2019 MAY - OUR 10th HIGH SEASON BEGINS! and The Prequels #8 - May, 2010

MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND!

And, like the force of the ocean waves, tourist season rushes in officially this coming weekend.  For most, it's the ocean that brings them across the bridge and it means completely different things to different people.  What is it about water that draws us to it so strongly?   A powerful form of nature, it has no empathy or agenda and answers only to the tides and weather.  It can refresh us on hot, sunny days, or turn frigid, dark and roiling.  It has no consideration for our level of athleticism, but neither does it have anything to prove to us.  Just being near to breathe it in and listen to its special song, it can calm, excite and awe us, inspire and sometimes terrify and challenge us.  It's home to its own special population and mysterious world.  Ever-changing and always bigger than us, it puts us in our place and leaves us to wonder.  And, we just never get enough of it.

Last month in honor of Earth Day, volunteers from Cape Cod towns showed up to clean up our beaches and public spaces.  In our town of Eastham, over 2,340 pounds of litter were collected, and much of it was plastic grocery bags and styrofoam products like coffee cups.  Many towns have already put bans on these products.   

The beaches aren't the only places getting spruced up.  There's also something going on called "fishing for ghost gear" that helps to clean up thousands of traps and nets which are lost to the bottom of Cape Cod Bay every year.  The Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown pays lobstermen $1000 a day to clean up all this lost equipment.  Aside from trapping marine creatures, which die in the lost traps, the plastic coating degrades and becomes caustic over time in the water.  Over four years, this program has removed more than 40 tons of lost fishing equipment, or roughly the weight of almost 20 cars.

After last summer's shark activity, lifeguards are prepared with new medical kits and training in the event of another injury.  Additional cell towers have been installed to provide better reception.  And, the Christmas Tree store has had its hand slapped for carrying merchandise that made light of sharks vs. humans, which in many people's opinions crossed the line of good taste.  The products were recalled by the store.

Ready or not, whatever floats your boat, figuratively or literally, Cape Cod is ready for you.  And now, a look back to our first, wide-eyed May here:

Cape Chronicles - #8 – May, 2010

I still sometimes get a sudden pang that I came up here on Winter Break and just forgot to go back, and boy, am I going to be in trouble at work…

It’s garden-time, and my learning curve just got steeper as I am taking over someone else’s previously tended raised garden.   As it already has thriving rhubarb and chives, my inclination is to see what else might come up on its own.  What I am certain about is that the surrounding trees were a lot smaller when this garden was placed, and if anything is going to grow, there will have to be a lot of trimming going on.  Most of the sprouts growing are from the trees above, and another very interesting plant, which the Snow’s Nursery expert assured me, is a weed. Having pulled most of them out, we made our first trip over to our friend, Ray’s rabbit cages to help ourselves to the black gold of manure, Bunny Poo.   I’ve learned that it’s less acidic than cow, horse or chicken manure, and tomatoes love it.   If only we could just keep the bunnies in the garden.   Our wild bunny family has now grown from Peter (Rabbit) to a smaller one we call Pippen, and now 4 of the most adorable baby bunnies about the size of a fist.  They are called anything from Binky to Teacup, and whatever else comes to mind when we see them, since we can’t tell one from another, anyway. 

The lilac tree is in full bloom outside the porch, filling the cross-breezes in the house with its sweet perfume.  Another late-blooming variety of jonquil has popped out to replace the waning early-bloomers.  After pruning dozens of beach rose shrubs, with the scratches to prove it, I treated myself to some elbow-length gloves I found on sale.   I’ve planted sunflower seeds, blue flax, hollyhocks, moonflowers, brown-eyed Susans and money plant seeds.  A Golden Chain tree, which does well in northern climates, is in full bloom in the back yard.  The blossoms, which bloom only in May, look like yellow wisteria, only blooming from a tree, rather than a vine.  The poppies, whose buds have been swelling for the longest time, finally burst open today, looking like stunning red umbrellas.  In the front yard, pink spikes of lupine are filling in, scarlet clematis is blooming, and pink and white peonies are showing their colors through swollen buds and Japanese and bearded irises are blooming in purple, yellow and white.

Sadly, if I’m going to get a proper walk to Fort Hill, I will have to leave my camera at home.   There are just too many opportunities to stop and shoot another picture, even if I’ve just been there the day before.   Depending on the time of day and the weather, the ocean and sky look entirely different.  As it warms up, there’s a lot more activity, not to mention abundant wildlife.   It’s much like going to one of the free shops at the transfer stations, only it’s pictures, not stuff available for the taking.

In one of my first chronicles, I mentioned our banker, named Page Pennypacker.  Adding to the list of interesting monikers is a Boston reporter named, Joe Shortsleeve and a new Red Sox player named Jonathan Van Every.   Of course most sports teams are a treasure trove of interesting names.  Eastham doesn’t have its own Cape Cod League, but an adjoining town has the Orleans Firebirds, which uses the Middle School ball field.  Some residents even sponsor a team member for the summer, providing lodging.  One never knows if they’ll see their summer boarder chosen to play for a national league.

Tonight is a big night:  our first real guests in the B&B Studio, coming from Washington State to visit their relatives.  As they are making their way from Boston’s Logan airport, I am putting the finishing touches on their room – taking the chill off, putting on soft lamp light, breakfast foods stocked in the cupboard and fridge, keys and a welcome note on the dresser, some flowers from the garden on their little eating table, and the smell of their fresh bread baking in the kitchen.  I can’t seem to stay out of there, opening the door and imagining I am seeing it for the first time, and feeling pleased with our efforts.  The brass headboard we found gleams in the soft light and the off-white, lace trimmed comforter and bed skirt beckons road-weary bodies.  A white wicker dresser with seashell drawer pulls, a wicker sitting area and a comfy rocker near the television invite you to make yourself at home for however long you can stay.   A table for two in front of the windows overlooking the big front lawn is ready for breakfast with a lace trimmed tablecloth and delicate jonquils in a vase.   Nautical paintings in rough driftwood frames are as windows to the sandbar on which we reside.  And, my mother’s beautiful Chinese scroll rug is the sea, which surrounds this oasis of calm.  If I ever need a vacation, I think I’ll just switch rooms for a night.

Ahhh…when they said, arriving Boston from Seattle at 7:20 p.m., they meant Pacific Time, which meant, after a holdup in Baltimore, our guests finally rolled in here around 1 a.m.   I’ll have to remember to confirm what time zone we’re talking about.  Just a lit-tle tired today, but taking it all in stride, as a good innkeeper does to accommodate the guests that make it possible to live in a vacation spot all year.   

Like a kid on Christmas morning, I tiptoed directly to the Studio to check the Guest Book for comments.  With our first glowing recommendation under our belts, we are feeling pretty good about our plan, and looking forward to the next guests.

We had 2 guests for Ron's birthday dinner, Leroy and Larry Lobster – literally! They were Ray’s gift, provided by his brother, Al, who had just caught them.  I got my first lesson in how to eat a whole lobster, from the steaming pot to melted lemon butter.  It’s quite a bit of work, and extremely messy, but a hedonist’s dream-come-true.      

Squirrels continue to raid the bird feeders, but we've shifted our focus to trapping chipmunks.  The more I read, the more I found that they are not merely cute, gluttonous rascals, they can do a lot of damage to property.  So, since they are too small to trap in a squirrel cage, we bit the bullet and bought the specialized smaller, single-door trap.   Within a couple of hours and several trips, we had relocated 2 squirrels and 3 chipmunks.  I’m just hoping that Ron’s observation about nature abhorring a vacuum is not going to prove true, and that the more we trap, the more we’ll lure.   Meanwhile, the count is 13 squirrels, 6 chipmunks, and rising daily. 

One thing that continues to impress me is the resourcefulness of the people here.  Even in a good economy, it can be a challenge to make a living, when commerce only thrives 3 months out of 12, and there are few employers to fall back on for work.   When Ron first moved to the Cape in the 80’s, he found that his best bet for working was to either learn carpentry, or how to fish.   Some of his friends do both, switching from one to the other, depending on demand.   Versatility can make the difference in feeding the family, or not.  Hunters keep their freezers stocked with deer and wild game.  Crafty people make things and consign them, or sell at weekend flea markets.  Treasure hunters, such as myself, scavenge for primo cast-offs and do the same, sometimes reinventing the items.  The locals use every opportunity to barter, or recycle, even using the ice scraped from the hockey rink for fishing coolers, and cast off drawers for raised gardens.  It’s a thrifty and imaginative atmosphere, with lots to learn.      

It’s just a few days before Memorial Day, but the Cape is alive with visitors.  Traffic has picked up, especially on the weekends, and the rotaries and Mid-Cape highway have become exercises in patience.  There are more out of state license plates at the Christmas Tree Shop than MA ones, the farthest noted so far was from California.   You can't find a parking spot at the Stop & Shop, but once you get in, there are college girls passing out  samples from the in-house Starbucks.  Every other vehicle is either pulling a boat, or has kayaks or bicycles strapped onto it.   The days are sunny and warm, the nights are cool-relief, the beach roses are in bloom and the shops are stocked and freshly painted.   The Wellfleet Beachcomer’s grand reopening for the season is this weekend, featuring our friends, The Incredible Casuals, who’ve been keeping the dance floor rocking every Sunday afternoon for the last 30 years.  They’ve decided that our basement is the best rehearsal spot in town, and we’ve been rewarded with a pass for free parking and admission for the season.   

Two last minute requests for rooms have come our way on Memorial Day Weekend.  One is a couple from western MA, the other, all the way from Frankfort, Germany, for their first time at the Cape. Once again, we are waiting on a late arrival and thanking our lucky stars that it’s not us braving the highway to stay here for just a short time.   Getting to call this home is well worth a late start to bed from time to time.  So, ready, or not, let the season begin!