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| The sun sets on another summer season at First Encounter Beach |
And, just like magic...
On the last week of August it's as if the plugs gets pulled and much of the traffic drains off of Cape Cod, over the bridge into highway tributaries back from where it came. Huge weather fronts start to rudely shove the heat and humidity out to sea making room for cooler, dry air from Canada to trickle in to refresh and energize. Store displays of chrysanthemums and asters replace the once bright annuals, which are looking pretty spent, and it's on to pumpkins and haystacks and scoring the perennial markdowns to tuck into the garden for next Spring's surprises. Now come the retirees, who have waited all summer for this sweet spot of quiet beaches, gentle breezes, store inventory on clearance and the restorative peace and beauty that is Cape Cod all the rest of the year.
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| The Sharktivity phone app was busy this summer. |
The summer of 2019 was all about the sharks. New educational signs were posted at every beach, the Sharktivity app for phones was very active alerting people to shark sitings, shark images were on paraphernalia of all kinds for sale, some in better taste than others, and there was the question everyone was asking,"has the increase in shark sitings affected reservations?" Speaking for ourselves, we'd have to say no, our bookings weren't down at all, in fact many guests were eager to know where they could go to see sharks and seals. But though there were numerous sitings, we had no casualties this year despite the Atlantic White Shark Conservatory spotting over 160 this summer and tagging an additional 19.
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| Will he, or won't he? |
While people on Nauset Light beach in Eastham were busy taking pictures of some black fins flapping around in the water, I grabbed this moment of indecision about what sea creature it was, and if the surfer would take the chance. Moments later, he walked by and sheepishly said he'd cut his foot and didn't want to go in the water smelling of blood. Sounded like a smart choice to me, although we'd pretty much decided they were seals by that time. Nevertheless, altogether now...what are sharks favorite meal?
Sharks have actually always been around Cape Cod and the stories abound, such as this scare reported in the Cape Codder that took place in the early 1970's when a huge great white was found dead on Corporation Beach in the town of Dennis. Officials closed the beach wondering how many more of them might be in the bay. The truth finally came out when a couple of fishermen were having some drinks in a local saloon and confessed that when they came across a Russian fishing fleet anchored just outside the 12-mile limit, they decided to motor out to see them. Hanging from a gaff off the stern of the vessel was a really large, dead shark, which they decided they wanted, and negotiated a trade of a couple of watches and some cigarettes and brought it aboard their own boat. Starting home to Plymouth across the bay, the wind came up with enough chop for them to worry that their boat might capsize with the giant shark aboard. Reluctantly, they tossed it overboard and the carcass eventually drifted onto the beach in Dennis where it not only created a panic, but also an incredibly bad smell. Eventually, the Harbor Master ordered it to be hauled to the dump.
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| Not a shark, or a seal. |
Okay, so speaking of wildlife, it's been a long time since I have discovered a new creature in my 'hood, but I got lucky and discovered what turned out to be a woodchuck at Fort Hill. Not knowing much about them, I gave him, or her some space and sadly never did find out the answer to how much wood they could chuck. Sorry. You'll have to find your own and give it a try. We also had an autumn visit from a quail, who hung around for a couple of days, and not finding what, or whom he was looking for, waddled off. We haven't seen one of those for several years.
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| Perhaps he felt that he was being stalked? |
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| The long awaited arrival of Skyler & Jackie |
For the last couple of months, I've begun and ended my days looking at the above link to follow the progress of my son's friends from their home in San Francisco as they ride their motorcycles around the perimeter of the United States. Since Cape Cod is about as perimeter as it gets, they arranged beforehand to make an overnight stop with us. Of course, any friend of Doug's is always welcome, and it even scored us an extra visit from him so he could be here to welcome them when they arrived, too. Although theirs was a fleeting visit, it was fun tracking them on the map and delightful to finally meet the intrepid friends. I must confess that I'm still checking the map daily as they wind north and then west towards home. I find it utterly amazing that the beginning of their trip took them through searing desert heat, then dodging a hurricane on the east coast, and now in Minnesota, heading into the first blizzard of the season. What stories and GoPro films they will have of this great adventure!
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| Suited up to ride off in the rain. |
Visitors occasionally confide that they've always wondered what it would be like to have a B&B. The nice thing is that they are all different depending on the type of property and the creativity and personality of the hosts. Our Shoulder Season bookings have continued to be almost as busy as summer so far, and as I was tossing the ingredients for the egg bread that everyone loves into the bread maker, I started wondering how many loaves of bread I've made this year. It was one of those little random thoughts that seem really important as you think of them and then quickly vanish as something else grabs your attention. But, that something else turned out to be all the jars of homemade beach plum jelly that I purchase from my friend to go with the bread. You see, Sue donates all the proceeds to an organization she volunteers for that gives scholarships to women all over the world. I love being a part of that while giving our guests a taste of a local delicacy at the same time. So yes, I counted, and for the period January 1 through the end of September, my bread maker and I made 70 loaves of bread accompanied by 70 jars of delicious Eastham Beach Plum jelly. But that led to the realization that, in addition to my own bed, I've stripped and made up 70 beds, did about 150 loads of laundry and made countless trips to the grocery store to ensure that we offered the freshest foods for breakfasts. Meanwhile, to go along with those 70 loaves of breads and all the rest, Ron has vacuumed and cleaned 210 rooms [3 for each suite] until they sparkle. And, that is only the basics of what it's like to welcome guests and help them to have a great time while they're here. Please, hold your applause, there's still three more months to finish the year.
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| The loaf of bread that started the numbers game. |
Hurricane Dorian put a damper on the annual 3-day Eastham Windmill Weekend this year, cancelling the popular sand castle competition at the beach. But, by the time our usual shift rolled around at the raffle ticket table on Sunday, the sun was shining, the musicians were playing, the booths were all full of information and goodies for sale, and the parade marched proudly up Route 6. I certainly couldn't guess how many raffle tickets I've sold in the last several years, but how many times I've won something is easy - zero!
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| Eastham boasts the oldest windmill on Cape Cod in our town green. |
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| A beach 'love note' left behind. |
A brief, but fun visit with VA friends started the month off pleasantly. We were happy that Ellis, former teacher-extraordinaire of my son, Doug, decided to include us in a not so on-the-way stop on their way back from Canada. They just happened to be here on the last night that the ChandlerTravis Philharmonic were playing in Wellfleet for the season, and having had rave reviews from everyone else we introduced to his indescribable style of music, we decided to keep with tradition and let Chan help us entertain. After treating us to a delicious dinner, they left the following morning to race Hurricane Earl to Martha’s Vineyard, to make another stop to see friends.
September then rolled in on the back of Earl, the Hurricane. The doomsday weather forecast caused us to hear from concerned friends and family from as far as the West Coast to see what we were doing to prepare, but as it turned out, there were bigger storms last winter than the likes of Earl. The desperately needed rain was welcomed with a party atmosphere and one observer noted that there were more people coming over the canal to the Cape than leaving. Of course once Earl fizzled there were accusations of over-reaction by the authorities, but we all know that the slightest change could have made the difference between a disaster and much ado about nothing. The only intelligent thing to do is to pick up the little stuff in the yard, make sure there’s drinking water and candles and wait for whatever comes. What did come were our first honeymooners, Filipo & Chiara from Italy. They were a little apprehensive about the forecast, but since they don’t have hurricanes in Italy, they were also a little curious. Except for a bit of a cloudy day and a good rainy night, the weather was gorgeous and they extended their intended 3-night stay to a 4th.
With the minor inconvenience of Earl, Labor Day Weekend provided perfect weather for the final hurrah before the start of school. Our friends in the C. T. Philharmonic drew the last spot on the calendar to close out the Monday night concerts on Eastham’s Windmill Green. It was my first time attending one and it felt very cozy sitting on lawn chairs wrapped in a blanket under the stars with neighbors, friends and pets, listening to our favorite local boys, who also just happen to be extraordinary musicians. It was a great close to a very busy and first exciting summer on the Cape.
Our upstairs tenant, Ginny, assured me that once Labor Day comes it’s as if someone turns a switch and the heat is gone. I won’t say we haven’t had a few hot afternoons, but for the most part, the fight has gone out of the hottest summer on record. It has allowed me to return to my walks on Ft. Hill, which continues to wear new costumes for each season. The gentle lavenders, blues and pinks have mellowed into golden sprays of blossoms, bright red vines, luscious purple berries and stalks and fluffy seedpods bursting with next year’s beginnings. There are fewer bunny picnics going on and the hawks keep a keen watch from the tops of the trees. The red wing blackbirds with their ‘tweedle-dee’ choruses are nowhere to be seen or heard. And, the sun is setting noticeably earlier in this third act of nature’s best play.
The weekend following Labor Day is Eastham’s annual Windmill Weekend. As with almost any other public gathering, there are the inevitable tents around Windmill Green selling mostly local arts, crafts and seafood delicacies, but the scope of this 3-day festival has a little something for everyone, including a sand castle contest and lots of prizes donated by local merchants for the very popular raffles. Our tickets didn‘t yield any prizes, and I felt a little resentful about the 100 gallons of free oil going to someone who lived in NY, but for my money, nothing beat the parade. This was nothing like the annual Tobacco Parade that used to close Broad Street in Richmond every Fall with convertibles carrying “Princesses” from various VA localities vying to be Miss Tobacco Queen. Let’s face it, between Women’s Lib and the American Cancer Society, this parade was doomed. Eastham had a gleaming red, vintage fire engine with Smokey the Bear which gave way to giant military vehicles with their vintage marchers in uniform, the Coast Guard, bag pipers, girl-and-boy scout troops, flute players on unicycles, vintage cars, dogs on leashes and then came the floats. There was the elementary school dressed as pilgrims, the middle school jazz band (Louie Louie, of course), the high school music department, cheerleaders, various local merchants, the Library, the Elks, the Historical Society, the Lower Cape Concert Band, a drum & fife band, the Grand Marshall and Lady Liberty herself, in a flag-adorned red jeep, bringing up the rear with a sign on the back that said “Historic and Beautiful Eastham, see you next year!” And, they will!
Always looking for good-time small venues to play, Chandler also has an arrangement with the Captain of the Viking Princess in Provincetown to play sunset cruises on the bay, and we decided to splurge a little and jump aboard for the last one of the season. It could have been a long jump since we were just in time to watch them sailing off into the sunset. Hoping for a miracle, Ron searched his cell phone for the number of the Captain, with whom he’d reserved a spot earlier, and made a very hopeful call. It worked, and round about they came to pick up the two frantically waving stragglers. Of course when you make a grand entrance, you have to be prepared to become a “remember-when joke”, but it was well worth it to be entertained as we watched the sun go down and the lights of Provincetown harbor twinkle on one by one with friends and friendly strangers.
The following day found us at a benefit in Wellfleet, mostly to see another band that Chandler started this year called the Catbirds, whom I hadn’t had a chance to see yet. Their gigs tend to be past my bedtime, so I took advantage of the beautiful afternoon in Wellfleet Harbor to hear them at a waking hour. We were also surprised by a performance of The Elbows, a band that plays and acts out vintage children’s songs, and those old songs have never sounded so good or so fun.
The Guest Report has become practically non-existent, as expected. While the Fall will continue to be popular getaway times for some, the return to school is as if someone pulled the plug and 75% of the population returned to the other side of the bridge. We did have one couple from NYC stop for the night on the way to seeing a friend do the last performance of a play at the W.H.A.T. (Wellfleet Harbor Actor’s Theatre) But, visitors are now looking for places to stay after Labor Day who don’t shut down for the winter, and it’s not uncommon to have people stop and ask to look around for future trips. I just love it when they ask what it’s like in the Winter…don’t get me started!
I saw three wild turkeys on Cemetery Road the other crisp Fall day. Irony?
It’s turned into a great first consignment season, learning what will probably sell and what’s best left at the Free Shops for someone else. I made enough to make a reasonable contribution to the monthly budget, but also had so much fun treasure hunting it should be illegal. In acknowledgement of the success of my favorite hobby/part-time job, Ron removed the back seats in our Honda Element to make loading larger items easier. (And to save the leather from the abuse!) Let’s see, that’s money, fun and validation! I’m now acquainted with Lou at the Chatham free shop who does magic tricks. There’s also a volunteer at the Dennis free shop I call The Bi-polar Lady. One never know if she’s going to compliment us on our hats or threaten to call the police because we looked at something wrong. My favorite new place is the Brewster free shop, where the volunteers greet you warmly when you arrive, offer you bags to carry your treasures and thank you for coming. In the winter, they have a big fire going in a woodstove.
Every day is a new opportunity to learn something, and we mastered a big lesson in water management this summer. Eastham doesn’t have town water, so we all have wells. Great, no water bill you might say, but one makes up for that paying higher home insurance because there aren’t any fire hydrants. That’s another story. At some point this summer, our delicious, fresh water started smelling metallic and everything it touched began turning yellow. Not a good look for guests, not to mention our new, white bathroom fixtures. We wracked our brains, at first thinking that in Ron’s quest to make the lawn look like a golf course for visitors, we were running the well dry. We consulted a well expert who gave us the good news: we didn’t need a new well, we needed to have all the fancy water filtration tanks in the basement serviced. Within days of adding the necessary salt to one of them to change the polarity, which would remove the iron, which is in great abundance here, we dodged a very watery bullet. Perhaps next month we will learn how to use the leaf collecting attachment on the riding lawnmower. Look out, bunnies!
My Cape Cod Chronicles are now on Facebook. I’m not exactly sure why, but my sons assure me that this is a crucial part of being alive in 2010, so they are now there under ‘Notes’ for anyone who knows how to access my page. One way is the direct link: http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=1348610239¬es_tab=app_2347471856 . An easier way is to google facebook and search for Andrea Lea Daniels. The Lea is critical since there apparently are hundreds of women with my name, otherwise.
Though it’s now officially Fall, with pumpkins and mums in place, we are closing the month with the air conditioner going. September 30th, aside from being my sister’s birthday, is a muggy, clammy day, but big winds and tides are on the way to clear summer out and bring gorgeous Fall weather, just in time for more guests from VA. Pam has specially ordered sweater-weather, and we are happy to oblige. May there be frost on your pumpkin, hot cider in your mugs and clear, sunny days.
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