Deep Blade Journal

Mellow Thanksgiving

Note the long shadows and still-green grass

Ground is not frozen yet; last scarlet nantes carrots–very tasty

What a difference a week makes. Thanksgiving was dry, with a warming trend on the way.

Soggy

Daily drenchings since Sunday have kept the sump running hard

One to two inches of rain has fallen several times since last Saturday leaving everything saturated.

FLOOD ADVISORY
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CARIBOU, ME
214 PM EST FRI NOV 17 2006…THE FLOOD ADVISORY CONTINUES FOR THE PENOBSCOT RIVER…MATTAWAMKEAG RIVER…PISCATAQUIS RIVER…

.HEAVY RAINFALL TODAY WILL CAUSE CONTINUED RAPID RISES ON RIVERS ACROSS CENTRAL AND DOWNEAST MAINE. THE PISCATAQUIS…MATTAWAMKEAG AND LOWER PENOBSCOT RIVERS ARE EXPECTED TO RISE NEAR BANKFULL.

THE FLOOD ADVISORY CONTINUES FOR THE MATTAWAMKEAG RIVER AT MATTAWAMKEAG
* FROM MSG UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
* UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
* AT 01PM FRIDAY THE STAGE WAS 12.7 FEET
* FLOOD STAGE IS 13.0 FEET
* FORECAST…THE RIVER WILL RISE TO NEAR 12.7 FEET TOMORROW MORNING

On Thursday when I crossed the Stillwater River in Orono, I noted that the water was lapping up quite high on the banks. It’s probably way up after today’s wind-driven rainstorm.

The storm came in at about 5am this morning, waking me up with lots of odd pounding on the house and an eerie, lonely howl. It was carrying the spirits of those it took when it spawned tornadoes in North Carolina a couple of days ago.

But remarkably, despite over 32 mm of rain today (1 1/4 in.), the basement offices of Deep Blade Journal did not get wet, as they did during the 45 mm rain on Tuesday.

Bare

Lonely leaf on the maple tree

During this week, it did not seem very much like winter was on the way. The temperatures stayed up in the ten degree neighborhood most of the time, even at night. Still, the leaves are down and the wind has a bit of a bite today.

Hard frost

Leaves ready for pick-up by the town vacuum cleaner

Last broccoli shoot

This morning was our first trip of the season below -5 degrees Celsius. The leaves were well stripped by a frenetic storm that rolled through last Saturday.

Boo!

Mount Hope Cemetery, Bangor

Foliage

Rain today on the bush in front of the house

Best quiet-water paddle in the state is in Milford, Maine

Mattawamkeag, Maine

Mount Washington in New Hampshire as seen from Mount Cutler in Hiram, Maine

I thought you’d all be banging down the door trying to get your Friday Garden Blogging the last three weeks. Alas, no one seemed to miss it, or at least let me know this.

I snapped hundreds of photos in the last three weeks with the Finepix S9000. This is just a tiny sample.

Herb “garden”

Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme

Looks a bit sad now at the end of the season, but this small backdoor planter provided lots of fresh herbs over the summer.

Still no frost. What seemed like buckets of rain this morning amounted to only about 15 mm. You can see the wet steps above.

More morning glories

Getting scared there’ll be frost soon and these beauties will shut down

I especially like that one in the middle. A spindly vine and one little purple flower just popped up amongst the broccoli.

An old Yes lyric keeps running through my head after I heard it on Stephen King’s radio station (100.3 FM in Bangor) a few days ago.

Yesterday a morning came, a smile upon your face.
Caesar’s palace, morning glory, silly human race,
On a sailing ship to nowhere, leaving any place,
If the summer changed to winter, yours is no disgrace.

Does this mean something? The song I believe is from The Yes Album, which I have around here somewhere.

Last summer weekend

Itty bitty spider

Late rose

And summer it is supposed to be… 25 or 26C with partly cloudy skies all weekend. Note: Blogger was messed up for a while so this post was delayed.

Glimpses of fall

Broccoli is late, only the third plant to mature

Staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina)

While the broccoli plants are developing nice, thick stems, the heads are hardly full. And it’s been so slow to mature.

Meanwhile, sumac turning that incredible red-orange lines the road down to the Salmon Club Park.