2019 - DECEMBER - 10 Years! & The Last Prequels - December 2010

Ron's new design, with an assist from Doug

Some interesting things have happened on December 11th.  For instance, in 1945, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress shattered all records by crossing the U.S. in 5 hours and 27 minutes.  In 1972, Challenger, the lunar lander for Apollo 17 touched down on the moon's surface, which was the last time that men visited the moon.  In smuttier news, Ivana Trump filed for divorce from The Donald in 1990 after his affair with Marla Maples, and the year before that, Bernard Madoff was arrested and charges with securities fraud in a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.  In 2009, the game Angry Birds was released.  But, my all-time favorite event was in 2009, when we signed  the last papers in the Barnstable courthouse and picked up the key to our new home in Eastham, Massachusetts after a harrowing all-night trip.  That's right, it's our 10th anniversary as Eastham-sters and innkeepers!  And, this is what it looked like a week later, making this snow-starved Virginia girl feel very welcomed.

 
I'd been encouraged to keep in touch with so many friends and family who were fascinated to know what it was like to just up and move to Cape Cod, that I decided the best way to accomplish it was to write a monthly group email. It evolved into the blog some time later when I was introduced to the new format by someone much more tech-savvy than myself.  So, for ten years, I've shared the adventures with readers in one form or another, and as you might imagine after ten years, some things don't change that much, they're just viewed in different lights.  I've reported on:

 The Seasons' Weather:  

•      Summers are getting hotter.  I thought I would escape the excessive heat and           humidity of Virginia, but Climate Change has shared it with New England.  
•      We had our first tornado this year, the 4th on record since 1950.  No doubt, a lot       of this winter's firewood was a result of that storm.
•      Our biggest blizzard was named Juno in 2015.  

•      Fall is definitely the best time to visit.  Still mild and much less traffic.

The 'Free Shops' at the Transfer Station [dump]:

•      Still a fun excursion to score useful items, fun gifts and items for consignment.
•      The smell of the garbage during a hot summer day makes your eyes water.
•      Great place to catch up on local gossip.
•      Give me a month and I can completely furnish a home.  

Summer Traffic and Winter Peace:

•      Rainy summer days are the worst because the beachgoers are all looking for             something else to do.
•      Likewise, grocery shopping is best done during beach hours.  Beware of cranky         sunburned people.
•      Bicycles abound and are best ridden on the bike trails, safe from distracted               tourist drivers.  
•      Post-Labor Day weekend is cause for local revelry, if one still has the energy.
•      The first time you pull up to the intersection, look both ways and nobody is               coming is always an utter joy.   
•       Winter has its own stark beauty.  

The Critter reports:

•      It took years to find out that squirrels love sunflower seed, but hate safflower           seeds.  The extra cost of safflower is well worth it in comparison to the volume         of sunflower seeds devoured.

•      Orioles love grape jelly, but you'd better plan ahead in the Spring and get                 to the store before it sells out.

•      Hummingbirds love a 1-4 solution of sugar to water, and anything red.

•      Bluebirds love mealworms and usually show up in January for the winter.

• Woodpeckers love suet.  We have Red bellies, Flickers, Downy's and Hairy's

• Between 2011 and 2019, 517 squirrels and 260 chipmunks have been relocated in Hav-A Hart traps and generously shared with other parts of the Cape. 
• Sharks' favorite food is seals.  So, stay away from seals, duh. The 2018 shark fatality in Wellfleet did not seem to affect tourism.  On the contrary, guests now ask us where they can go to see sharks and seals.

• In our yard and the walk to Fort Hill I've seen deer, raccoons, a weasel, a groundhog, wild turkeys, rabbits, a fox, blond, red and brown squirrels, a box turtle, a coyote, a couple of harmless snakes and a multitude of chipmunks and birds.

The Garden Reports:

•      My, have they grown.  In retrospect, perhaps less might have been more.  The           irresistible and addictive Agway 1/2-price and dollar table had a lot to do with         it.

Before - 2010

After - 2019

Giant dinner plate hibiscus were the most amazing find. 

The Cape is hydrangea-crazy and they even have their own festival.

The creation of a B&B and the types of guests who visit:

•      The closest guest came from Falmouth on the Upper Cape.
•      The farthest guest came from Reunion Island, a French island east of                         Madagascar.
•      No matter how much information we provide about the suites and getting to the       right one, only a small percentage of guests follow directions and end up at the         right driveway.  
•      We've hosted guests from all over the world who mostly only spoke their native         language, but somehow with a little pantomime, a lot of smiles, and sometimes       a computer translator, we always manage. 

Volunteering:

• I've greatly enjoyed sharing our good fortune by volunteering for Lower Cape Outreach Council, which provides many services to our neighbors in need.  I take the minutes for the Development Committee, making sense and a record out of a lot of cross-talk, and pitch in with various fundraisers.
• And, Orleans Community Exchange, the oldest consignment and thrift shop on Cape Cod, which raises money for scholarships and tool-ships for our local students.  I stage the items in the shop and do a weekly Facebook page.

History Lessons:  

• Peeks into our past are shared by local historians who bring the past alive about our historic area. The latest quoted source is a book called This Land is Their Land, the Wampanoag Indians, the Plymouth Colony, and the troubled history of Thanksgiving, by David J Silverman, a professor of Native American, Colonial and Racial History in America at George Washington University.  Meetings between the early colonists and Indians were recorded by the English in detail, making it surprisingly easy to paint a clear picture.  What they referred to as the "new country" was actually a very "old world" whose inhabitants were part of a vast civilization many thousands of years old.  In fact, every step of the Indians was informed by their knowledge of past European ships that had visited their shores and left behind "a wave of enslavement, murder, theft, disease and mourning."  The event of Thanksgiving in the form of a shared harvest dinner in 1620 barely registered until it was resurrected in 1863 and turned into an official national holiday stripped of actual events.  Giving thanks for our blessings with friends and family is in itself a lovely tradition to continue, but certainly not at the expense of history.    

Cape Holiday Traditions and Festivals:

• This year's Eastham Turnip Festival Cook-off winners were:
• Grand Prize  Turnip Sliders
• 2nd Prize      Turnip au Gratin
• 3rd Prize       Turnip Quiche
• The winning Turnip Shuck-Off time was 58 seconds

Eastham Fire Department's antique engine comes out for the Windmill Weekend Parade in September, 
and again for the winter holidays, all dressed up.

A floating Christmas tree in Eastham's Salt Pond

Nautical cookies

Nauset Light

Annual Christmas Cavalcade to benefit the homeless, sponsored by the Chandler Travis Philharmonic Band

Community participation reading of Dickens' A Christmas Carol.  
Period costume not required, but Ron does like to dress for the occasion. 

When on Cape Cod...no reindeer necessary, just a good boat.

Eastham Sunsets:

First Encounter Beach, our favorite

By sharing the Pre-quels this year, which preceded the blog, it was eye-opening to me how much detail one forgets over the years.  It was fun for me to take a walk down memory lane as I filled in a missing part of our great adventure for readers while getting to experience the wonder of everything new all over again and note how things do change.  It also reinforced the feeling that after ten years, it was time for a reinvention.  I stopped feeling like I was living in someone else's home a long time ago.  We may not be 'sandkickers', born and bred on the Cape, but we're locals, i.e. "those innkeepers on Fort Hill with the lighted sailboat in the front yard".  It has become such a landmark that people have sworn to us that they've been passing that boat since they were youngsters when in fact, it arrived a day after we did ten years ago.  We joked that it's our escape plan in case the Pilgrim Nuclear Power plant in Plymouth had a meltdown.  The escape route signs have one drive directly towards Plymouth, so heading out to sea seems like a better plan.  After a long campaign against the power plant's poor safety record, it has finally been shut down this year and I can finally take my "Close Pilgrim" bumper sticker off the car.  There have been many other changes in ten years and one can judge how long a person has been here by the references to businesses no longer open when giving directions.  The blog has been a politics and religion-free zone, with the exceptions of how the current White House policies have affected the tourist industry, and the inescapable clash of readily available history with the glossed-over taught version.  Rather than try to find new ways to report what now seems like recycled news, it's time for me to discover new things to be reported in new ways.  When I step into my new reinvention, I will re-introduce myself.  Meanwhile, thanks for sharing the ride with me.  And a, happy and healthy New Year! 

It's reinvention time...waiting for inspiration on the Fort Hill "thinking rock".

The Last Pre-quel:  Cape Chronicles #15 – December, 2010

The humidifiers are humming, trees are twinkling in the dark and Ron’s growing his annual winter beard, so it must be December. 

We got a call from Ray one morning in early December that he could see whales spouting off of Nauset Beach.  Grabbing our coats and cameras, we dropped everything and drove over to see if they’d still be there.  What we found instead startled me more than whales, which had already moved on.  I’d heard of, but until then never seen anyone surfing in frigid December waters.  How can a wetsuit be warm enough to consider even testing a toe, but there they were defying  December’s raw chill, on the backs of icy waves.

I’ve often thought that I’d have settled for much less just to get back to New England, but good fortune provided a property that provides both location and vocation.  Today, as I caught the last of the day’s sun to take a walk, I marveled again how incredible it was to have the National Seashore within strolling distance of my backyard.  There’s usually at least one or two people walking the trails this time of year, or parked at the lookout enjoying the view, but for the price of a wet, puppy-nose and rosy cheeks, I had the luxury of all of Ft. Hill to myself today.   It’s no wonder there are so many artists in seaside communities.  The horizon reminded me of what the art teacher at the school I used to work taught me, “paint what you see, not what you think is there”.  The sea and skies are always providing new, incredible vistas that if painted exactly as they appeared, there would surely be doubters that such combinations of light and color really exist.  Today, the breezes blew through the sea grass in such a way that as they squeaked and swished against each other, it sounded like whispering Nauset Indian spirits who had once made these woods and salt marshes their home.  What used to be endless expanses of blooming beach roses are now a wiry network of branches covered with ruby red berries, which glow in the setting sunlight. People ask me if I ever get used to the scenery, and I assure them that the sight of the ocean as I crest the hill takes my breath away every time.  I’ve noticed that even “Sandkickers” (Cape Cod-born) still take time to catch a sunset on the bay, a walk on the beach, or take a thermos of hot chocolate to a favorite lookout.   

The perfect kite flying place

There’s not enough ice on the ponds to see kids out practicing hockey shots yet, but it’s finally cold enough for the salt marshes to turn into giant slushies and the cranberry bogs to sport some frosting.  The towns are putting up holiday decorations and merchants are doing their best to entice shoppers.  In short, Cape Cod is much like anywhere else during the holiday season and the year-rounders have many activities from which to choose.  Today, at the Red Pheasant restaurant, our friend Bill, the owner, opened early so his blues band, The Delta Kings, could entertain some of his loyal customers and friends by the roaring fire.  The 200 year-old barn was converted to a fine bistro by his father, and Bill & his wife, Denise have carried on in the same tradition, engaging Ron to keep the restorations in good working order.  In other towns, there are fundraising benefits to aid the needy, in which local talent participates annually, such as Yule for Fuel, and the Cape Cod Christmas Cavalcade.  There are candle light walks with caroling in Chatham, many seasonal plays and concerts, a wreath making party-pageant in Wellfleet, Pet Photos with Santa to benefit the animal emergency center, a train ride with Santa and his hot chocolate-serving elves, and town decoration contests.  Here at Crosswinds B&B, we have done our part to light up the dark, December nights for evening travelers with numerous white lights in selected trees and flickering candles in the windows.   

Eastham Windmill dressed for the season on the town green.

Happy Anniversary!  On the 11^th, we commemorated our first year here with a party for new and old friends.  My guest list started off on a small notepad, but just as our last party went, Ron kept inviting everyone he ran into, so I never know who or how many are coming.   It somehow all works out with a delightful mix of guests, plenty of food and everyone having a great time.  Ron and Ray had a rib cook-off, which was declared a tie by our very diplomatic friends.   Some, who had never been here before asked for a tour and since we had no B&B guests, Ray volunteered to be the tour guide.  The majority of people stayed in the kitchen-dining area, with only a few making it to the living room.  It’s the kitchen I’ve always dreamed of having where I can tend to food preparation and serving and still be part of the conversations, separated only by a bar.  More and more often, friends are dropping by to pull up a bar stool and be treated to one of Ron’s lattes and whatever I’ve been baking.   It’s an irresistible draw and that’s the way we like it, always ready to stop what we’re doing to share our home’s charm and our attention. 

Lately, shoppers have been overheard grumbling to each other that a little snow would help them get in the holiday mood.  Finally, after hearing about everyone else’s snow in the country, I spotted our first flurries.  As readers of my early chronicles know, It doesn’t take much snow to get me excited, and waking up to a little bit of dusting and getting snowflake kisses on my nose while doing errands is a wonderful start to the season.  Solstice Eve then brought a real Nor’easter, covering everything in a heavy blanket just in time for the official calendar start of winter.   Our “possible flurries” yielded about a foot of snow and a lot of exercise uncovering the driveway for our tenants.  Wet, heavy snow isn’t as easy to move with the snow blower, but with another storm on the way, it was time to get it humming.

Although this was our 2^nd Christmas on the Cape, the first hardly counted since we were still neck-deep in packed boxes.  This year, we got our birds a birdbath heater to keep the water from freezing, and on Christmas Eve, we made hit and run Santa calls on our Eastham friends bearing baskets of homemade goodies.   Since our adopted holiday is the Winter Solstice, our Christmas Day is relatively quiet, making calls to family, sharing lattes with stop-in guests, and our most favorite tradition, eating Chinese food.  Who else would be open on Christmas?  This year it was the Double Dragon restaurant, which looks out on the Orleans town cove.   Stuffed, and with tomorrow’s dinner in a doggie bag, we settled in front of the fireplace with visions of soft pillows waiting for us.   

As I mentioned last winter, Cape Cod enjoys its own weather zone, separate from the mainland.  The first rule of thumb is that it’s very unpredictable, so the weather forecasters wisely leave themselves a lot of latitude in their predictions.  For instance, the winter storm that rolled up the east coast for Christmas dumping a foot or so on its way, was expected to dump another foot and a half of snow on us before turning to rain the following day and blowing out to sea.  Instead, after snowing all day Sunday it turned to rain and upon waking there was no accumulation.  But, the following day, it turned back to snow and left us with a fresh frosting.  The real story was the wind, gusting up to 80 mph all night, causing many power outages and taking down signs and fences along our road.  While we burrowed under the covers and listened to the house breathe, we were in awe of anyone who would go out in that much wind and rain in the middle of the night to restore our power, but it was back on in about 3 hours.  Those guys are my heroes and deserve every penny they make and more. 

There were no December guests at the B&B however Erik the Red Squirrel and Iggy the Hawk have made reappearances to the back porch.   In fact, after being convinced by a friend that red squirrels could be extremely destructive to our home, Ron reluctantly decided to relocate Erik to Nickerson State Park in Brewster, only to find the next morning that there was an Erika on our porch.   By the next morning she was also on her way  to the park to be reunited with her beau.  

New Year’s Week will bring 2 couples for a winter taste of the Cape.  One is a French couple coming all the way from Reunion Island, which is east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, and the other coming not so far from Warwick, RI.  Although we are now old hands at taking care of guests, the winter is perhaps a bit more of a challenge.  In the summer, many guests just want to be pointed in the direction of the nearest beach, and restaurants are a dime a dozen.  I suspect winter guests will need more guidance about what there is to do and where they can find food.  The rooms now have extra blankets and warm comforters, and the hot chocolate and oatmeal packets are more prominent and plentiful.  As always, there are games, Cape literature, premium T.V. channels and WIFI, and for the hardier travelers, the walking trails are still exhilarating experiences and photo ops.   There are always many scenic drives with fun stops for the less adventurous.   

I couldn’t let the first year go by without finally taking time to stop in at our Eastham Library to get a card.  The outside is as quaint a little place as one could imagine, but a drive around back by a large pond reveals an addition that is quite adequate and up to date.  The free shops at the transfer stations supply more books than I have time to read, but I’m looking forward to enjoying the library’s DVD’s and books-on-CD selections. 

The Cape provides many New Year’s Eve options for revelers, but Chatham’s First Night probably offers the most variety for all.  It boasts more than 60 venues, including a circus, musicians, local artists, theater, opera, puppets, ice carving, a giant bonfire, a Noise Parade (bring your favorite noisemaker), the Countdown Cod Drop, and fireworks over Oyster Pond.  We both decided that we preferred to stay off the roads and revel in front of our fireplace this time, but I’d still like to see that cod drop and the fireworks at least once. 

Happy New Year!  1-1-11 was sunny and mild, and was a perfect day to tidy up the gardens and take a walk up to Ft. Hill.  The parking lots were packed with visitors hiking the favorite spot, so I decided to explore the other side of the hill, which is too overgrown in the summer to get through.  I was rewarded by finding another trail which I never knew was there.   It wound through the woods where deer are known to appear, but it was just me and my camera forging a new trail and squeezing the last bit of light out of the sunset. Our quests finally appeared around dinnertime and after a French-English pantomime, they are on their way for a seafood dinner reward for finding their resting spot for the weekend.  

This completes our first year on Cape Cod and my promise to stay in touch to describe what it’s like living in this magical place.  It has not disappointed us, and to the people who asked, “why did you move there IN THE WINTER?”  I can only refer them to the chronicles and say, you just don’t know what you’re missing.  I still stick my head out the back door on windy days to hear the ocean roaring.  I still mentally say “whee” as I go around the rotary.  I still think the next big find at the free shop could be this time. Thanks for all the feedback from those who have enjoyed coming along for the ride.   As life constantly evolves so too will my musings.  Last year at this time I was paring down and packing my past into boxes and shedding my old life for a dream that had been carefully tended until the right time came along.  Now, the past is beginning to seem like the dream and with the completion of four seasons, Eastham has become the reality. The off-season is what Cape Codders call “our time”.  As Dorothy put it so simply, “there’s no place like home.”