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so this July for summer vacation there was a grand road trip to maine.

and these are the photos.

but there was this guy who kept getting in my way just as I was composing my shot…

(mill brook creek behind foothills bakery in fairfax, vermont)

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(walking the trail at the robert frost house)

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(north congregational church, st. johnsbury, vermont)

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(portland head light, cape elizabeth, portland, maine)

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(bowdoin college, brunswick, maine)

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(maine coastline)

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(boothbay harbor, maine)

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(camden, maine)

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(little footbridge over megunticook river, camden, maine)

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(coast guard access stairs on coastline of castine, maine)

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(shoreline, castine, maine)

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(lobster traps at thurston’s lobster pond, bass harbor, maine)

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(sandy beach, acadia national park, maine)

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(backshore area, sandy beach, acadia national park, maine)

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(eagle lake carriage trail, acadia national park, maine)

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(bar harbor, maine)

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hee hee hee.

more to come…

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today I offer an array of summer dribs and drabs.

a bit of a cheese-tray of activities and sights, if you will.

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here are some of the first wildflowers of the season.

the photo quality, or lack thereof, is due to the fact that I’ve been using my iphone to take pictures a lot this summer, simply for ease of portability.

but you may be able to see a bit of reduction in photo quality.

which I’m not supposed to tell you because you may not have noticed otherwise.

sometimes I’m not that bright.

oh well, I give you… trilliums…

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and daffodils…

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those were found along the escarpment in the northern area of niagara.

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other fun things we did over the summer include:

taking a rare species identification course, where I saw lots of cool species, some mushrooms and discovered some wild ginseng…

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(humongous fungus)

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some walks in the woods…

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(all equipped and ready to go)

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another visit to the butterfly conservatory with deanna for my birthday…

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(this one is for philip)

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a trip to see the toronto symphony orchestra with lisa…

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with a stroll through nathan philips’ square to see the odes to jack…

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a night of fun at the CNE…

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a lovely day on fawn lake, quebec…

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a visit from dana…

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a girls weekend in montreal where we went to the botanical gardens to see the chinese lantern festival…

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and now fall is definitely on its way…

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not that some of us seem to care…

(“booooorrrrring!)

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Vermont, here we come…

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first stop, the Vermont Wildflower Farm for a spring walk through the wildflower forest and swamp -

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forest full of trilliums -

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then it was off to Shelburne Farm, this time a REAL farm -

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the big ole farm building, really cool with the copper roof and stone walls -

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schedule for the day -

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farm animules -

chickens!

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I liked this polka-dotty spotty chicken.

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chicken triptych.

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that tractor ain’t gowin nowheres!

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goaty-goat!

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bored lamby -

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Philip makes a new friend.  a pretty stinky friend -

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ayup, 2:00pm, time to learn how to milk the cow!

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man the farm building is so cool looking!

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Philip making friends again -

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learning how to make cheese -

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cheese!

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the next road trip coming up is going to be super cool!

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