It's June in Maine

Old Port Festival

The first Sunday in June is always the day for the Old Port festival, a wonderful downtown tradition.

This year's weather was perfect! The parade by the Shoestring Theater, headed by Nance Parker, was well attended and much enjoyed.

There was also a petting zoo.

A Bit of Country in the City

A neighbor of mine has created a wonderful pond in her backyard. It's deep enough for a frog to hibernate in over the winter.

This bullfrog is quite happy with his new digs.

She also has three chickens, who seem to be quite content in their new urban setting.

House Portraits

I've been doing scratchboard house portraits the past few months. It's a lot of fun doing my artwork, and I really enjoy when the owners pick up the pictures. They've all been quite happy with the representation of their homes, so that pleases me, in turn.

Praying Mantis Babies

The specks in that container are baby praying mantises; they'd hatched two days prior to my taking this shot.

My young friends Andrew and Henry are in charge of this nature experiment. They'd sent away for a praying mantis egg case that had instructions about what to do after the eggs hatched, which was supposed to be in about four to six weeks. Andrew had just about given up hope after eight weeks of waiting, when they hatched the following day.

The egg case is the round brown object on the stick, toward the right. The mantises are eating aphids until they go out into the garden to start working there. Some of them have already been released into the garden at the boys' home and some will go to the community garden they participate in.

I hadn't seen one of these insects since I've been living in Maine. I had been quite excited when one appeared in my Philadelphia garden.

Another City Bird

This pigeon has made a nest in a wonderful spot.

june "art of the month club"

It was exciting to receive my June envelope, with an apology for being late; May never produced an "art of the month" mailing.

As you can see, there was a charming little envelope decorated by hand, which contained flower seeds. I planted them immediately. I'll be checking them often and will take pictures of whatever sprouts in the area I've placed them.

If you click on these two photos to enlarge them, you can read about the guest artist. It's pretty funny.