Hellllloooooo!  I'm back.  The trip was long but uneventful thankfully.  This morning I woke up and peeked outside to see in what state my little garden was after my 10 week absence.  GP pretends it's not there when I'm gone.  He rarely even opens up the shutters on that side of the apartment.  My, should live in a cool, dark basement, husband says that lets in too much light.  When I opened up it was looking out into a tiny jungle, all tall grass and crawling, climbing vines.  The Magpies, that sound like the fishmonger wives of the aviary family, were making a racket and crashing around in the trees.  The "lawn" has been taken over by crabgrass and there are slugs the size of kid's shoes out there.  (Big kids)  I've started cleaning but this will take a while.  Everything I do out there has to be done with much caution as this country produces some mother spiders and as we all know, I am NOT a fan of spiders.

When I first got back to Maine I noticed how clean the air and roadsides are, how friendly the people, how casual and relaxed life is.  I do love that and I miss it when I'm gone.  However I'm not going to miss the supermarket where I have to take out a mortgage on my house to buy the weekly groceries!  I can't believe how expensive food has become.  This morning we bought bags of food to fill our empty cupboards for what it would cost me to get a loaf of bread and some milk at home.  OK, that may be a slight exaggeration, but not much.  We need to push for more local farming in the States.  We encourage people to eat well but who can afford their fresh fruit and veggies?  Geesh.

Tomorrow we start school, the girl and I.  I'm curious to see the changes and meet all the new staff.  Grace is being morbid.  Wish us me luck.

It was wonderful spending the summer with you all and  we will miss you!  xxoo me