Category: silliness

'scene' along the way, a second look, Camping, donuts, finding my way, food, fun, on closer examination, perseverance, photography, road trip, silliness, travel, Yummy

The Holy Donut

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I know nothing at all about marketing, let me start there.  But back in 1990 I became possessed with buying a Ford Explorer, and later on I read that they aimed their marketing to women, so I must be susceptible.  As I drove to the Wild Duck Campground in Scarborough, ME my thoughts were on my fears of what would the road be like? Would I get myself into a situation where my lack of experience in towing a camper would get me stuck?  So I was lost in thought, sitting at a traffic light with only a mile to go, and I looked to my left and saw The Holy Donut on the corner.  I was instantly charmed.  I thought what a great name that was, and then the light turned green, but I vowed to check it out the next day.

Still charmed, I set out to try some the next morning, but it was only then that I noticed their real claim to fame.  They serve Maine potato donuts!  The main claim to uniqueness and I failed to pick up on it.  So on the spot I saw blog post potential, and that meant that I needed a scientific approach to this breakfast escapade, so I bought SIX donuts.  I mean I had to base a post on more than just one flavor, right?  What did I choose?  Dark Chocolate Sea Salt, Coffee Cake, Sweet Potato, Triple Berry Holy Cannoli, Toasted Coconut, and Maine Blueberry.  No, I didn’t eat them all, couldn’t have eaten them all because they are bigger, and heavier, than your average donut.  I cut a wedge from each one to try each flavor, and the only one I didn’t like was the chocolate one.  I love chocolate so I don’t know why that was.  When I bought them I thought that I now had breakfast for the next couple of days, but I kept picking on them that day so I eventually threw out the rest of the box just to save myself.  I have zero will power, at least to sweet treats.  Over the two weeks I was at the campground I also tried Lemon, Vanilla, and the best ever, Blueberry Lemon!  I thought that was so good that I said to myself that I would have that every day for the rest of my stay.  Only it turned out that was the last day of that specialty flavor.  I was so disappointed!  What new flavor was the replacement?  Maine Apple!  Be still my heart.  I could have stayed longer in that beautiful part of Maine, but maybe it’s a good thing that I have moved on, for my waistline at least. secondtryHolydonutsignage2HolydonutbackdoorHolydonutflavorsHolydonutsignageHolydonutvarietiesI came to realize that the van delivers fresh donuts to various local businesses, so you don’t have to go to the store itself.  But then you would miss all the accessories you might choose to buy!

HolydonutaccessoriesHolydonutshirts

The Holy Donut!  Whoever came up with the marketing for this place is a genius!Holydonutenjoy

'scene' along the way, birds, friends, fun, perseverance, photography, road trip, silliness, simple things, sky, travel, weather

Meredith…

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We took a little drive to Lake Winnipesaukee yesterday, and because I had to look up how to spell that I now know that it’s 21 miles long and varies from one to 9 miles wide.  We parked at the town pier in Meredith and were soon clicking away.  It was a gorgeous day, and fun, after we recovered from our initial trauma.  A hotel with gorgeous flowers had caught out eye first, and there were swans in the water there also. So we walked that way, dodging a gauntlet of Canada geese, and as we got closer I saw that one of the swans was caught on fishing line, a common problem for the birds in Florida, and I was getting upset. I was wondering who to inform about this while my friend walked closer to the second swan, and then informed me that they were not real swans.  Nope, fake swans and the fishing line was actually anchoring them down.  Kathy was hoping I wouldn’t mention this, but how could I resist?  Maybe her daughters won’t read this…

MeredithfirstsceneMeredithgeese2Meredithhotel2Meredithswan2MeredithparkIt promised to be a fun afternoon…

family, kids, old dogs new tricks, perseverance, photography, road trip, silliness, simple things, travel

The adventure begins…

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First stop was with my cousin in Charleston, an easy 7 hour drive from home.  It was foggy for the first few hours, I may have to rethink leaving at 4 AM because those hours were stressful.  But I got there early with lots of time to visit, and take in the wild life in the area.  And there was plenty of wildlife!05-07-19Maireadclose05-07-19maireadclose2

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05-07-19partyAnd an 11 and 4 year olds birthday party.  What’s a visit without a little cake and ice cream?  Such a fun day!

fantasy images, learning, perseverance, photography, silliness, technology

Multiplicity…

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That was the name of the class we took.  In the class we used an actual person posing for us in the same garden area five times, in five different poses, in five different places.  At the end of the exercise you, okay, not me because I didn’t know the camera controls in my new camera so I gave up pretty quickly.  And that’s really just an excuse because I never learned to set the focus where I wanted it in any of my cameras.  But I guess the class was a success since I now know how to do exactly that.  And how to erase an image from one photo and add it to another.  Trust me, it’s exhausting, thinking I mean.  At the end of the exercise some of us had the same person appearing five times in the same final photo.  You have to admit that that idea has potential.

Obviously that would be a lot more impressive than seeing three bunnies, or three Ginny dolls, since I easily could have had multiples of those items.  But a heck of a lot of work went into these images and I’m glad I learned to do it.  I’m sure I entertained the neighborhood while I tried to pose various objects out in the sunshine, and before I could get the camera focused the wind would knock them over.  Or I’d realize that the background of the photo was going to be terrible, which had me on the ground trying to shoot so that the sky would be the background.  I tried, but was futile.  I moved inside and got the bunny photo and called it a day.  But I learned a new trick, and I am an old dog, so that’s something…4=27-19ginyx3

 

photography, silliness, strangers, sunrise

Fishermen…

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It doesn’t seem as if you can lump all the fishermen I’ve met at sunrise or sunset photo shoots into any sort of category.  Except they all seem to be friendly.  Take this morning’s sunrise encounter at Hammond’s Creek Bridge.  I was taking pictures, as usual, when he greeted me as he pulled up on a bicycle and marched over and introduced himself.  Keith maybe?  He says he always comes there for sunrise and sunsets but I don’t think I have seen him before.  And I asked him about One-Foot Fred but he wasn’t aware of him at all.  I didn’t see old Fred, just saying.  Anyhow, he asked where I was from, I said MA, and he got excited and said he was from W. Springfield.  So I added that I was from Brockton and he immediately got to talking about Rocky Marciano, and how his mother thinks that Tom Brady is the greatest baseball player ever (that’s what he said that she said).  Then it was on to Carl Yastrzemski, and John Havlicek.  The good old days.  Right about then he pulled a Budweiser out of his pocket and cracked it open, and settled in to watch the sunrise.  You can’t make this stuff up.4-5sunrise14-5sunrise24-5Sunrise4

donuts, Florida landmarks, food, fun, go with the flow, pastries, photography, silliness

The Florida Strawberry Festival…

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That I”m a rookie at this photography stuff came home to me again when I realized that I had taken a lot of pictures at the strawberry festival yesterday, but never took one of the actual strawberry shortcake.  I had wondered if I would come away with nothing but pictures of mounds of whipped cream and strawberries, and came away with none.  I wonder if Sunday afternoon might be the biggest crowd of the entire week, but I found myself sucked into a vortex and just snapped photos as the crowd swept me along.  If it’s shortcake you are looking for then you’ll have to get down there yourself, it runs through the 11th…

 

 

I found the charm I was looking for in the exhibition hall where they displayed their winning cakes, horticulture, quilts, and lots more.  A large display case held images of all the strawberry queens over the years, but I was a little disappointed that 1948, my birth year, wasn’t represented.  But then I saw that she was in a featured showcase of her own.

 

 

Maybe it’s the fact that I pack donuts for a living, but the donut burger caught my eye.  You always hear about crazy fair food, and I was excited to take this picture because it was early on and I expected to take lots of photos of food, but this and the elephant ears were my only food photos.  And I was obnoxious and told the woman that that’s not what we call elephant ears at Publix.  She said that hers were ‘authentic’.donutburgerelephantearI purposely wanted to go to this event alone, as I do most of the time when I’m wanting to take pictures, because I think I’ll drive another person nuts with my photo taking.  But I think that with another person’s perspective my visit might have been even more fun.  So grab a friend and go, but try not to miss the strawberry shortcake!