wedding season!

last month two very good friends got married after 6 years of dating, this month another couple ive been close with since college is getting impromptu married after 7 years of dating.  i think were officially old.  but i digress cos it was a lovely short ceremony on a gorgeous day, followed by delicious food and drinks, dancing, and merriment!

cross country skiing and allergy adventures

long ago and far away [high school] i was diagnosed with cold urticaria.  believe me when i say, DO NOT GOOGLE IMAGE THAT SHIT.  basically, i break out in hives if its too cold.  fortunately, multiple allergy pills [every goddamn day] help quell the breakouts and allow me to survive in maine.  polar vortex, record snowfall, and all.  buuuuuuut a friend came to town and we went cross country skiing.  an outdoor pasttime i had been interested in for awhile, but had just never tried.  we ventured out on a gorgeously sunny, clear, 10 degree day, and with windchill it was probably well below that. 

s[nooooooo]w

perhaps you've heard new england is experiencing some blizzards.  and by some i mean somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 feet of snow [as of the 4th] in the portland area, aka moi.

here are some post [first] blizzard pics of the lighthouses of south portland.  only edits have been cropping from cell phone size/ratio.

diy interior storm windows

the temperature this winter has been... confusing, to say the least.  saturday was -2 in the morning, and a whopping 8 by noon.  i was working outside, and can confirm, yes it did not get any friggin warmer.  yesterday was 47 and raining.  but between freezing my ass off trying to climb onto a metal roof and dodging floods in my basement, i built 3 interior storm windows.  only 11 more to go..

left window is as always, right window has interior storm window installed

franksgiving!

aka the best holiday of the year!

birthday weekend!

this weekend i hosted a roaring 20's [on a budget] birthday party for myself.  i made the requisite pinterest board, compiling the looks and styles and drinks i liked for the theme, bought a bunch of fringe and sequin trim to .... hoard forever, and then ended up spending about $100 on ingredients, alcohol, and decorations.  i found a dress i had purchased back in long island [atleast 4+ years ago now] which hadnt ever really fit, and that id tried to consign atleast once.  it was a $300 sample sale dress which i think i paid $40 for.  but it fit the theme perfectly, and finally fit me, but i couldnt bring myself to add any extra sparkle.  subtle is better, no?

what ive been up to [part 1]

wth?  ITS NOVEMBER?  ummm welp my birthday is tomorrow and id like to say ive been busy saving the world and such.  but really, ive been waiting tables and helping with solar installs.  and sleeping a ridiculous amount.  thrilling i know. 

we also do the occasional energy audit in the back woods of maine.  turns out all the equipment fits in the mini coop rather well.

scarborough beach state park

somewhere on route 1 it is fall already

massacre pond - the gateway to the beach.  sounds terrifying, but its gorgeous and reminds me of new zealand

downtown portland

the relative calm before the... lack of a storm.  we were under a severe thunderstorm warning for about 3/4 of the day.  it rained, but the crazy held off.

rhododendron overload

rhodeys in the kitchen

rhododendron season!

this pic was taken june 15th.  not that i'm behind on posting or anything.

dont you want to come sit in the sun and drink a beer and read a book with me?  i promise i'll move the other chair a bit further away instead of sticking my feet in your lap. 

more gratuitous blue sky day pics to come.

adventures in biddeford - peace be with you

...and also with you.  let us pray... that this is the end of my long drawn-out series on biddeford.  hark.  it is.

last but not least, the st joseph's rectory.  home to ... i have no idea how many priests or clergy from when and how.  the high school tour guides had absconded by the time we arrived.  the couple seemingly guarding the house said "isnt this a lovely old house?  we know nothing about it".

ditto.  

adventures in biddeford - brief architectural respite and no words

adventures in biddeford - but you can't turn back time

the original mill clock tower in biddeford is nearly out of time.  [see what i did there?]  so many other puns, but the owner has until september 2nd to move the "eyesore" of the property.  according to our reluctant high school tour guides, the innards and the weather vane were stripped and sold in the 80s.  all that remains a is weathered facade of a somewhat structurally unsound room. 

adventures in biddeford - where theres a mill there's a way

according to some mad googling skills, the biddeford mill was last owned by west point stevens, which still prevails as a global textile producer and was known as west point pepperell or WPP.  vellux blankets were produced in biddeford from 1966 to 2009.  after a considerably rocky progression from hydroelectric power to mechanization, the passage of both world wars, globalization, hence the western [...] lion and the eastern dragon making a modified griffin, and a slight revival of production in 2005, the last mill building closed its doors in 2009.

adventures in biddeford - and behind door number 1

last weekend a coworker and i ventured out to biddeford.  a former mill town, now pretty much back in the great depression [and incredibly depressing], struggling to keep drug dealers out of parks, stopping meth heads from burning down their own houses, and preventing stabbings and shootings.  but a rich and colorful history prevails and the heart of biddeford is trying their damnedest to make it a thriving economic wonder.  best of luck.

sunset

you might think i'm obsessed with sunset and theres some deep symbolic meaning there.  a day coming to a close, approaching the dark of night which lends itself to a new day.  err no.  it just looks cool as shit in maine.  and yes i am obsessed.  just a bit..

hdr skies over sopo

my fancy pants new phone shoots oddly proportioned high def pics.  it also has an auto hdr sensor which i may turn off since i feel the pics below are over processed.  they were all taken on a surprisingly cold windy spring day at the former fort preble site on the smcc campus.

smcc

here's where i go to school.  or rather..just behind this view is the electrical building. 

crescent beach

my seester visited for a weekend!  we had donuts, went to the beach, got incredibly burned, and watched a lot of streaming netflix.  most of those things are not picture worthy.  but crescent beach sans its usual horrific amount of seaweed certainly is. 

not pictured - the fastest incoming tide ever, attacking us ... literally 10 feet up the beach in no time.