From Away

For Memorial Day weekend my friend Kasey came out from Chicago for a visit - we got to do some catching up, get in some shopping, eat some seafood, and soak in the sun.

We had a picnic at Evergreen and saw baby ducks and snapping turtles.

Played a string of candlepin and a few bucks worth of pinball.

Caught the sunset at Prout's Neck

Picked up lupines and local food from the farmer's market - including some tasty greens from my favorite farmers.

We did some shopping for clothes in Freeport.

And some shopping for shellfish in Portland

Caught a game at the ballpark (the first time I ever saw the Seadogs win!)

Made a fabulous local feast - including  Mr. Cleaver's scallops, Kasey's lobster and clam chowdah, and my first (quite successful) attempt at crab cakes

A trip to the chilly beach and a slightly warmer lighthouse.

And don't worry - Mr. Cleaver didn't miss out on all the fun - he just didn't make it into all that many pictures!

(and thanks to Kasey for the great time and the use some of your photos - you're welcome back anytime)

Let's Go To The Movies

Last night Mr. Cleaver and I took the first of what will be many trips to the Pride's Corner Drive-In Theatre in Westbrook, where it's always a double feature. It was a fantastically fun atmosphere, with tons of families and folks who were clearly old pros at the Drive-In Experience. And for $7 for two first-run movies with inexpensive concessions, it's a good bang for your movie-going buck.

Some of my favorite things were all the younger kids in their pajamas and the 60's-era intermission cartoons. And for those wondering, the picture quality is good after the first 15 minutes or so (when it gets dark enough) and the sound plays via your car radio. As for film reviews, we both really enjoyed How to Train Your Dragon, but found Iron MA 2 to be underwhelming. Other than that, the photos are pretty self-explanatory, so I'll leave it to them.

PS - in other news, I met with a physical therapist on Thursday and have been diligently doing my stretches and I can happily say I can fully bend my wrist with no pain! I'm not out of thw woods yet, but this is definitely a positive move forward :)

A Day at the Beach and a Walk in the Park

This is the time of year when I'm going to try and make everyone jealous that I live in Maine. For reasons, see the following evidence:

Exhibit A: (Sunday - Ocean Park Beach)

Exhibit B: (Monday - Evergreen Cemetary (half a mile from my apartment)

SUNday

We had a whole weekend of sun which meant I finally got to wear a new summer top I made on Saturday.

It's loosely based on Maryy's Hot Hot Heat top tutorial, and was made before a) Burdastyle made an actual pattern of it and b) I took the pattern-making class, so it was a lot of trial and error to get something that looks right. There was a time in the middle when I thought it was hopeless, but I think it turned out pretty well in the end. The fabric came from a bag of stuff from a friend of m mother-in-law's, so it was nice to have some free fabric to experiment with.

But really this post is about Sunday, which involved soft-serve with sprinkles and several hours at Fort Williams Park taking it all in.

Summer is finally here! Hooray!

Stitch & Pitch

For national weather watchers, and New England blog-readers, you may have heard that it was a damp June here in Maine. We pretty much had mist, fog, or rain every day for the last three weeks of the month. A little fog didn't keep six brave knitting souls from attempting a stitch n' pitch at Hadlock Field this past Tuesday.

By the middle of the first inning we had seven runs against us, one out and a reliever pitcher, we never rallyed as hoped (I've yet to ever see the Seadogs win a game), but despite the weather I had a great time.  It's July now and it looks like we'll be getting more sun, and there are more plans to knit outside, so fingers crossed!

It's Greek to Me

This Friday after work, Mr Cleaver and I stopped by the annual Greek Food Festival at the Holy Trinity Church. Mr. Cleaver has been talking this thing up since May and fortunately the weather was dry enough for us to grab some dinner.

When we got there at a quarter to five, the line barely fit in the tent, by the time we got our food there was hardly a seat. This thing in popular and there's no doubt why:

After stuffing ourselves full on delicious Greek food , we wandered through the neighborhood a bit and looked  at the fancy old buildings. I thought the color-coded townhouses below were particularly charming.

Roadtrip: Maine Fiber Frolic

This past Saturday, six of us from Portland Knitters on the Town took a field trip up to Windsor Maine for the Maine Fiber Frolic. There were over 200 locally-based fiber vendors and dozens of adorable animals.

 

The highlight of my day was holding a pair of 6-day-old cashmere goats - one who feel asleep in my arms!

The Fair is largely geared toward spinners, and my spinning friends made quite the haul (not pictured, the four raw fleeces they also took home), but there was plenty of lovely hand-dyed and hand-spun yarn to be purchased as well. Being on the poor end of my pay cycle, I only came home with one skein of yarn. A lovely hand-dyed lace weight from Pine Star Studios that will be soon made into an Ishbel shawl. The entire Pine Star booth had beautiful items, including the orange and green roving seen above.

Hopefully both Pine Star and my other local favorite, Enchanted Knoll will be at the Common Ground Fair and the fall and  regardless of whether I spin yet or not (because we all know I eventually will) I'm planning on picking up some roving. I'm hoping to pick up drop spindling in the fall. I was really entranced by it at the Frolic and really, who wouldn't want to be as cool as this guy?

Tonight: my second night of weaving!

Lord Love Vacationland

So today being Memorial Day, the more or less official start to the summer season, gives me reason to taunt? flaunt? that this is going to be my first summer in Maine. Maine, as you may or may not know, is called Vacationland, at least on the liscense plates. It is also referred to as The Pine Tree State on the quarters, and the Way Life Should Be on the sign as you cross the state border. 

All of this is to say, 40-hour work week aside, this is going to be an awesome summer. And Mr. Cleaver and I kicked off our Memorial Day weekend with style.

After our usual yoga class (me) and tennis match (Mr. Cleaver), Mr. Cleaver kindly drove up to Brunswick so I could meet one of my favorite knitwear designers, Ysolda Teague, at Purl Diva.

I got to chat with her briefly and got a signed copy of her adorable book of patterns, Whimsical Little Knits. And just today I found out that she's going to be at my regular Tuesday night knitting group, so double yay!

Afterward, Mr. Cleaver and I strolled around the Bowdoin College area, poking our heads into any shop that looked interesting and then made our way to Fat Boy Drive-In for an early dinner.

Unsurprisingly, I love drive-ins and Fat Boys is pretty quality. My chocolate shake was perfect (I guess they're called frappes [pronounced "fraps"] here), and though not on roller skates, our waitress was very friendly.

And food is always more exciting when eaten from a tray hanging from your driver's side window.

Sunday we took low-key, running some errands and reading the paper; potting some plants and eating a cherry pie I had made and frozen months ago.

Today we went to a Seadogs game (a minor-league affiliate of the Boston Red Sox) and then went to a cook-out at my Mother-In-Laws. All-American and all awesome. This is going to be a great summer.