Your Custom Text Here
Because we usually travel every other Christmas, Mr. Cleaver and I look forward to the non-travel years because it means we can get a Christmas tree. Growing up, my family always did cut-your-own, so we try to find a local place to pick our tree. Last Sunday we headed to The Old Farm in Cape Elizabeth and got around to hanging the ornaments last night, so without further adieu, our Christmas Tree adventure:
Since we weren't able to make the Common Ground or Cumberland County Fairs this year, Mr.Cleaver and I headed up to the Fryeburg Fair to get our fall fair fix. The Fryeburg Fair is HUGE. There are tons of people who come in RVs and stay for the whole week. We went on Sunday, which was opening day, and there were people everywhere.
Firemen,
Barbershop Quartets,
Alpaca Farmers,
Blacksmiths,
Chicken Judges, and 
4-H -ers.
But of course I don't go to the fair for the people, I go for the animals.
Llamas, with underbites only a mother could love,
Sweet bunnies (I want a Mini-Rex soooo much!!)
Hungry Piglets,
and chicks still damps from their eggs.
We saw a lot and had a a lot of fun, and oh yeah, indulged in a little fair food :)
Mr. Cleaver & I took advantage of the wedding to stay at a B&B and enjoy a mini-vacation in Bethel.
Since the wedding didn't start until the late afternoon on Saturday, we took the morning to do some hiking. Based on a recommendation from our lovely innkeepers at the Rivendell B&B, we took the drive up Route 26 to Grafton Notch State Park.
Grafton Notch is unusual for a state park in that the highway literally runs through the middle of it. The portions of the park we explored were all accessible via little pull-off parking lots off 26. Each of the falls were little mini-hikes that took no more than 10-15 minutes tops.
In all of the spots we stopped at in Grafton Notch, the landscape had been carved by glacial runoff, and nowhere was this more evident than our first stop, Moose Cave Gorge.
As you approach the gorge the temperature noticeably drops from the ice cold waters still running through the cavern. The drop was incredibilty steep, and apparently earned its name from an unfortunate moose that slipped and landed inside.
The next stop south was Mother Walker Falls. Due to the season, most of the falls were less full than they would be in the spring, but the newly turning color in the trees made up for any lack of rushing water.
My favorite of the three stops at Grafton Notch was Screw Auger Falls.
The most sprawling of the three falls, Screw Auger features a small upper and dramatic lower falls, as well as a number of beautiful picnic spots upstream.
Our last stop was just outside of the state park at the Nature Conservancy's Step Fall Preserve. Also off 26 - Step Falls has a blink-and-you'll-miss-it sign, but is well worth the hunt.
The climb to the top of the falls is steep (and due to concerns about time, we didn't quite make it all the way up), but the view is breaktaking.
Now that I know how relatively short a drive Bethel is from Portland, I'd love to make a number of return trips to this beautiful area.
Speaking of trips, I'd added a Roadtrip tab to the top of page to collect the posts on the other lovely spots we've visited.
I didn't mention it in the last post, but the reason the Notary Dress is named the Notary Dress is because I made for a very special purpose, to officiate Mike & Maggie's wedding this past Saturday. The knitting readers may know these two from Mike's touching Ravelry proposal.
The wedding was held on the Artist's Covered Bridge in Newry in Western Maine.
We gathered on the bridge Friday afternoon for the rehearsal. It was my first time officiating a wedding, so I was a bit nervous, but once we got all the parties there, it went pretty smoothly.
Afterwards, Mr. Cleaver and I got to join everyone for a delicious rehearsal dinner, prepared by Maggie's father, who has convinced me that I will someday need to own a meat smoker.
The wedding day arrived, warm and sunny.
The knitting contingent arrived early.
And while the day of the wedding was beautiful, the bride was even lovelier
Officially got them married!!
Now off to the party!!
Congrats you two - you make a wonderful couple!!
(And a special thanks to Mr. Cleaver for the photos)
So far the votes from the last post are 60% for both of us and 40% for me (sorry Mr. Cleaver & puppies), so in honor of your vote, here we are together:
But who took the photo, you ask?
Why this lovely lady, who accompanied us on our annual apple-picking adventure.
As other Maine bloggers have mentioned, the apples are super early this year. Since my favorite apple type (Jonagold) ripens a bit later than the first apples, we waited until mid-September, still several weeks earlier than usual, to take our annual trip to Ricker Hill.
The day was warmer than we imagined (hence the short sleeves), but it was a lovely day for apple picking (or slinging).
This trip is nothing is not full of traditions, so as per usual there were many dozens of mini apple cider doughtnuts,
plenty of tasty apples to pick,
(these look like cherries and taste like apples!)
a trip into the depths of the corn maze (dry enough to traverse the whole thing this year) --
including making it out alive (!!),
a race over the obstacle course,
and cute farm animals.
And I get to look forward to days filled with apple pies, crisps, muffins and sauce!
Mr. Cleaver and I got back Tuesday afternoon from a few much-needed days in the woods at Stephen Phillip Memorial Preserve campground in Oquossoc, Maine. Though it was grey when we arrived, we lucked out on the weather and had a fantastic time hiking, canoeing, and sitting around the fire.
If you're ever in the Oquossoc/Rangeley area, I'd highly recommend the camp, as well as a stop at the road-side vista point Height of Land, and the breakfast burrito at the BMC Diner in Rangeley.
It's wonderful what some time lakeside does for the soul, isn't it? I've included some of my favorite photos below, but if you'd like to see some more, the full set is available on Flickr.
Yesterday Mr. Cleaver & I fufilled my yearning for homefries at the Miss Portland Diner, spent the afternoon at Crescent Beach State Park, and went to a friends for a barbecue for dinner (where the barbecue caught on fire, so we ended up broiling some steaks inside instead). All in all a perfect summer day.
Camping is in my blood. My brother and dad both reached the rank Eagle Scout and as a kid we when car camping all the time in all the state and national parks up and down California. I've always lover camping, but since I started college I've been camping a total of once. So this summer the mister and I decided that we would go camping for our big vacation.
Problem being that aside from the sleeping bag my mother mailed me, we had zero camping equipment. So in the past few months Mr .Cleaver and I have stockpiling camping equipment thanks to a number of gift cards we had received for LL Bean.
While we've made a reservation for a site for a number of days in August, we wanted to take our new gear for a test run first. So this weekend we took a one-night jaunt to the campground at Bradbury Mountain State Park. I brought along the camera to document our test run:
(Didn't think I'd skip my Tour de Fleece responsibilities did you?)
I won't say the box was completely full when we started on the fire, but it was pretty close - but in my defense the wood was kinda damp
I earned this s'more!
Sweet dreams - and then we realized that sleeping pads would be a good idea :)
What a wonderfully busy weekend! Between Mr. Cleaver and the country - we spent our whole weekend in celebration. Not that I'm complaining :)
After a leisurely morning on the 3rd, involving the farmer's market and the bakery and a new fishing pole for Mr. Cleaver, we lazed away the afternoon ( I finished my dress) and headed out to eat around 4. We grabbed a meal and some bird watching at The Good Table (our favorite) and then drove down Highway 77 to Prout's Neck for a trek around the Cliff Walk.
The cliff walk is one of those hidden gems that I'm sure everyone knows about, but I didn't until about two weeks ago and Mr. Cleaver didn't know about it until I took him there this weekend, so maybe it is secret. In any case, to take the cliff walk find the house above, right next to the Black Point Inn, and find the small stone path that cuts across the grass. This will take you out to the Cliff Walk.
The Cliff Walk is stunning. There are rocky crags, pink sand beaches, and a beach entirely of smooth round rocks that rattle when the waves recede.
The walk takes between 45 minutes to an hour. Afterward we stopped at the Black Point Inn for cocktails. The bar was busy so they sent us down to the Adirondack chairs on the front lawn (too bad, right? :) ), where we sat and sipped and watched the sun set.
Mr. Cleaver declared the birthday a success. On the way back to town we stopped by the side of the road to snap a few more shots of the sunset.
For the Fourth, I spent the morning baking a belated birthday cake for the Mister, which we had delayed because we knew it would take a while to make this much cake! Though it did mean I had our tiny oven running for a few hours on the hottest day of year thus far!
After all the baking I finally got to put on my new dress!
[Dress: Vogue 8184; Modifications: made band from contrasting color, skipped boning, added in-seam pockets, added horsehair band to hem]
All snazzed up, we headed our to my Mother-In-Law's for a cookout with the family. Mr. Cleaver's older brother offered some hints and tackle for the new pole.
Once we were stuffed to the gills, Mr. Cleaver and I joined half of Portland for the Portland Symphony Orchestra pops concert/fireworks show. The addition of PSO to the festivities was a great touch!
I hope every one else had an enjoyable weekend too!
On Saturday, Mr. Cleaver and I made the drive up to Boothay to visit the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. This was our second visit to the gardens, the first being in the dead of Winter back in 2009. THe cold tuend us out of the garden that February, but we vowed to return when the place was in bloom and it was well worth the return trip:
The blueberries were close to ripe and since you were encouraged to pick the ripes ones - we managed to fine one or two
My Dad always called Lamb's Ears "Cowboy Toilet Paper"
Maybe the most beautiful shade of blue I've ever seen:
Is it weird to take a picture of yourself with a sign with your fake last name?
Some red, white, and blue....
Which reminds to post a sneak peak of my 4th of July dress!
