June normally is such a beautiful month that brings pretty sunrises and sunsets, the mating of animals and display of their young that follow, blooming Lupines, and calm warm days. This was not the case for 21 of the 30 days of June; those 21 days consisted of rain, cold cloudy days and thunderstorms. The 9 days that we experienced Summer were great though; and those are the days I will focus on.

On the 2nd; after work Robin and I headed down to the nearby stream to take part in its calming beauty. On our way, Robin noticed a rabbit eating grass in the ditch, I promptly said, “Pull over!” We parked on the opposite side of the road and watched the Snowshoe Rabbit eat the grass and clover all the while it twitched its nose and flapped its ears in the warm breeze as the sun shown through its skin ignoring our shutters, clicking frame after frame. After a few minutes, another rabbit hopped out into the road and ran past us only to stop in another area that instead of eating grass it ate Dandelions. A few minutes later we put in and leisurely kayaked down the bends of the stream taking in the warm sun and the sounds of life that the setting sun always awakens. I can’t help but look at even the most simple life and photograph its beauty. I noticed that the sun licked Dune grass resembled a field of Wheat. Later on we came across people fishing in their kayaks, one lady had two fish strung up on the side of her Old Town Otter when suddenly a Loon popped up in front of me and beside her, and tempted to grab one of the fish. I believe this is the same Lone Loon that Robin and I saw last month. One of the fisherman said that a Beaver had slapped its tail against the water nearby so we set out to find it, however the hunt was unsuccessful, but we did get to explore a portion of the stream we normally don’t traverse. On our way back to the car, I looked back at Robin photographing something- I couldn’t help but take a photo of her as she looked cute.

We decided to head up to Dad’s camp on Roach Pond in Kokadjo after Church on the 7th. The weather was nice off and on; when we first arrived the skies were blue and the sun was out as you can see here at 1st branch. We decided to put in at 2nd branch; the weather started out fairly decent, however as we started to progress across the pond the wind picked up with a strong steady gust on our backs. We explored a small stream and ate our snack in hopes that during that time the wind would die down, but to our dissatisfaction it did not. We fought hard to paddle against the wind and splashing waves for about 25 minutes until we reached the shoreline- at that point the wind died down. We did spot our Siggs in the wild. On our drive back through the campground Robin spotted a Partridge. We sat in the car watching the bird kick up dirt; I believe it may have been building a nest.

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Mom flew in to Bangor International at 11PM on the 9th, shortly after my cell phone alarm woke me up. We both were tired so we slept in the next morning before heading off to my grandparents in Dexter. Thursday was the warmest day of the week and of the year thus far, the temperature rose to roughly 87 F. Grandpa is starting to feel better although he is experiencing side effects from some medicine that should wear off in a few days.

Friday was a bit cooler which eliminated the option of visiting Acadia Park, instead we test drove a Nissan Sentra and two Honda Accords-a 4 and 6 cylinder engine. I was very impressed with the Accord, the overall build quality inside and out was top notch. I have been experiencing issues with my current vehicle, 02 Malibu, the brakes and rotors have been replaced again, this would make for the 4th time in 5 years. The mechanic also stated that a few gaskets need to be replaced but I am unsure the validity of that claim and will worry about that when the time comes as I only have one payment left and am deciding on what to do with the car.

Mom went to Dexter to help clean her parent’s house and yard on Saturday with her sisters and I stayed home for the afternoon. My Aloe Vera Plant pot was overcrowded so we took out one plant and separated a baby plant from the mother’s main root vein and replanted it, it looks like it’s in bad shape right now but it will recover.

Mom was glad to attend Cornerstone Baptist on Mother’s Day as she misses Stan’s preaching. After Church we headed to Grammies for dinner. Grandpa was not feeling well at all and headed to the ER. We stopped and looked at a Condo in Hermon that I really like, a house that could fit a family of three. I called the Realtor to find out that Condos come with an association fee and that the fee for this condo was $150 a month which as you can imagine changed my mind about Condos.

I tried a new recipe this weekend as well, it’s grilled pizza – something you normally would not expect to see on a grill. The results of the Pizza came out tasting very nice and I did not have a difficult time cooking the pizza either, I expected the dough to stick to the grates but it didn’t.

I purchased a new camera, Canon S3 IS, last week to replace the Z3 that died a few weeks ago in Virginia. I’ve been playing around with all of the settings and am still not used to everything like I was on my old camera- which is understandable. Although I am starting to get to know my camera better I have been contemplating trading it in for the Canon Digital Rebel XT- I have not yet made my decision. The ability to add filters, additional lenses and focus manually is very appealing to me. I learned about these options at a local photography store, Bangor Photo. I am waiting for them to e-mail me the photos I took with their XT; I want to see how photos look on a DSLR that were taken by me to compare with my S3 IS.

This week has brought warm yet humid free days; the skies are saturated with Cumulus humilis clouds with a beautiful backdrop of vibrant blue. In a few months my favorite season will be here, Autumn. I’m planning on taking few trips this fall and maybe even next month around Maine and Nova Scotia, I want take a boat cruise around some of the island in hopes of taking photos of Whales and Puffins, during October I’ll be driving around the state looking for opportunities to take photos of the foliage.

I made Pizza last night; the dough was not home-made but everything else was purchased and prepared by my hands. The toppings are as follows: Fried Hamburg, Jalapeno, Habanero, Green Peppers, Onion, Mushrooms, and Coca Cola Classic in the 8oz glass bottle. The Pizza came out well; it was hot due to the Habaneros – I think I’ll ease up on them next time. I have been reading food photography tips; I took some advice with this photo of my pizza.

Today was more or less relaxing for me, most of the weekend I developed my site a little more. I learned more about PHP and added some server side scripting enhancements to the site. The weather has been a mix of drizzle and sunshine, temperature ranging from 70-80.

For supper I decided to try another recipe from my grilling book, San Diego Chicken. It consists of chicken breast strips, 1 lime, 1 lemon and tomato sauce. Squeeze the citrus juice out into a bowl and mix in the tomato sauce, put the chicken into the sauce, place the bowl in a Ziploc bag in the refrigerator for a few hours. The chicken will have a semi-tart taste to it.

While I was purchasing the fruit mentioned earlier, I kept thinking how beautiful fruit is, so vibrant in color, so distinct in shape and scent. If you put lemons, limes, oranges, mangos, etc. together they look amazing- the same goes for any other fruit. Fruit is God’s candy, sweet yet healthy for you. I was inspired to alter the site theme; I wanted to create a nostalgic feeling. The nostalgic moment for me is thinking back when I first ate a lemon,lime, orange.

One more week and I will be in Virginia, I’ll be gone for a week and will be sure to keep my blog updated!