Knows Me Well

Becky brought me a puzzle....she knows me well and knows what I like. This one is found plastic trash objects on the beach. How fun is that!

And...she's already settled in with Philippa's Rainbow Pencils. 

She's one of those people who can't leave a puzzle alone....and could sit there all day. When I leave a small handful of pieces for the next day....I'm secretly doing that to torment tease Becky.

Here's little sampling from our day. A good morning walk, a little shopping, a little coast with some beach combing and a late happy hour dinner on the patio.

We walked about 13,000 steps today! 

Kettle Cove

We spent all afternoon at Kettle Cove....and I used my rainbow parasol the whole time! Kettle Cove has everything we needed....beach for swimming...rocks for climbing and tidal pools to explore. And don't you love the bracelet that Ayla made me?

Ayla spent quite a bit of time looking for crabs in the tidal pools and making friends with all the other beachcombers.

You can see Aras and Ayla's silhouettes climbing out on the rocks. This first photo you can see them walking out.....

...and in this second photo you can just barely see them as they made it to the last rock. They made a good team watching out for one another. It was a good day at Kettle Cove.

Poking Around Partner

Every once in a while I am compelled to share this view of my garden.  There is something about the perspective from this spot...including whatever shoes I have on...that just makes my heart sing.  

With all the rain the plants have doubled in size...and the many shades of textured greens are lush and and beautiful.  And the best part is that the garden extends well beyond this little view. And although you can't see it...my sweet meadow rue is dangling just above it.  "Sometimes I need only to stand wherever I am to be blessed."  Mary Oliver

My partner Paul is home!  Yay!

Yesterday's post continued....I just had to.  

Speaking of partner.....

my friend and neighbor Patty was my poking around partner yesterday.  We shopped a little downtown...then headed to the junk beach.

 Our beach mission was to collect some of the metal shavings that are littered along the high tide line.  I wrote about the junk beach and the metal shavings here in this post: https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2018/06/junk-beach.html

Patty had seen an artist's version of a nest made out of these shavings...and she wanted to give it a try.  So we started collecting.  This photo is not her pile....her stash is in the green bag. This is a photo of a gnarly clump that is twisted and embedded into the rocks and sand....impossible to pick up. 

The junk beach is a strange and fascinating place....

....with sweeping views of the Portland skyline.

Another great find at the beach was a large piece of driftwood. It took both of us to haul it from the beach to my car...then to her backyard berm.  It looks right at home here at the edge of her hydrangea garden. 

99 2/3

Liz and Margie are numbers people.  They keep track of things....make lists....and look for patterns.  

Margie keeps track of how many different people she eats with in a given week at her Independent Living Facility and enjoys seeing how many new words she can make out of one single word. She marks 1/2 birthdays and remembers dates when important things happened in her life....to celebrate or contemplate each year. I'm lucky if I remember my actual birthday.

Liz mostly looks for number patterns. It pleases her that her sister Alyson got married on 12/12/12, and my son Nate's birthday this year was on 2/2/22.  She noticed that everyone in her nuclear family have birthday months with 30 days and looks for licence plates with interesting patterns. She tries to estimate her grocery bill and one time came within 2 cents, but then found 2 pennies in the parking lot. So of course....she thinks she "nailed it."  

Are you  wondering where this is going?  I mentioned that Margie celebrates 1/2 birthdays.....but was also excited that Liz would be here for 99 2/3 birthday.  So....we ran with it.

Yesterday Liz delivered this invitation.  "Happy To You" is a how my son Nate used to sing the Happy Birthday song....so that's what we sing or say at birthday parties.  "Happy To" is 2/3 of that.  

2/3rds of her children were present...and we even had 2/3 of a candle.  

We have a Happy Birthday banner that we have used in our family since our kids were little....and today we spread 2/3 of it out on the table: HAPPY BIRT!

We sang "Happy To" to Margie....and although she should have only eaten 2/3 of her waffle....she did manage to eat the whole thing. So did the rest of us.

We had a great day!  Happy 2/3 Birt Margie!

And it just happens....that 2/3 thirds of the buds on Linda's white rain lily are blooming....do you see the third one coming?

And here's a little follow-up on yesterday's sea glass pebbles....

plenty to fill Liz's little bottle. 

In addition to my larger heart rock....here's a few more tiny ones.  

Sea Glass Pebbles

Maine is a beautiful place....and the Portland area has a lot to offer. Other than spending time visiting with us and Margie, the only thing on Liz's sightseeing wish list was looking for tiny little sea glass pebbles at the little beach next to the Lobster Shack in Cape Elizabeth.  So that's how we spent our evening.  

When Liz was here last year we went to this beach and she started filling a little jar with these tiny glass pebbles....and wanted to add to it again this year.  

Do you see it?  You're going to have to look closely.....

  ...a tiny piece of light blue. Quite a find!

I was pretty excited to find a nearly perfect heart rock.

Little Charlie helped out and found several pieces for us....he was just a delight.  Good Vibes indeed from Charlie and his mom! He was the highlight of the evening.

Here's my haul in my little red bucket....and other than the heart rock...it's all fair game for Liz's jar.  I'll take a closer look at what we found tomorrow.

I don't ever think I've seen the seaweed quite this lime green on the rocks. They glowed in the evening light.

Life is good on the coast of Maine!

We took a little detour through Fort Williams Park on the way home....and this little rock family caught my eye.

Postcardish

 Six words for today: Enjoyed all of this postcardish day.! 

(I know postcardish isn't a word....but I'm pretty sure it should be!)

Clarke spent the morning with her grandmother....and she and I spent all afternoon out and about doing this and that in Portland.  Here's a glimpse into just part of our day.

 Clarke's beach finds from the day.

Soaking up the end of this postcardish day.  Life was good today for the Shupes.

Out Exploring

Today is Liz's last day here in Portland.  She took a drive this morning with Margie and Paul....and she and I spent the afternoon exploring the coast stopping at some of my favorite spots: Kettle Cove, Two Lights, and Willard Beach. That's one of the plusses of having house guests....they get you out exploring....and Maine hardly ever disappoints.

Liz has always enjoyed beach combing.....just like me.

How did I get to be so lucky to live in a place with access to such natural beauty!

It's because of this guy.  We had Liz take some photos of us....so much better than a selfie. 

Life is good with the guy.

Out and About

It was one of those wonderful warm and sunny late November days where you couldn't help but spend most of it out and about.

I started in the woods.

I carefully placed my pumpkin in the woods yesterday because it was starting to get mushy.  Can you see it back in the distance?

 I was ticked to see that the squirrels found it. 

This branch (or maybe it's a whole tree) was super long....and fell in an artful way making an interesting horizontal line where there are mostly verticals.

 The woods was full of textures and colors. 

 

This afternoon I headed to South Portland and made the rounds at some of my favorite spots like Bug Light Park....

 ....and the Junk Beach. 

And as I was driving home by way of the Baxter Boulevard around Back Cove the sun was setting. So I parked the car and walked the path until the sun disappeared. It was a good day to be out and about on a warm and sunny November day.