Let The Summer Begin

The flag pole at Sorrento's public landing today.

Memorial Day festivities seem to always mark the beginning of summer for us here in Sorrento.

It is plenty warm enough to take Simon along with us on walks now.

Either he's a little spoiled or we're a little eccentric. But if I just let him sit on my shoulder, he would no doubt become eagle bait.



Sometimes, Henri likes to push the stroller ahead and then catch up with him.




I'm not the only one that notices when he does this though.




The rosa rugosas are beginning to emerge. The scent is heavenly.




The lupines have risen almost overnight in a showy burst of color.

A few skiffs have been launched and have taken up summer residency on the float.

Ours will be next, but today it serves as a prop to show you my new summer purse that I won in a recent giveaway from the lovely Kat over at Low Tide High Style. I just love the wonderfully funky spoon handles, and I tell you it suits me to a tee!

Kat lives in Maryland, so you know the card she included would have to include an image of a crab! Her card is what inspired me to go ahead and attach my favorite crab pin right on the front of my new bag.

And since it is green, and not blue, I think the little guy will be okay with staying right here in Maine with me. Thank you so much Kat, I love my new bag!

Romantic Shabby Vintage Cravings

Lately, I have been dreaming of again living in a vintage home. This one always catches my eye, but it is not for sale, and even if it was, the costs to restore it would be staggering, as no one has even lived in it for the 7 years we have lived in Sorrento.

Down around the corner from this abandoned house is this pretty white garden gate.

The seaside lupines are just beginning to bloom. This time of year on the coast, it is a sign of an early summer.

Here is another seaside summer home. I just love how the lilacs spill over the entrance gate.

Even this abandoned boat is appealing to me.

Yep, that paint is definitely "a peeling"!

But isn't it lovely anyway?

What is it about the ocean, that makes even abandoned objects seem romantic?






This is one of the scenes along our drive into Ellsworth, a 12 mile trip to where we do our grocery shopping.






On our way there 2 days ago, something caught our eye. A new listing of a vintage seaside home that caused us to end up pulling in the driveway for a closer look. It is currently vacant.









Henri fell in love. Hard. And me? I'm a little scared to actually schedule a visit to view the inside.

Oh, and across the street, here's the view.

I asked Henri, "What if it has ghosts?" He replied "So?" But that's not what I'm scared of. (And you thought I was a Fearless Nester. ) When it comes right down to it, I may crave shabby, but I know we have it really good where we're at now.

Things That Caught My Eye Today

While out on our walk today we came upon these tulips someone planted en masse amidst a naturalized field of forget-me-nots. It's still early spring here on the Coast.

What a lovely arrangement courtesy of Mother Nature.

Too bad the owners are not here yet to see this. This is in the garden of one of the summer homes here in Sorrento that we pass by on our walk.

This is a tree in bloom in front of Sorrento's public library. The library that only opens for the months of July and August.

A stone wall laden with a shade of mustard colored lichen in front of another one of those vacant summer homes.

A scene along Ocean Avenue during our walk. I tried to capture the different colors in the water made from the reflection of the sky.

When we arrived back home, I went out to my garden to take a picture of my broccoli plant that came back from last year's garden. It's actually flowering already. Broccoli in MAY, in Maine? Wow.

Back inside, the sun had started it's slow descent in the sky and was completely illuminating the view of the shore from our balcony window.

May we never take this place for granted. We're so blessed to have enjoyed yet another beautiful day in Maine.

The Blue Bird of Happiness Told Me So

This sweet little glass bird took up residence on the lapel of my spring jacket yesterday. We met at the Big Chicken Barn while I was out vintage shopping, and already he has convinced me he needs to stay there.




It's this little bird that convinced me to head home after shopping (even though it would have been much easier to just eat out) and happily toss together some shrimp, spinach, cherry tomatoes and garlic in extra virgin olive oil because it really is much more fun to share a meal with a loved one that you have cooked yourself.

Especially when you add some healthy Barilla whole grain angel hair pasta that you recently discovered they had at the grocery store.

It isn't even dark in color like those other *healthy* ones. I like it a lot!

Then, that same little birdie convinced me I really wasn't too fat to be able to eat some cake. So who was I to argue? I couldn't get my Betty Crocker cookbook open fast enough and turned to the page where the "Busy Day Cake" recipe is found. I baked it in my shell cake pan for 25 minutes and then made a glaze out of confectioners sugar, freshly squeezed lemon juice and pure vanilla extract.

Oh yes, I did add some fresh blackberries to the side before serving. And see? I even saved you a bite too.

So what do you think?

Has this Blue Bird of Happiness found a permanent home, or what?

Parlez-Vous Francais?

This is a sad post for me, but it is also a very happy post because I dedicate it to the memory of my Uncle Bill and Aunt Joyce who are now reunited together for all eternity.

Yesterday, was my Aunt Joyce's funeral. My Uncle Bill passed over about 2 years ago. My cousin told me that My Aunt said right before she passed, that he was there to greet her.

So today as I was making a dessert for a recipe I found on a box of phyllo dough called Napoleons, I remembered something that my Uncle Bill would randomly say to us kids when we were little.

As I stopped to reminisce about it, it struck me how intensely green the tree outside my kitchen window had become. They would have always noticed something like that too.

And then I remembered what else my cousin told me my Aunt Joyce said about Uncle Bill being there to greet her. She said he had on shorts.

It makes me smile to know they are now together again.

And in my mind, I can still hear him randomly asking us kids (for no particular reason at all) other than always just to make us laugh, "Parlez-vous francais?"

Rest in peace my dearest Aunt Joyce and Uncle Bill. I will miss you and love you forever.

Velvet Drive

We ended up taking another trip over to Stonington today, which was our second trip in the past 4 days. And it wasn't just to visit the library.




Or to go fishing. But while I was there I noticed this wonderful wooden fish over the doorway of someone's home. Kind of a unique idea I thought.

Here's the view from where we parked and sat in our truck while we ate the picnic lunch I packed for us. But we weren't over here just to eat a picnic lunch.

It was another beautiful day and I took a few more pictures of the scenery over here. But even that is not why we came back today.

It is Wednesday, but surprisingly this was not the reason we came back to Stonington today either. (Not that you would notice any 'odd fellows' in this photo or anything.)

I'm sure glad we didn't make the trip way over here to find a sign like this at our destination though.

I could always eat ice cream. Too bad this place wasn't even open yet for the season. But guess what? That's not it either. We did not come to Stonington to eat velvety smooth ice cream.

The real reason we made another trip over to Stonington again today was to pick up the transmission that we had brought over on Saturday to be rebuilt for our lobster boat, Fearless. So what does that have to do with the title of my post, you may ask. Velvet Drive is the kind of transmission we have, and don't you think it makes a much better post title than just Transmission?