2013 - Amazing April

Early Spring welcome

Sometimes as I publish the last post, I wonder briefly if there will be anything left to say for the next month.  Is it really newsworthy when the obvious happens?  Why is it notable that it snowed in the winter, or was really hot in the summer, that the flowers returned in the Spring, or the leaves were beautiful in the Fall?  Perhaps, the more seasons we have under our belts, the less we take each one for granted and it seems somehow extraordinary as they either live up to our expectations, or don't.  There's always an observation that begs to be made, even though it may sometimes seem like deja vu.  With another Spring's arrival, there is the predictable explosion of green shoots and blooms, an increase in B&B guests, mystery weather from day to day, return of the 2-legged snowbirds resulting in more traffic and a rebirth of businesses which have been shuttered for the winter.  But, the  joy of reporting is always in the details.

Main Street, Chatham display

Easter weekend felt as if someone pulled the plug on the bridge and the world suddenly rushed in like high tide.  The weather cooperated nicely with lots of sunshine and mild temperatures, but by Monday, the Travel Bunnies vanished as quickly as they appeared.  It was the annual wake-up for locals that we would soon not have the roads to ourselves anymore and it was time to remember how to exercise patience.  Last summer I decided to try a new technique for patient waiting to turn onto the main road.  When traffic stretches as far as the eye can see, it seems that the wait will surely be interminable.  But, if you count the seconds you actually sit there, quite often it's much less than you'd guess and 99% of the time is under one minute of your time.  I've made it a challenge to see if the wait will exceed a minute.  So far this Spring, my maximum wait has been 16 seconds.  Piece o'cake!

Brewster's Spring welcome, as far as the eye can see.

April 1st is a special day for us because it's our wedding anniversary.  So, we were already  feeling full of good will towards all during our morning coffee when I picked up the latest 'Ask the Bird Folks' column from the Cape Codder to read aloud, as is our habit.  This week's question was from Paul, in Harwich, concerning a story his cousin Frankie told him about the preponderance of sharks off of Chatham and the gulls who fall victim to them.  Indeed, we read, there are "Gull Sharks" who beach themselves and play dead, waiting to turn the arrival of hungry gulls into a feeding frenzy.  This amazing event happens at the peak of the spring high tide, which was to happen this Monday at 11:30 a.m.  As it was coincidentally only an hour away, we decided to take a drive to Chatham Light with our cameras to witness this freakish show of nature.  It was a little chilly, but a gorgeous day to go to the beach.  We were a little surprised that there weren't more cars in the parking area.  Cape Birders are usually right on top of any unusual siting with their notebooks and impossibly long camera lenses and tripods.  Just as Ron was noting that he didn't see any gulls or sharks anywhere and I was taking my first step onto the sand, I had the "AHA Moment".  We'd been had by the April Fool's Master, Mike O'Connor of the Bird Store in Orleans.  Last year, he concocted a story about the amazing birds everyone would see when the Cape Cod Canal would be drained for routine maintenance, a tale even I didn't believe.  But, he outdid himself this year with the Gull Sharks, or at least took advantage of a couple who hadn't quite finished their morning coffee.          

No sharks, but the beach looked great!

April's also a big month for birthdays, and mine, in particular seems to bring out the world's crazies.  The date's notoriety really picked up in 1775 with the beginning of the Revolutionary War at Lexington, Mass, or as Emerson put it, "the shot heard 'round the world."  Boston celebrates it as Patriot's Day and it was always nice to get my birthday off when I lived there in the 70's.  (They've since moved it to the closest Monday.)  April 19th was relatively quiet until 1993 and the bloody ATF siege on the Branch Dividians at Waco, which then inspired the bombing of the Oklahoma Federal building 2 years later on the same date.  That's not to say nothing else notable happened on April 19th, and if you want to waste an hour, try googling your own birthday and be amazed at what happened while you were eating cake, and who else shares your day.  Ironically, I first heard about this year's Patriot's Day bombing at the Boston Marathon from my sister-in-law in San Diego, who emailed to see if we were all o.k., thinking we might have attended the event.  While I'm fairly certain there's not much I could add to the round-the-clock coverage and commentary we've all already heard, I will say that in regards to sharing my birthday with some pretty horrific events, I'm going to quote my grandfather, as I have so many times before.  "It could always be worse."  If my mother had been in labor a few hours longer, I'd be sharing my birthday with Hitler instead.  As it turned out, both of the couples expected at the B&B that weekend were coming from the Boston area and were stuck in a city-wide lock down. Couple #1 made it a little later than scheduled, but Couple #2 had planned to rent a car and found it impossible to do with the continuing bedlam.  They were forced to cancel the first night, but didn't give up, even spending time stuck in an elevator before getting their rental car, and finally made it late the following afternoon.  We decided to honor their perseverance and the spirit of our old home town by refunding their money and giving them the nights free.
  

For a town known for its lack of commercialism, it's pretty big news in Eastham to have two new restaurants opening.  Karoo Kafe boasts a South African menu with a welcoming nod to vegetarians and gluten-intolerant tummies, too.  I can personally attest to the spicy deliciousness of the Curried Lamb Stew and Ron's Peri Peri Shrimp, both over Turmeric Rice.  We split something called Malva pudding, which is a toffee flavored bread pudding with vanilla ice cream on top.  Oaxaca (pronounced Wa-hock-a) is a Mexican Grill that is planning to open in May.  And, on April 9th, Ben & Jerry's in N. Eastham dished up 6,469 cones on Free Cone Day, about 1500 more than last year.    

Big doin's in the garden

The former owners of our property had quite the green thumbs and left us with wonderful fruit and ornamental trees and lots of lovely Spring bulbs.  Sadly, I've had to abandon the raised bed garden because it's now too shaded to support a proper veggie garden.  It's just my luck that there's a very skilled carpenter in the house who's willing to  create a new one on the sunnier side where I've planted a flower garden and the old garden space will be claimed to expand the garden shed.      

Our peach tree in bloom - out with the old,  in with the new,

As the new year began, the call went out for Eastham business people with trucks to participate in the Touch-A-Truck fundraiser to benefit the Eastham Committee on Early Childhood's after school program.  On Sunday, April 7th, kids were invited to the Wellfleet Drive-In Theater to talk to people about their vehicles and their jobs.  The Eastham Police Union sponsors this event, and what a great idea!

Spring calm as the gardens awaken  

My readers already know of my fondness for living in Eastham (or as I say, being an East-hamster), but here's how the Cape Cod Travel Guide describes it:  "One of the four original settlements on Cape Cod, Eastham, Massachusetts remains relatively undiscovered.  There is no formal Main Street or identifiable town center here - though visitors are drawn here by the National Seashore's Headquarters at the Salt Pond Visitors Center and by the dune-backed expanses of Coast Guard Beach and Nauset Light Beach on the open Atlantic Ocean.  The Cape's oldest remaining windmill, the historical society's museum and the Swift-Daley House bear witness to the town's antiquity, along with First Encounter Beach along Cape Cod Bay, where Myles Standish and his Pilgrim scouting party first met the Nauset Indians in 1620. 

Our visitors this month came from the Boston area, Delaware, Vermont, Washington State, Northern England, Switzerland and The Netherlands.