Category: Local Connections

G is for Good Natured Brand | Facing mosquito season with Bugaroo and no fear.

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I still remember hiking to the top of Douglas Mountain last spring. We were out numbered by mosquitoes 1,000 to 1. It was challenging and required that we stay in constant motion to minimize the swarms. Our stay at the top was brief as the bugs were relentless so we headed back down after only a few quick pictures. The memory hasn’t faded over the past year. I think Hitchcock should have done a movie on mosquitoes  instead of birds. They’re far more terrifying.

Fighting off black flies and mosquitoes is as much a part of spring and summer in Maine as is swimming in the lake or eating lobster. When the weather gets nice, the bugs come out. And, if the flying insects weren’t enough, tick season kicks in and you don’t want those little guys anywhere near you. Since we have animals, we have to be especially vigilant. We had so many one year, I made a “tick jar” full of rubbing alcohol to kill any ticks that got carried into the house on the pup.

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E is for Eagre Games | Get ready to experience the dreamworld of ZED.

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Shortly after pong was released by Atari in the 70s, my cousins received the game as a Christmas present. In those years, we would video tape portions of our holiday celebrations to send my grandparents who were down in Florida. The recorder was accidentally left on that year and we ended up with 7 hours of video taped carpet with the soundtrack of pong playing nonstop in the background. My brother and cousins had stayed up all night playing the game.

While I never developed the video game bug the way that they did, my daughter, who is in art school studying communication design, has a strong passion for it. Her dream is to get into video game design and world building. Why not? It’s an explosive industry with so much creative opportunity, but she will most likely need to work away from Maine to make this dream a reality. There aren’t a lot of video game designers in Maine. But, I did find one!

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D is for Dr. Dandelion | Will this gardener’s scrub turn my thumb green?

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Do I get bonus points on the A to Z Challenge for a double-D?

While I have limited gardening skills, I am excited to be using Dr. Dandelion’s Gardener’s Scrub. Even without a green thumb there are many spring projects that leave my hands in rough shape. I think the gardener’s scrub is the perfect solution. The ground is still frozen here in Maine as I write this post, and there is little gardening to be done, but I couldn’t wait so have been using my gardener’s scrub each morning. Shh, don’t tell!

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C is for Carved Wooden Spoons | 7 Tips to Keep Them Forever Young

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I have an antique glass picture once owned by my great-grandmother. It sits next to my stove. It used to have bright red, painted cherries decorating the outside but they were not resilient to the hot water of my dishwasher. The color is gone but the general design remains and it still tells a story.

These days, it is filled to the brim with wooden utensils that I use for cooking. I’ve picked them up at various locations over the years. Some on my travels, but most are inexpensive and often need to be replaced at regular intervals. I think it might be time to start upgrading the contents of my pitcher.

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B is for Baxter’s Fine Candies | They knew how to do candy right in the 1800s.

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I’m the one that can’t quit sugar in my house. It’s not my primary vice, but it’s a lingering issue. My husband can walk away from just about any type of sweet except for one. He loves maple anything.

Even though he’s not a big sweet eater, he’s been known to enjoy the occasional maple sugar candy. Which in the giant realm of sweets is probably one of the sweetest, so maybe he’s really the one with the sugar problem? Or, his all-encompassing love of maple outweighs anything else.

I was excited to find a maple candy when I visited the holiday open house at Baxter’s Essentials this past December. I knew it would be the perfect treat for my husband, and would fit nicely into his Christmas stocking. It’s not that I only buy appropriately sized stocking stuffers for him. I use the stocking as more of a suggestion than a guide. Even so, it’s nice to have some things that will actually fit and not be relegated to the overflow pile.

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