Fall in New England

The Elizabeth Montgomery statue in Salem

Pilgrims on the street in Salem

It's true what they say. Fall in New England is the most beautiful season possible, with cool crisp days and diamond clear skies (sometimes!). The fall color I grew up loving in Ohio is everywhere. Shana and I have made it our business to get out & about to enjoy the season. Because my work schedule usually includes some portion of Saturday and Shana is staying with her stepfather on alternate weekends we have limited time to explore together, but we are trying to make the most of it. For our most recent free weekend together we planned a day of college football and a trip to Salem Massachusetts. I love Salem. It's a beautiful little town where there is a lot to do and see. During October it's crazy busy, but we went anyway because there was an exhibit of Ansel Adams photos we did not want to miss. It was the last weekend of the exhibit so we could not wait until November. It must be noted that parking in a city garage cost $16.00 (!) If you can visit at another time of year it will not be as painful or necessary to pay for parking. We had lunch at The Lobster Shanty, as featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, and were not disappointed. The Peabody Essex Museum was great. I hear that the gift shop there is wonderful, but I did not go in for a look. I really must minimize temptation! The PEM was also hosting a hat exhibit which was a delightful surprise, with vintage hats from many periods displayed next to modern creations of similar materials and a recreation of a millinery work room.

Provincetown Street Scene

Race Point Beach

U. S. Lifesaving Station

Yesterday Shana and I spent the afternoon in Provincetown, at the tip of Cape Cod. Provincetown is both charming and odd in about equal measure. You can visit the very nicest and most exclusive of galleries and the junkiest of T shirt shops in the same block. Restaurants vary from hot dogs at walk up windows to the very best of fine dining. We had an excellent burger and an equally excellent eponymous beer at the Local 186 (note the painfully hip website) then strolled along Commercial Street before driving down to Race Point to visit the beach and the Life Saving Station. Race Point features some of the most beautiful dunes on the Cape, and the beach is pristine and wonderful. Although it is on the Atlantic side the access does not include a steep climb down to the beach as is part of most of the Cape Cod National Seashore.  There is one access point where there is a hard surface access path which is much appreciated by anyone of limited strength or mobility. There are also conveniences including flush toilets and a bath house. In October the services are limited to a porta-potty, but the beach is virtually deserted and not less beautiful than in high season. Since I do not attempt to swim in the Atlantic at any location and Race Point is named for strong rip currents I find the beach equally attractive at all times of the year. We took Roxy with us so she could enjoy a beach walk as well. The U. S. Lifesaving Station was open this time and we got a good look at how those brave men lived.


Our day trips around the state have given me the excuse to avoid my fall yard chores, but I can't put it off much longer. Leaves are falling and my perennials are going to sleep.  It is clear that winter is coming. The Farmers' Almanac suggests we may have a cold one, and the old wives' tales insist that the huge crop of acorns we have this year means a cold winter. The huge crop of acorns is at the very least attracting the local turkeys to the yard. They were visiting Friday and knocked over my birdbath while they were here.

Too Short, Too Long

I copied this idea over from The Billfold because it is worth another look and thought! These are just my own personal choices of luxuries that are worth it or not; you'll certainly choose different ones from me.

Life is too short for:
Single ply toilet paper
Boring bread
Cheap shoes
Cheap bike shorts
Winter tomatoes
Pink hot dogs

Life is too long for:
Expensive cars
Expensive mascara - Maybelline FTW
Wasteful utility bills - put on/take off clothes instead
Mani/Pedis- YMMV, but I can do my own well & don't like to be touched by strangers
Trading in my phone every time a new model comes along
Fancy luggage
Musical Comedy

Paulson for President!

How I wish he was running this year! It would be so nice to have something satirical and amusing to watch for a change.

Repurpose!

When I moved from Oklahoma to Cape Cod one of the biggest changes in my weekly routine is trash disposal. In Oklahoma I had two gigantic roller bins that I could fill to the brim and have removed every single week with no additional charge and the monthly fee was billed with our water. Every few months there would be a large trash pickup when all kinds of bulky trash would be picked up. Oklahoma has lots of land available for landfills.

Here on Cape Cod trash is not such an easy process. Our town has no municipal trash hauling. You can arrange for a private trash service to pick it up for you, but almost everyone chooses the least expensive option takes their own trash to the "transfer station". We call it the dump. All of our trash is trucked off Cape, so towns are very interested in encouraging recycling to reduce this charge. Our transfer station is set up so that you pass the recycle area on your way to the trash building. We have single stream recycling - plastic, glass and paper go in the same bin, with separate bins provided for cardboard and hard plastic. There are barrels where you can put your plastic bags. You can purchaser recycling bins for a nominal fee and lots of people do, but since you are dropping it off yourself you can put in in anything you like. The Department of Public Works sells compost bins for about half of the usual retail price, which encourages composting instead of bringing compostables to the transfer station. Reasonable amounts of yard waste go in a separate area, where you can take as much compost and mulch as you want for free. The amount of compost and mulch I take from the dump pays for my yearly fee! I used to have a bin of yard waste and one of trash every week in Oklahoma. Here I have one 30 gallon trash can every other week.

Recycling alone does not help much if we do not make an effort to use less, to repurpose what we already have and select recycled products where appropriate. Years ago we would do this without question. Used clothing was passed down, cut down, and finally used for small projects and rags until it was used up. Now we send it by the bale to Africa, where is has just about killed local clothing manufacture.  Reuse and repurpose does not have to mean dreary - Look at what this metal artist is making from used bicycle parts:




The pictures have nothing to do with the text unless you consider that using less means less land has to be put under production and more can be saved for beauty and refreshment. These pictures were taken at the Ryder Conservation Area in Mashpee MA.

Normal Life

I've had a really quiet week with little to report. No cycling, no parties, no fights, trips or adventures. The best thing about the week is that The Major Retailer where I work closes at 6:00 pm until the holidays roll around, so I have few shifts ending later than 7:00pm. I have most evening free now, which is very much to Shana's taste. I miss having a lot of days free to play outside, but the weather will not hold so much longer and indoor pursuits will be the order of the day.

I have been knitting quite a bit, but nothing much to show for it, at least in the form of finished objects. I've lost a lot of time down the Ravelry rabbit hole (I'm cinderellen over there) trying to match up my stash with new projects. If you've spent much time on Ravelry you know how that kind of research can leave you wandering in the wilderness of beautiful possibility. Looking at patterns makes you wander the Internet looking at yarns suited to that pattern - on and on. I came to my senses just in time to avoid buying both yarn and patterns, but barely.


I've been reading a fair amount lately too. What's on my nightstand now is The Night Circus. I have not finished it yet but I am willing to recommend it. The images it brings to life in my mind are magical - a combination of the writing style and the inventiveness of the author. It has the feeling of a dream. Magical Realism is one of my favorite categories, one which is nnot easy to do well. This book is enchanting.


To contribute to the general craziness of the presidential campaign Randy Newman has put out a little ditty that sums up some of the GOP hopes quite neatly:

Out and About

Our Neighborhood Turkeys

It's fall here, and with the change of seasons comes a change in life on the Cape. On the day after Labor Day it was apparent that summer was over. Traffic has dropped off, not to winter levels, but noticeably. The kids have gone back to school and most of the vacationers have gone home. The summer workers are nearly all leaving, and the Summer People will mostly leave at the end of October, with the latest few leaving around Thanksgiving. The light is already different, and next week will see a few low temperatures below 50°. Our local flock of wild turkeys has been very much in evidence. One big Tom was sitting on our deck railing Friday morning, much to Shana's surprise. The Major Retailer where I work will be closing at 6:00 every night now, although I will still work a few late nights (until 11:30 pm!) here and there to reset floor displays when our customers are out of the building.

Oak Bluffs Harbor

Today is Shana's birthday, and thanks to the reduction in tourist population we were able to indulge in a  day trip to Martha's Vineyard yesterday. We took the Ferry out of Falmouth to Oak Bluffs because we were not taking a car across. Roxy stayed with "Aunt Lisa" for the day. Shana and I rented mopeds and spent the afternoon tooling around the island. Only a week earlier I would have hesitated because in high season it's a dangerous thing to do, but the traffic this week is largely locals. We visited Acquinnah to see the cliffs of Gay Head and the Acquinnah lighthouse. The cliffs are as beautiful as advertised and the ride was lovely, with intermittent views of the sea and intriguing glimpses of cottages among the dunes. We could not help but fantasize about how it would be to live there! As we approached the lighthouse we heard the unmistakable sounds of Native American song - this weekend Acquinnah was hosting the Wampanoag powwow. Next time we visit Martha's Vineyard we will bring a car and visit some of the other lighthouses and beaches. Philbin Beach is especially lovely, but it is private and we may not be able to go there.

Gay Head Cliffs

Today we went to the beautiful Coonamessett Inn for a champagne brunch for Shana's birthday meal. It's a pretty place, if a little "grandma", but the food is good and it was a place where Shana often went with her mother. We had a wonderful selection of delicious dishes and some very helpful advice from our Jamaican waiter on the preparation of callaloo. This my favorite cooked green, and thanks to a large Jamaican population here in the summer it is available at a local organic farm. I'm eager to try his recipe.

Labor Day 2012

Labor Day is not just a day to fire up the grill. It's a day to remember the American worker and the fight for workers' rights which built the American Unions. Whenever you hear "right to work" you can substitute "right to work for as little as possible".