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| Happy July - Happy Daisies |
Just in time for 'Jaws Week'
Orleans' Nauset Beach in the next town south of us made national news this month and Walter Szulc claimed his 10 minutes of fame when a shark's dorsal fin was spotted behind his kayak. Town officials briefly closed the beach to 3000 swimmers, but reopened with an advisory for people to just stay away from the seals. Depending on the reporter, the shark was estimated between 12 and 16 feet and may or may not have been a great white. In June, two great whites which were tagged last year by the Division of Marine Fisheries were detected off Cape Cod by acoustic receivers. Shark expert and author of The Shark Handbook, Greg Skomal refers to Chatham as a "shark cafe" because of its close proximity to Monomoy Island, a favorite hangout for seals. What the reporters should have mentioned is that in 1972 the Marine Mammal Protection Act prohibited the killing of harbor seals which is the reason that we're overrun with these gourmet shark dinners. The sharks either didn't get the news, or just choose to ignore it. One great white was quoted as saying, "we've been eatin' seals a'fore you washed ashore here and no wicked piece'a pay-pah's gonna make us stop."
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| Nauset Beach, Orleans, MA, courtesy of the Cape Cod Times |
I promise myself every summer that I won't whine about the heat, but our solar roof panels can't come fast enough for me so we can at least make use of all the hot sun. Summer's a very "hummy" time. The air conditioners, fans and bread makers hum, the generator hums every Tuesday at noon when it tests itself. The cars hum as they pass each other on the nearby highway. The hummingbirds constantly at our feeders are about the only things that don't hum. Merchants, innkeepers and beach goers are of course thrilled with all this hot humming. Meanwhile, I'm tending my gardens dreaming of cool,peaceful snow, and thankful we're only in the double digits here. It's blueberry picking time and our two mature bushes have rewarded us with a big bowl of luscious fruit. The two babies that got planted last summer are still alive and well, but not producing, yet. Newly adopted from the Agway half-price tables are a pussy willow bush, a cardinalis, some gay feathers, coneflowers, brown-eyed Susans, bee balm, and of course, can't have too many hydrangeas.
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| Last of the blueberries |
The B&B made the perfect setting for a sisters reunion. We haven't all been together since a wedding a couple of days prior to our move here from Virginia. We were also joined by three nieces and a spare boyfriend. The logistics of getting seven people pointed in the same direction and moving forward are much like pushing jello up a hill. There's a lot of discussion about who wants to do what, how many cars it will take and who will ride with whom. There are the usual false starts with trips back for various forgotten items. The days are filled with general statements announcing what someone has decided to do and intermittent snack, tea and latte urges which spread contagiously. But, we managed to do a fair amount of sightseeing without overload and saved some for next time. Our mom would have been proud of her girls.
This is the time of year when guests are coming and going so fast, I start contemplating footsteps. Not the kind we leave in the sand or snow, but the impressions we all make on our own environments. We never know what we'll see when we go in to prepare the B&B rooms for the next guests. Sometimes they're just as neat as when they checked in. Other times it's like the day after a New Year's Eve party. Still other times, people have decided to rearrange the furniture. It's like this: there are people who walk through a room and it gets neater and others who walk through and it gets messier. We all leave footsteps, some just larger than others. This month's guests are from as far away as England, Norway and Switzerland, and on this side of the pond from Indiana, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Massachusetts and New York. We even had someone who grew up in Eastham stay with us. Apparently, lobsters are so plentiful in Maine, where they now live, that it has driven the price down below a living wage and they were here looking for restaurant contacts.
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Race Point footsteps, Provincetown, MA
One of the joys of living in a small-town community that attracts artists of every type is that they are frequently willing to lend their creative hands to the constant fundraising that goes on to take care of our residents. Two such events caught my eye this month. The first is sponsored by the Cape Cod Hospital Auxiliary and is called "Sitting Pretty". The purpose is to raise money for a new Digital Mammography Suite in Hyannis. Anyone can contribute old wooden chairs and participating local artists will turn them into works of art to be auctioned off at a showing at the Cultural Center. The second is called "Art Outside the Box", which for the eighth year running turns ordinary lunch boxes into works of art to be auctioned at the Ocean Edge Resort to benefit the Children's Place. In the past, they have sold for between $50 to over $1000 and last year netted $42,000. Helping neighbors by doing what you love is such a WIN-WIN.
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"Art Outside the Box"
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Lots of Critter News:
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Just when you think there are no more surprises...well, butter my buns and call me a biscuit! When I went to raise the door on the chipmunk trap, I came face to face with a creature I had to look up on google to identify. The B&B had just checked in its first weasel. I quickly learned that these cute little rodents have a very strong line of defense in the form of odor glands. This little guy smelled so bad I couldn't even consider putting him in the car to relocate him, so he was released back to the salt marshes from where he came. With a little help from Wikipedia, I also learned that in the winter, the coats of weasels who live in the North turn white and they're called ermine. There's just no telling what a spoonful of peanut butter will catch.
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| "Pop", the Weasel |
Also in the critter catching news is a 21 pound, 150 year old lobster at Capt'n Elmer's restaurant in Orleans. Rather than sell it for the retail cost of $170, the family-owned restaurant decided to sell $5 raffle tickets and donate the proceeds to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The last time a mega-lobster was brought to the fish market, someone bought him and set him free in the ocean. This time the raffle winner donated it to the Boston Aquarium. It's not always about dinner here, but I admit that my mouth is watering a little bit.
This photo released by the New England Aquarium, in Boston Tuesday, July 24, 2012, shows a 21-pound lobster caught July 14 off Cape Cod, and donated to the aquarium where it will be displayed after a 30-day quarantine period. (AP Photo/New England Aquarium, Emily Bauernfeind)
Lastly, I'm happy to report that after a one-year hiatus, the bunnies have returned to Crosswinds B&B. As I recall, they moved on when the skunks moved in, but the discovery of two babies under the pink dogwood in the courtyard has confirmed that they've reclaimed their territory and we couldn't be prouder of our new grandkids. (Takes the pressure off of Sean & Doug...)
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| Baby Bunny Daniels |
