After a wonderful week of refresh and renewal we are back home in New Hampshire once again. It’s a good thing too as the vegetable garden was in great need of attending. Things don’t stop growing just because you go away. One thing we did learn is that the week was really the best one for harvesting the blueberries and we weren’t here. However, it appears that the bees and birds found them and now they are pretty squishy and not so nice to pick. Katie did get another good sized bowl of them and we might get one other but a lot of them are on the ground or are almost hollow on the bushes. The bees appear to suck the middle out of the berries – who knew. While up in Maine we did pick up a quart of Maine blueberries. My they are good with a very different taste than our high bush berries. I made a super Blueberry Cobbler from Country Living that was the best thing ever and served it with vanilla ice cream of course. And yes, I did make the Blueberry-Zucchini muffins that were in last week’s post. Here’s a picture.

Walking/Reading/Swimming

We did quite a bit of walking, a lot of reading (I managed three books in total), some beach sitting and swimming and a little kayaking. The kayak was not as big a hit as I had hoped it would be as it was way too heavy to carry back and forth to the beach. I rented a tandem sea kayak and really should have rented two regular ones. However, we did get out a couple of times and so did Libby and her friend. The dogs actually loved the beach and spent quite a bit of time swimming. Even Bean when she wasn’t keeping an eye out for chipmunks in the stone wall behind where we sat.

Everywhere we went in Maine everyone was wearing masks. Even when walking on the streets. We certainly wore ours. The masks made me feel pretty comfortable about going about a little bit. I went into a grocery store for the first time in five (5) months. Was pretty empty and very well run so not as crazy as I thought it would be.

An Adventure

We thought it would be easy to find a vegetable stand somewhere along Route 1 where we could pick up fresh corn and other veg to supplement what we brought with us. Not so easy. The first vegetable stand we found had lots of corn and three onions, Maine blueberries and a bunch of free stuff of unfinished projects. It was on the lawn of the local taxidermist’s house. There was no way to make change so we had to buy 20$ of stuff which included a 1 quart of Maine Blueberries for $7.00. We had 20 ears of corn at 2 for $1 and 3 onions for $3.00 so we made the $20 and didn’t need change. This meant the next time we went out we were going a different direction. We saw a sign for an organic vegetable garden with an arrow that said 2 1/2 miles to the right. 20 minutes later we hadn’t found it but we did find the 3 Bug Farm Stand that had nothing but a couple of small bunches of flowers. We have no idea where we were but the view was nice. So we turned around and on our way home, crest fallen from not finding a vegetable stand we passed one with an open flag. We turned around and expected to find another 3 Bug Farm Stand but it was actually very well done. Vegetables were in a cooler and it was the honor system to buy what you needed and to take change. We found our favorite golden beets, cherry tomatoes and red romaine lettuce. Didn’t find corn but the beets were delicious. Quite an adventure.

Surprise Visit

One one of our walks Katie, the dogs and I stopped to visit a friend who was staying less than half a mile away from us. Sherley and her family have been coming to Bayside for many years. We found out that we were in close proximity through a Facebook posting. Imagine our surprise. Sherley lives in Virginia so traveled a good bit farther than we did to get to the coast. It was so special to have a driveway, socially distanced visit with her and her son and grandson. Turns out her son went to Sewanee where our grandson Jack is right now. Small world once again.

Libby’s First Lobster

When in Maine you MUST have a lobster. Libby said she wanted to try it so on our way home we stopped at The Cape Neddick Lobster Pound and got her one. We got one for John too. The picture says it all! Libby wasn’t too sure about this at first but ended up really enjoying it once she discovered the drawn butter. This is the best way to eat lobster, outdoors, next to the water with the lobster about as fresh as it can be. I had a lovely lobster and avocado salad. We had quite a trip down memory lane as we drove down the coast and went up Pine Hill Road where we lived for seven years. We left there 39 years ago on the day that Charles and Diana were married. I got up early to watch the wedding and then to load the moving van when it arrived. We drove by a lot of our old haunts and really enjoyed showing Lib around. It was the perfect ending to our week away.

Update on Jenny Lane

While we were away the foam insulation was put in the walls and ceiling of the bonus room and the new bonus plus room. We had cleaned out both areas in preparation for the insulation man and were delighted to come home and find it had been done. We know we won’t be cold this winter for sure. The room no longer feels anything like an old garage except for the drain in the middle of the floor which will be filled in. It’s actually almost hard to imagine it any other way. The bonus plus room still really doesn’t know what it is but once it has windows and doors it will at least feel like a real room. It’s a little bit too breezy out there still. One nice thing about this insulation is that is green. It is very tight and doesn’t give on any of the bad fumes that some of the foam insulation does except when it is curing. This is why we were not here when they did it. Also, our wonderful cat sitter, Molly, moved the cats from the house to the screen porch to keep them away from the workers.

The Vegetable Garden Continues

Zucchini, yellow squash, broccoli, beets, carrots, basil and cherry tomatoes were today’s bounty. The blueberries from our bushes – those that the birds and bees didn’t eat. We actually made pesto from the basil but we didn’t have quite enough so we bought some from the local vegetable stand to help us out. I noticed that our garden basil is way more tasty than the basil we bought. Sort of surprised and wondered if it might be a different kind of basil. Here’s the recipe we used from New York Times Basic Pesto

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups fresh basil leaves (no stems) (really pack it in)
• 2 tablespoons pine nuts or walnuts
• 2 large cloves garlic
• ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• ½ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

PREPARATION

1. Combine basil leaves, pine nuts or walnuts and garlic in a food processor and process until very finely minced.
2. With the machine running slowly dribble in the oil and process until the mixture is smooth.
3. Add the cheese and process very briefly, just long enough to combine. Store in refrigerator or freezer.