It’s been almost a week since me mum left town. We did so much it’d be painful for all concerned to write/read about, but suffice to say we now have a near-native command of places to go to when you come and visit us is deepest, darkest Maine. Well I do anyway; DrSita’s been working like, well like the consummate, conscientious, rock-star professor we all know she is and thus had to forgo most of the opportunities to get to know the area better.

Highlights?

• Mum cooking for us almost every day with an accompanying lesson
• Popham Beach is a bit special, with the tide out even better.

Also discovered Lightroom for image editing...

• Discovering a Twiglets & Robinsons Blackcurrant & Apple dealer in Freeport
• Watching the waves at Ocean Point, off of Boothbay island.

View Larger Map

"Big one coming, Gwyn"

• Seeing mum get to grips with her new camera & netbook and getting her on Flickr (and picasa and skype and gmail and…)

Also 3 weeks ago I went on my first Maine photography meetup. It’s a vibrant little group and has met every week since I joined and every time it’s been perfect weather every time. Lovely folks all of them and it’s well gratifying getting so many new, active contacts at Flickr. The first was at Wolfe’s Neck, which is well local, then at a cemetery in Portland during peak, and I mean really peak, autumn foliage (I’m calling it falliage, let me know if that gets tiresome), then last Sunday it was down Kennebunk way at a nature reserve. I think the frequency of the meetups now reflects the impending winter when it’s going to be cold…

The Maine Photography Gang from Liz's Photostream

I’ve been angling for more work/ a ‘proper’ job via craigslist and suchlike which has involved a re-theming of agaveweb.com . I’m going to try writing more articles for it, rather than the usual self-congratulatory, thinly-veiled marketing pitches, and see where that gets me. The first is called 10 tips for your non-profit’s website, since I seem to have a fair bit of experience working with cash-strapped but very worthwhile ventures. I still need to update the portfolio though ‘cos I pretty much let the site fall by the wayside once I started web developing for Lewis & Clark last year.

We’ve bought our tickets to go back to zummerzet, I won’t say when cos I don’t want to give the squirrels notice of when atticus won’t be guarding the house. But I’m stoked (to use the parlance of our recent times). DrSita’s not been back for ages and there are tons of people I ain’t seen for a good long while whom it’d be lovely to catch up with.

"Home for the holidays"

If you’ve read this far, first off, thanks, secondly there’s a new icon at the end of this (and all others) post(s) if you click the + sign next to it that means you “like” what I’ve written. Comments are best of course, but if you’re not feeling that inspired just give it a click. I can be needy at times. Of course a ‘like’ and a comment would be grand too. Can’t quite offer as much as Skippy over at his site, “A kingdom for a comment”…

Just limbering up, trying to remember how to blog… below’s what I take photos of. Click on a subject if your reflexes are up to it.

In honour of getting our little black dog back from his holidays there’s a new item in the menu on the top right. Presenting “Cusify”. Click it to have all the images on the page replaced with random ones of Atticus. And then see if you can tell the difference…

Here are some sample images which start off not being of the dog.

You can also drag that link to your bookmarks and click it when you’re on any page at all. An image search for squirrels f’rexample.

(nicked and adapted from the Kittenifier)

We just got back from a 4-day trip to Los Angeles, I won’t go into details but it wasn’t really for business or pleasure. It went as well as could be expected and it was nice to catch up with everyone on the other side of the continent.

The Real Los Angeles

Atticus still needs picking up from his canine hotel, we could have gone this morning to get him but his massage and pedicure treatment was scheduled for the early afternoon so I’ll be nipping off to the “10 acres of land in beautiful Freeport, Maine” to get him in an hour or two. In the meantime I can actually get some work done…

Our luggage got delivered this morning. It couldn’t keep up with on all three flights. It was problems all the way and if we have the choice of other airlines I’ll be giving Northwest/Delta the widest possible berth in the future. On the plus side, we weren’t travelling with the dog or it could’ve been bad.

This week on the work front: Maine Latino, Belgian cookware, sending off the Fan Club photos to his fans and a few other minor bits and pieces. Time to start drumming up business again.

And talking of business, Moocards had a 3 year anniversary offer to print 50 business cards for free. They turned up and survived the water sodden post box. They’re pretty. I got one of each of my 50 most ‘interesting’ photos on Flickr.

Click for bigger...

Cos they were free there’s a blurb on the front of each one, so I might spring for the actual paid version…

The Hefty Carbon Footprint aisle in Shaws supermarket (click to embiggen)

No idea who keeps buying all their Bounties…

Amherst at the weekend was lovely, thanks again Jesse, ‘Manda & Pat.

Well busy at this end, just posting cos I can.

So a new high score on Facebook’s PacMan game early Sunday morning shamed me into leaving the house and exploring the locality a bit. Bowdoin gave its new professors a 4 page “what to do and see” round Brunswick manual and one of the places suggested was Wolfe’s Neck State Park. I drove over and it was definitely worth it. It’s just down the coast and has all kinds of paths round the woods and is surrounded by rocky, seaweedy coastline. I was using my 50mm (manual focus) lens and there was lots of nature and the like to snap. I’ve already got my eyes on my christmas present to myself (or if eBay has it cheaper, maybe hallowe’en), this: Pentax SMCP-FA 50mm f/1.4 Lens . It costs more than your average camera, but I reckon it’ll be well worth it.

Anyroad, Wolfe’s Neck was $1.50 per person well spent here’s a photo:

Keep wanting to call it Will's Neck

We then rented ‘Ne le dis à personne‘ from Bart & Greg’s fine little video shop but the DVD was scratched or something so we watched The Garden, a documentary about a 40 acre allotment in the middle of LA that (Spoiler) gets closed down by greedy landowners and is on one of DrSita’s syllabi. Therein we learnt that polititians suck. There are probably Marxist interpretations too but I missed those. Then we committed a terrible mistake and watched the final of HGTV’s Design Star rather than Mad Men which we’d forgotten was on the other side.

This week, in theory I’ve got a lot of work on. Santa Cruz nutrition e-commerce, new offices for Portland Therapists, finishing up Baked Beans, starting on Maine Latino, & developing a Belgian kitchenware site and finalising a poster for L&C on Southern Discomfort. However all of those are in stasis until I get the next steps confirmed from everyone. I’ll probably work on my new business cards today and update my business blog with recent work and recommendations. And play pacman on facebook.

Sad news about Keith Floyd innit. He was a star. Here’s The Stranglers’ Peaches as a tribute…

(it was the unlikely theme tune to his tv programme)

Also, I cooked yesterday. Without a glass of red in me hand mind. Here’s the results.

Cottage Pie au Fromage

As usual, needed more salt. But that’s better than needing less, right?