It's almost June, so here's the rest of May.

Previous weekend (21st - 22nd May): too damn hot again except by the sea, so fled to Maine on Saturday for the season's first mid-coast overnight. Dressed for weather at home and was almost too cold during second coffee and lunch (and PoGo Community day) in Portland. Woot. In also-cool Bath, changes since fall 2021 included our favorite Café Crème barista now working at BIW (kids are expensive) and the local favorite BBQ place having closed (owner pretty much done after 25+ good years). And Halcyon is not currently open on weekends.

But Waterfront Park is still lovely and the trees (a few weeks behind home) were hosting a worm-eating warbler (thanks for the (literal) heads-up, Merlin Sound ID). The Duck & Fig pizza from Burano's (fka Bruno's, looks like only the name (recently) changed) is still tasty and Fielder's Choice still has good and abundant ice cream (try a maple frappe with maple ice cream if you're agree-érable).

Woke up early enough on a chill and foggy Sunday morning to get Frosty's (excellent cake) Donuts in Brunswick. Scored the last blueberry fritter (huge and tasty, shared the second half the next day) and may have sold them out of maple-frosted chocolate (good thing they freeze and re-heat well). After realer brekkie at Café Crème we went to Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens to kick off that season. The sun burned through the clouds and the temperatures got all the way up into the... 70's°F, 20+ degrees cooler than at home. The gardens were lovely as always and full of warblers; Merlin Sound ID came in handy once again. The rhodies were just starting, mosquitoes and blackflies further along. Had a nice long-enough walk with a knee-sparing shuttle ride up the steepest hill. Glad I could do that much.

Started heading home after post-tromping ob ice cream. Got second coffee in Portland again and did overly-warm plant shopping at Broadway Gardens (AJ's frozen lemonade to the rescue). Southbound traffic wasn't terrible so we decided on Anju in Kittery for dinner if not too hot or crowded. "No" on both counts, perfect coastal temp for outdoor dining with multiple open tables. Our favorite okonomiyaki is back on the menu ("by popular demand", per our server, and how), and it was great, as were the coconut duck rice cakes. Would eat again, maybe with help so we could get the tahini cauliflower too.

Drove the last hour homewards watching the temperature go up as the sun went down. Skipped a long and scorching line at Mad Maggie's and got home where it was still almost 90°F / over 30°C in the shade. Thankfully my house cool-keeping had worked and we even made it through the night without aircon.

The week in-between brought a stretch of lovely warm-day and cool-night dry weather, about as good as it gets. Got almost caught up with yard and garden work, also as good as it gets. Core lawn mowed / strimmed (edges left long for fireflies), veg starts planted, multiple salads' worth of greens harvested. Dawn chorus is almost all resident birds now, yard dinosaurs turkeys continue to lurkey, and somewhere in there I saw (from inside) a bobcat passing through and a fisher across the street. Nature, healing, squealing, etc.

Started Mem. Day weekend having (outdoor) Friday lunch with someone I hadn't kept up with in literal years (been failing at Community even before March 2020). Need to send them some travel-related links. Felt kinda crappy until thunderstorms and weather change on Saturday. Enjoyed BBQ and zero-gravity chairs at a friend's place on a lovely Sunday. Mostly hiding from the heat again today.

This week's forecast calls for another round of cool and damp. I should get some beans planted.