This entire week has been abnormally warm for this time of the year, the temperature has ranged from 60 to 70 degrees; the buds and flowers are finally blossoming due to the early sun. Mornings are almost at the point where it feels like Summer- that atmosphere of the sun basking over your face with a warm breeze flowing around your body carrying songs from an orchestra of many different birds.

Yesterday Robin and I watched the Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race at Six Mile Falls; we arrived at the point where all of the paddlers were just coming over the falls. The water this year was not as high as last which is why not many people flipped, I would say probably 20 out of 200 people that we saw come over the falls actually flipped as opposed to last year 90% flipped. There are a few attractions to the race, three of which are the flamboyant paddlers who either stand up while paddling or have funny items on their boats, the flips and seeing people you know.

After the race we installed my new Thule rack system that I got for Christmas last year and loaded the Kayaks on, it’s very sturdy and very easy to hook and unhook the kayaks.

On Sunday evening we headed to Brewer lake about an hour before the sun was to set and paddled up a stream with shore shrouded in Pussy Willows. These bushes/trees were covered with Red Winged Blackbirds that are very outspoken and curious. Along the way we witnessed for the first time in person two adult Bald Eagles diving for fish as well as two Osprey; Osprey dive differently than an Eagle, they actually dive completely in the water and come back up with their prey- it was very interesting to watch.

After a few years of owning a CRT HDTV I decided to go against what I have always said I would never do, I purchased an LCD TV. After researching for a few months on the differences between LCD, DLP, Plasma, shape, sizes and weight I purchased the 46″ Samsung LN46A650A. Several factors changed my mind about purchasing LCD over DLP being that DLP requires it’s lamp to be replaced every 3,000 hours or so which sounds like a lot of time but over the course of a few years the hours add up and also the fact that LCD is much lighter and slimmer than any other TV which means I can essentially put it anywhere I want without a lot of hassle. The inherent and widely known setbacks with LCD technology has been resolved in this year’s model: Motion blur and washed out black levels, I can safely say that while watching all different types of content it performs beyond my expectations and I am very satisfied with its clarity.

After a few days of putting my new TV to work I am very pleased with its overall performance, I am looking forward to my impending purchase on a Blu-Ray player in the next month or so to really work it out. David and I had a difficult time lifting the mammoth out of my apartment and down what seemed to be a very long flight of stairs. Here’s a photo of the TV.

April so far has been fairly typical for the term “April Showers” as it has been fairly rainy and cool 40 degree weather. The sightings of Robins are eagerly sought by Mainers because their presence usually means Spring has began. Up until this past weekend I have not yet spotted a Robin, I have seen and heard flocks of Black cow birds which migrate to northern Maine during Spring.

Robin and I drove Route 9 from Brewer to Ellsworth and then to Prospect Harbor to visit her parents. On the way we spotted many large groupings of Robins; we stopped alongside a field snapping photographs while listening to them sing (see flickr posting of this set). I never really paid attention to how much Robins actually run until now since my Robin is a runner. During our visit we drove through the Scoodic Loop so I can see what the coast’s shoreline looked like during spring. With the tide out it revealed many jagged lava formed rocks and ledge with a mixture of smooth water worn slide-like caves where the waves crash and restreat over and over. Summer and fall are the coasts best seasonal vistas however the it’s still beautiful during the Spring.