Today we woke to grey overcast skies so the incentive to get out to walk wasn't strong. Instead we spent the day reading, researching where to go on sunny days and photographing the wildlife visitors to the bird table and bird feeder in our Castine garden. Oh and Dave went for a run as the weather brightened up later in the day. We'd seen several interesting birds at the bird feeder since we've been here so when a Blue Jay arrived this morning Jill decided to ge...

As expected the sun continued so today we headed east to Deer Isle. The local Heritage Trust have done a great job establishing and maintaining a number of short trails dotted across the island and the local Chamber of Commerce run an Information Office just across the bridge as you reach the island. Local advice was Stinson Point and Barred Island was a picturesque walk and the low lunch-time tide meant we could walk out to Barred Island across a sand spit. Alth...

The weather forecast suggested today was to be the start of a spell of brighter weather so walking was planned. As it was the weekend we decided to head west around the coast to avoid the relatively popular Acadia area. Camden Hill State Park looked promising with lots of trails and hills to explore. Seen outside a church en route: "Avoid the Christmas rush, come to church now". We will keep this brief as there is little of note in our walking trips around the M...

The only unlucky thing about this Friday the 13th was that it was raining quite hard from the start. Clearly not a day for climbing the modest coastal mountains so we decided to head off to the nearby town of Bucksport, which is much more of a working town than Castine, to pick up a few bits of shopping and try to organise hair cuts - we've been away close to eight weeks so both felt the need for a trim. The cleaners, who we met yesterday, had advised appointment...

Today we set off reasonably early to drive to Mount Desert Island, a small, picturesque island connected to the mainland by a short bridge to the east of Castine. The island is home to Acadia National Park and many mountain (ok nothing much over 1000ft) and coastal trails so we were looking forward to an active day out. We were a bit disappointed then to find the island pretty much shrouded in fog. We were coming to appreciate that fog is a big part of Maine li...