Tag: spring

#atozchallenge | H is for Hiking Mackworth Island, Falmouth

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According to Newton’s first law of motion, a body at rest stays at rest, and a body in motion stays in motion. This law tells me I need to get moving. Actually, I’m not sure what it really tells me as physics was my worst subject in High School. But, the way I choose to interpret it is that if I want to keep on doing the things I love as I age, I have to keep moving my body. I’m good with that.

I love to walk and living in Maine gives me lots of beautiful opportunities. For awhile, I was walking almost every day, but unfortunately an injury slowed me down, and then inevitably winter makes it more difficult with the snow and ice although the cold is not a problem. It’s actually pretty exhilarating to walk in the winter as long as the roads aren’t icy.

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#atozchallenge | C is for Coopers Maple Products and Maine Maple Sunday

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I know this will be hard to imagine, but even after all these years of living in Maine, I have actually never gone to one of our many sugar shacks on Maine Maple Sunday. It has always been on my list, but every year something else seems to creep up and we just never make it to one of the area farms. This year was gearing up to be even less likely since Maine Maple Sunday fell on Easter, but it actually ended up working out perfectly since our family plans were later in the day.

Maine Maple Sunday is always held on the fourth Sunday in March. Sugarhouses throughout the state open up that day and host a variety of activities related to maple syrup production.  The Maine Maple Producers Association posted a map listing all the locations that were planning events for the day. The list was pretty long but that’s not surprising. Maine is the third largest producer of maple syrup in the United States according to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service.

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Bull Feeney's

St. Patrick’s Day Fun in Portland, Maine

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While we have always celebrated St. Patrick’s Day, it has been a long time since we celebrated with a night on the town. Our more recent St. Patrick’s Day celebrations have been focused more on a semi-traditional home cooked meal of corned beef and green mashed potatoes. (We don’t do cabbage in our house.) But, this year, we decided the time was right to head into Portland so that my husband could listen to Irish music and drink Guinness in the company of other happy St. Patrick’s Day participants.

My husband is only half-Irish, but he leans towards those genetics and absolutely loves Irish music. The St. Patrick’s Day activities offered so many great opportunities to catch live Irish music which was our deciding factor in heading out for the night.

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Eventide Oyster Co. Bar

Enjoying a Lazy Saturday in Portland, Maine

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It doesn’t happen often, or at least not as often as I would like, but we found ourselves with no plans this past Saturday. Knowing that we would be house bound with some projects on Sunday, we wanted to get out of the house for a bit. While I like to hunker down, I’m not a true homebody. I get antsy quickly if I stay in too many days in a row. Fortunately, my husband shares my love of going out, although he can also successfully hunker for days on end. He’s multifaceted.

Enjoying the early spring weather that we’ve been experiencing in Maine this year, we headed into Portland for the afternoon. Temperatures were hovering just below 50 degrees so it was perfect weather to wander, and I was craving a lobster roll. For me, lobster rolls are best enjoyed sitting at a picnic table overlooking the ocean, but even with the unseasonably warm weather, outside seating was still not an option so instead we headed to Eventide Oyster Co. for their amazing Brown Butter Lobster Roll. While normally I’m a purist when it comes to my lobster rolls – hot dog bun, lobster meat, and plain drawn butter – Eventide has created something truly wonderful. The brown butter adds just the right touch and elevates the lobster roll to another level. I had only had it once before, at the Allagash Street Fair last summer, and I was looking forward to another taste.

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7 Differences between Austin, Texas and Portland, Maine

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I spent this past week down in Austin, Texas for a work conference. It was my first visit to the area and while the majority of my time was spent inside a hotel attending conference related events, there were a few things that I was able to enjoy in Austin, that would not have been possible if I had been back home in Maine.

Seven things I would not have been able to do in Maine:

1) Eat Outside. I enjoyed an al fresco lunch soaking in the sunshine. I was in Austin in early March, when things are still relatively chilly in Maine.While eating outside is something that I love to do during the summers in Maine, even with the unseasonably warm winter we’ve had this year, dining outside is not really an option in March. But, it did get me excited for the warmer weather heading our way.

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