Jean Lamontanaro
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Two Blue Hill trails
Jean Lamontanaro • Sep 20, 2020
Kingdom Woods Conservation Area and Penny's Preserve
My family has been working on completing Blue Hill Heritage Trust's Hiking Challenge 2020: Beautiful Boulders. This challenge involves finding specific boulders along eight different trails. Each boulder has a sign with a puzzle letter. Once you have found all eight letters, you can use the letters to create a word.
We completed two hikes this weekend toward the challenge, both in Blue Hill. The first hike was at Kingdom Woods Conservation Area, pictured above. There are a few different parking areas for this preserve. We parked off of Mines Road and walked the loop in the southern portion of the conservation area. This loop was around one mile long.
There were some distant views of Fourth Pond through the trees, but this loop did not go to the shore of the pond, although the northern portion of the conservation area does offer a trail to the pond. There is a connector trail leading from the loop we walked to the northern portion, but we did not go that far this time. We would like to go back one day and park at the lot at the north end of the preserve and hike down to the pond from there.
Our second hike this weekend was at Penny's Preserve, pictured above. There are a total of about 5 miles of trails in the Penny's Preserve/Peter's Brook area. The trail we followed went along the brook for a little while and also went up to Albion Meadow (pictured below).
We have hiked the Peter's Brook trail before, that starts at a separate parking area, but joins into the trails at Penny's Preserve. This time we parked at the Penny's Preserve lot and walked up the West Side Trail to the North Loop Trail. This is a beautiful area to explore and we would definitely like to go back and try some of the other trails. There were maps posted at each intersection which made it easy to stay on track.
It was another beautiful weekend of hiking, and we look forward to hitting more trails next week!
Valentine's Day is coming soon, so I thought I would share a few heart-themed coloring pages. Great for coloring and adding to your homemade Valentine's cards! Click on one of the photos below to download and print the coloring page.
Free mermaid coloring page to download and print.
Make a fall weekend more festive with an autumn themed beverage and coloring page! Today I am giving you a free leaf mandala coloring page to download and print. It looks great colored in warm, fall colors, but feel free to be creative! I also have a recipe for a ginger apple mimosa which is delicious with or without the prosecco.
A beautiful autumn hike in Brooklin, Maine on the Hundred Acre Wood trail.
Today was another beautiful day for a family hike. This time we explored Snow Natural Area in Brooksville, Maine. This preserve includes a tiny island called Nab Island that is accessible at low tide.
Blue Hill Heritage Trust has many great hiking spots throughout the Blue Hill, Maine area. Today my family and I checked out Patten Stream Preserve in Surry. It is a quiet, forested trail that offers some interesting stream views.
The Lampson Preserve is located in Castine and Penobscot, Maine on the Bagaduce River. It is owned by Maine Coast Heritage Trust and is a beautiful spot for a short hike and offers exquisite water views. Small nature areas, such as this one, can be found throughout coastal Maine and offer a great way to enjoy the state's natural beauty without the crowds of visitors that you see at some of the more popular tourist stops, like Acadia National Park.
What should you do with all of your beautiful coloring pages when you are done coloring them? There are many great ideas for crafts using coloring pages. Take a quick search around the internet and get inspired! I decided to use the center from one of the pages of my Around Maine coloring book to decorate a mason jar. I used tissue paper to add additional color around the coloring page. Then I collected some flowers to put inside. For this project, I colored and cut out just the center of one coloring page. I just used scissors to cut, but if you have a very intricate design you may want to use an X-ACTO knife.
What could be more iconic of Maine than lobster? Lobster fishing is a major industry in Maine and lobster is a popular (and delicious) ingredient in the local cuisine. This lobster coloring pages features a lobster decorated with a buoy pattern. Lobster buoys help fishermen identify and locate their traps. Each fisherman has buoys with a unique color design. Print this coloring page and have fun creating your own buoy color combinations. Download this coloring page here and start coloring. I would love to see your coloring creations! Contact me via email or Facebook and show me your coloring. Are you interested in more Maine-themed coloring pages. Check out my Around Maine coloring book here!
I'm honored to have my digital artwork featured on the cover of the 2020 Bay Community Register . Don't know what the Bay Community Register is? It is a business directory, community information, phone book and more! This publication covers the Maine towns of Blue Hill, Brooklin, Brooksville, Castine, Deer Isle, Isle au Haut, Penobscot, Sedgwick, Stonington and Surry. This artwork was created using Adobe Illustrator and was inspired by the beauty of living by the sea. One of the things that I appreciate about creating artwork on the computer, is having the ability to experiment with different colors, lines, shapes and sizes, trying out different combinations to get all the elements to work together. It is also exciting to see how work that has been created on a screen translates into print. If you live in the Blue Hill/Castine/Stonington area make sure you pick up your copy of the 2020 Bay Community Register. It is packed with helpful information and features some great local businesses!
