to keep it that way.

So, to recap:

Last week, Emma and I had the pleasure of meeting Liz, the second-ever blogger I've met in real life! She fed us yummy homegrown chicken soup for lunch, we chatted, knit a bit, I test-treadled her Majacraft Rose spinning wheel (very smooth, very quiet), and we got to meet the Pocket Farm ducks.



That was definitely Emma's favorite part. We had to go out and see them three times. She'd been talking about seeing the ducks for at least two days beforehand, and hasn't stopped in the week since our visit.

Emma and I have also had fun sledding and snowman-building . This started during the lull between the storms, early last week. I think Tuesday was Snowman Day.



Complete with spruce cone, twig, and lichen accessories (all windfalls), it was a big hit, and she had to run out first thing the next morning to be sure it was still there.

She's never really liked sledding before this. I think the times we went before, the hill was too steep and we went too fast. This hill behind Dad's house is just right, apparently, because she can't get enough sledding.



We've been to Schoodic Point several times this week. This is the picnic area at Frazer Point on the 28th, at low tide:



There were about 12 Common Loons cruising around the tiderip in the center of the channel, just dipping out the fish. Very cool.

My sister and her fiance were able to come up for a long weekend (somewhat complicated by the big snowstorm last Friday while they were traveling [aside-within-an-aside: what IS it with the snowstorms only when we're trying to travel???!!!]), and we went to Schoodic on Sunday:



Unfortunately, their long weekend was over much too soon, and they had to head home Monday afternoon. Emma was so sad. She was sobbing into my shoulder as they drove away.

Dad had a church board meeting Monday afternoon in Prospect Harbor, so Emma and I went to Schoodic again. Actually, it was mostly just me- Emma was asleep the whole time. She doesn't take naps anymore except when we're in the car, and while I'm not a big fan of the late bedtime that is now the consequence of a nap, it was really nice go to Schoodic "alone" and drive as slowly as I wanted around the loop, to look at every bird I saw. Not that I minded going with Dad or my sister- I know not everyone is a birder (and I'm fine with that). It was just nice to spend half an hour watching the murres, guillemots, and a few dovekies diving for fish. Alcids! Watching alcids from shore!!

There was a lovely sunset just before we had to get back and pick up Dad from his meeting.



The list for the day:

• Common Loon
• Horned Grebe
• American Black Duck
• Common Eider
• Black Scoter
• Long-tailed Duck
• Common Goldeneye
• Bufflehead
• Red-breasted Merganser
• Ring-billed Gull
• Herring Gull
• Greater Black-backed Gull
• Thick-billed Murre
• Dovekie
• Black Guillemot
• Bald Eagle
• Mourning Dove
• Blue Jay
• American Crow
• Common Raven
• Black-capped Chickadee
• American Robin
• Song Sparrow
• Dark-eyed Junco
• Snow Bunting

Not bad, 25 species in 1.25 hours! SO. MUCH. FUN.

Because Emma had a nap, she was up late last night. Because she was up late last night, she slept late this morning. When we finally wandered downstairs at 8:30, the thermometer looked like this:



-1.1˚F! Brrr! Evidently, a cold front came through last night. We got an inch or two of snow as well, and it was so cold and so dry that it just blew around. The wind was howling, which means that with the wind chill, it was more like -20˚F. The walkway I dug 8-10" of snow out of on Saturday was drifted completely flat again, and my eyelashes froze together when I re-shoveled this morning. It was COLD. The high for the day today was about 3˚F.

So, to sum up, I've been in Maine three weeks and it's going surprisingly well so far. Much better than I thought it was going to, in fact. I'm enjoying it (sort of, mostly). We were originally scheduled to return to Oregon tomorrow, but due to the delay in getting here, I changed our tickets today. Dad had to reschedule his surgeries, and the new date to get his second eye done is the 15th. So Emma and I are staying an extra two weeks so we can be here until it's all over and Dad can drive again. New return date is the 19th. The first lens replacement last week went really great. He went from extremely (extremely) nearsighted and with a cataract, to 20/20 vision in that eye. This is the first time since he was a child (5-ish I think?) that he has been able to see without glasses. Technology is amazing.