A most befuddling thing

At the end of everyday, I like to spend some time sitting on the back deck, sipping on a hot beverage and enjoying the beautiful nature scene that surrounds me. My mom and step-dad have done a beautiful job adding all sorts of naturey things out there. It's almost like you step out into an oasis, rather than a back deck with practical use. Not only are there dozens of varieties of flowers and plants, but there are herbs, bird baths, bird feeders, seasonally appropriate decorations, tiki torches etc. it's quite cute.

Because of all of these aesthetically pleasing, naturey things, a wide variety of naturey friends have learned to gather here over the years. We have all kinds. Chickadee's, purple finches, cardinals, blue jays, gold finches, humming birds, bees, crows (least favorite...well besides mosquitoes. I hate mosquitoes), woodpeckers, tufted titmouse's, a few other birds I don't recognize, gray squirrels, red squirrels, chipmunks and we've even had fuzzy little bunny rabbit's in the past {which are so cute I wanna eat them up...not in the literal sense. No, I don't eat cute little bunnies. In the "omg that baby is so stinkin' cute I just wanna eat it up!", kinda way}

It's free entertainment out there really. When you spend enough time out there, you begin to learn about their different personalities. Cardinals are almost robotic when they move. They tilt their head certain ways, and the way they hop and peck at seeds...they just look like robots. Blue jays are one of the loudest, alerting everything in the surrounding neighborhood that there is a human nearby and to run and hide. Chickadee's are funny. I haven't quite figured out if it is their preference, or everyone bird elses, but they can't seem to share the bird feeder...even with each other. There will be 3 birds having dinner quietly, one on 3 sides of the bird feeder, and a chickadee will come sit on the 4th side and all the other birds will fly off yelling in their little birdy voices. And when one chickadee is eating by itself, and another comes and joins, the first one darts off squawking as well. i dont' quite know what to make of it. 

My favorite of all though, is hands down, the red squirrels. Besides being so absolutely adorable when they are babies, they have the most personality of all of the little critters out there. We've had one that's hung around all summer. We call him Squeakers. (S)he got their name of course because of the distinct squeaking sound he makes whenever he is upset or perturbed about something. We line up shelled peanuts all around the deck, trying to lure him in to feed him by hand. He doesn't like coming around when the dog is on the deck with us of course. I remember one day when he jumped onto the deck from the apple tree to gather some peanuts, and as he did he spotted Duchess (our dog). Just as fast as he jumped down, he was back up in that apple tree, and soo upset. He turned around on the edge of the branch, squeaking and shaking his butt at us. He went on for minutes. It was quite comical. 

Yesterday I was reading my book at my favorite spot under the big tree in the side yard. As I laid there, I heard squeakers in the tree above me. I looked and looked for minutes, and finally spotted him up there, laying over a branch, looking straight down at me and squeaking up a storm. The neighbors probably think I'm crazy, because I was talking back at him, and inviting him down to join me in my nap. He finally found a nice little spot to sit and munch on the tree, dropping little pieces on my blanket the entire time. {silly squeakers}

When I woke up, he was still there resting. 

It was only today that I realized we have two red squirrels (or at least a visitor), and they are most definitely a boy and a girl. I was sitting on the deck admiring everything like I do every evening and all of a sudden I hear this commotion and see branches moving frantically. Suddenly, leaping from branch to branch, Squeakers appears! But he's not alone, he is being chased by another red squirrel. It was hysterical. He was leaping from unsteady branch to unsteady branch, running up the trees, and down the trees, circling the trunk of the trees, all around the perimeter of the property. At one point she caught up to him and they stumbled a little and then he darted off again. They made it back to the back of the property, and when he had some distance, he turned around and was squeaking up a storm. I was dying laughing. He was surely giving her a piece of his mind. 

I immediately warped back in time to my childhood as I thought of my favorite scene in The Sword in the Stone. You know the one where Wart turns into a red squirrel, and is learning how to do squirrely things, when he meets a pretty little female red squirrel who is just absolutely smitten with him, and will go to any length to win his affection. She is...ahem...a little forward with him {understatement of the week}. She mistakes his blatant acts of un-interest for playful acts of interest, as he's begging for advice on what to do from the wizard, Merlin (in the form of a gray squirrel of course), who offers no help. Merlin sits back singing 'A most befuddling thing', about the young, twitterpated couple. It is adorable, but a little bit heartbreaking how it ends. {I won't give it away}. 

Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed today's free entertainment in the back yard while I was sipping my first ever cup of Teecino (a caffeine free herbal coffee that my naturopath recommended...it certainly isn't coffee, but I'm giving it a shot).

Here is Squeakers, upside down in the center of the frame, looking at me from the tree during my nap yesterday

Here he is getting ready to leap to the bird feeder for a snack

Our cute little autumn window boxes on the deck

Our front steps

p.s. Autumn is my favorite season :)

Showing my patriotism, and fear of the midnight hour

I think it is safe to say that autumn has arrived in New England. It arrived with almost perfect timing, exactly 3 days following the annual Seafood Festival on Hampton Beach, which is the big to-do that closes out the summer. {one of my favorite weekends of the summer btw}

Autumn is my favorite season of the year, and I don't think I'm alone in that. When you live in a place like New England in the fall, it almost has to be your favorite season. Sure, we all love summertime, and sun tanned skin, beach days, and hiking and fishing and swimming, boating...and the list could go on. But I know that deep down, in the heart of every New Englander, they are a little bit giddy at the thought of the quickly approaching season. You hear mutterings everywhere. "I can't wait to wear my cute fall clothes", "I can't wait to go apple and pumpkin picking"...or my personal favorite, "When is football season gonna be here already!". {I am kind of a fanatic, and most decidedly a life long Patriot's fan, regardless if they blow the first home opener game since 2001, when they had it clinched......{sigh} 

I'll get over it soon...I hope.

No, today wasn't a good day for New England football. But, it was a perfect autumn Sunday afternoon. The air was crisp, the leaves are starting to change, my aunt Kate made homemade apple pie with fresh picked apples and pumpkinhead was on tap. That's another unmistakable sign of fall. 

{All things pumpkin}

I was just sitting here thinking about it, and in the last 2 weeks I've drank Pumpkinhead beer multiple times (at home and at the bar with a cinnamon and sugar rim....delicious), I've had dunk's pumpkin coffee, made DD's pumpkin coffee at home in my french press, had pumpkin cinnamon frappucino at Breaking New Grounds, made homemade organic pumpkin ice cream, homemade pumpkin cream cheese muffins and pumpkinhead beer cake. Phew!

Thank goodness for my bedtime of 10:30pm, instituted by my new naturopathic doctor, or I might turn into a pumpkin at midnight!

Here's a glimpse...they didn't last long.

Not a great thing to have around the house when your doctor has asked you to remove all flour and sugar from your diet....{sigh}...again.

Next up is homemade applesauce, hot apple cider and apple crisp at the Fryburg fair. Wait...no flour or sugar? Ugh...and yes, again....{sigh}.

My life will never be the same....

A few weeks ago I was in Seattle on one of my many business trips this summer. I was working a conference for naturopathic doctors, so there was a lot of...let's just say, interesting things being exhibited there. The entire show, I could hear this voice over a microphone at the end of the row I was in. After a couple of days I decided to venture over there and take a look at what the crowd of people were watching. There was this mid 50's, very handsome couple, demoing a blender. Once again I notice the crowd and I'm all, "What's the big deal? It's just a blender". But as always, curiosity got the best of me and I listened in. 
I hear him talking about wet blender and dry blender, and creating a vortex and friction and blah, blah, blah.... 
Then he said the magic words..."It's the #1 blender used by bartenders world wide". 
Cha-ching!
He had my attention now. 
Then he said even better magic words. "You can make ice cream and soup right in the container...."
Ice cream and soup? In the same container?
OK, I was hooked. Good thing there was someone else watching the booth, because I was there for at least 30 minutes watching him concoct an array of delicious treats. The first was a Mexican style soup, with tons of veggies, non-GMO spices and black beans, corn and tortilla chips added at the end. It was so good. I had two 3 cups of it...come on, they were only dixie cups. 
Then he started {stah-ted} to make ice cream. Well healthy sorbet actually. I was very skeptical when I saw the ingredients. 100% apple juice, banana, carrots and...cabbage? What kind of ice cream was this going to be? I don't know about you, but I'm used to Beach Plum, real, coffee Kahlua brownie ice cream with chocolate jimmies on top. sinful...i know.
Let's be real folks. You can't eat Beach Plum full fat ice cream your entire life, as often as you would like, and look like this husband and wife do in their 50's. They didn't look a day over 40..if that. 
So he proceeds on with the blending of his ingredients, in the same container that he had just made hot soup in. After what seemed like a minute and a half, he stops the blender, picks it up, takes the lid off and turns it upside down. no movement. We have ice cream sorbet folks. Remember those ingredients I just told you about? The cabbage and carrots and banana and apple juice? They were absolutely delicious! I had 2 cups...again.
I asked a few questions and discovered just how many incredible, healthy and delicious dishes can be made by this beautiful little machine called the Vitamix. I had to buy one. I almost felt as if I didn't have a choice. They were offering such a great show discount, I couldn't refuse. 
I've been waiting and waiting and...waiting, for my Vitamix to arrive. I've been planning out what I was going to make first. I've been visiting all the local farmers markets and health food stores, picking up all things organic. Fruits, nuts, corn, flowers...well the flowers weren't organic, those were just something pretty for mom. 
I have been like a kid awaiting Christmas day when you know that your parents got you the exact gift you have been wanting, but they haven't put it under the tree yet, and then magically on Christmas morning you wake up..and there it is! 
Yes. That level of excitement. I would call home asking mom if it had arrived. I even called Vitamix directly to find out if it had shipped yet, and when exactly the date and time of arrival would be. I couldn't wait for my Vitamix to come. 
Well today was the day. It arrived! And I was like a kid on Christmas morning, trotting through the house yelling "My Vitamix came!". Mom laughed. I think secretly moms love seeing their kids get excited about something, no matter how old they are. 
The anticipation was killing me as I was unpacking, removing Styrofoam and washing my Vitamix for it's first use. My first dish? Organic almond butter. So yummy, and so much better for you than peanut butter. 
And then I made the smoothie I've been waiting to make that I found in their online recipe book.  

It's an all organic, kale, pear, green grapes and banana delicious green smoothie. This was my dinner. And it was oh so good. And so healthy. It's so powerful it even disintegrates the seeds of berries. I hate it when I make a breakfast smoothie with blackberries, strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, and the seeds get stuck in my teeth. Problem no more!
I LOVE my Vitamix! 

And the cherry on top of the sundae today was, the library called and told me the book I requested was in. I have been waiting to read Double Cross by Sam and Chuck Giancana. It's the unveiling of the Kennedy's relationship with the mob boss Sam Giancana, and his involvement with the untimely death of my favorite, Norma Jean..better known as Marilyn Monroe. I'll have to hurry and finish up the Nicholas Sparks book I'm on right now so I can get to the exciting one. 
I'll let you know how it is.