"Red snappers snappin', Clam shells clappin'"*

Though it seems like ages ago, last month I was down on the Cape visiting with my aunt. After a walk along the beach in Harwichport, we headed over to Rock Harbor in Orleans, grabbed some "chowdah" (Rhode Island style) at Captain Cass', and took a walk along the harbor. It was a beautiful summer day! (The chowder was good, but it had NOTHING on my beloved Chatham Squire!)


*lyrics from "Rock Lobster" by The B-52s

Nothing like an Autumn Day in the Northeast

When I was in elementary school, we used to sing a lot of seasonal tunes in music class. (I'd like to think that they still do that.) One of my favorites for this time of year went like this (yes, I still remember the words):

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.
The first one said, "Oh my, it's getting late."
The second one said, "There are witches in the air."
The third one said, "We don't care."
The fourth one said, "Let's run and run and run."
The fifth one said, "I'm ready for some fun."
"Woo-ooo" went the wind
And out went the light
And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

Here are some pumpkins in a patch that I saw yesterday down in Chatham. (I wish it were a little more practical to have a pumpkin/jack o'lantern in my apartment in Boston.)

"Sky rockets in flight..."*

I had a wonderful time this weekend visiting with Je Glide on Nantucket. After dinner on Saturday night, she, her new Beau, and I went for a walk down to Straight Wharf with the hopes of being able to catch a glimpse of the fireworks on Jetties Beach scheduled for that evening.



Our perch not only provided us with a great vantage point for watching the light show, but we also got to see some A-MAZING yachts under the full moon.



After the fireworks were over, we applauded and started to walk back to the car. To my delight, the folks on the yachts added their "kudos" by honking their ships horns. To borrow a quote from Singing In the Rain: "It was good and loud."


*I apologize if you have "Afternoon Delight" stuck in your head after reading this. I had that problem the other day, and it wasn't pretty.

To the Lighthouse (just not the Virginia Woolf kind)

Earlier this week, I was down on Cape Cod and went out to add another lighthouse to my collection. This one is Cape Cod Highland Light, which is in Truro, MA. I haven't spent a lot of time in Truro; I spend more of my time on central or lower Cape. It was a beautiful spot to drive around, very rural and unspoiled.

The original light house was commissioned by President Washington back in 1797, making this the first light on the Cape. The current structure was built in 1857. Continued erosion forced the light to be relocated several times; it was moved to its present location in 1996. On a clear day, like it was on Monday, the view from the bluffs is amazing. We could see all the way to Provincetown!

"The lighthouse lifts its massive masonry, A pillar of fire by night, of cloud by day."*

My old co-worker often spoke about the beauty of Nobska Light. (She used to have a photo of it as the desktop on her computer.) I finally got myself to Woods Hole this weekend and took some shots of the lighthouse. My trusty driver (AK) and I decided to drive the bike route through Falmouth rather than take the main road (Rte. 28), and it was such a nice drive (although Sister B would have motion sickness within the first five minutes - LOTS of twists and turns.)

When we left to go down to WH, it was sunny; by the time we got there, it wasn't. Shortly after we left, the sun reappeared. But it didn't make it a bad day for taking pictures. The clouds looked really cool with little bits of light peeking through. Added bonus: we were the only ones there!





I now have eight lights in my New England lighthouse photo collection!


*from The Lighthouse by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Out and about with my Trusty Camera

This weekend, I was down on the Cape visiting my aunt and was able to add not one, not two, but FOUR lighthouses to my New England Lighthouses photo collection. The first is Nauset Light in Eastham, and the three others are collectively known as the "Three Sisters". (They used to be the lights at Nauset Light Beach before they were replaced with the current lighthouse, which came up from Chatham in the 1920s.) So now I have grand total of seven lighthouses (counting the three as one because that really should only count as one) New England lighthouses photographed; there's something like 40 left for me still to do!

ACK

Over this past weekend, I headed out to Nantucket to visit my college friend, former roommate, and one time ice cream liberator, JeGlide. We took a ride out to 'Sconset, picked up some lunch at Bartlett's Farm, and then hit the beach. That night, we caught up with old and new (to me) friends for dinner at Town for a delicious meal and a lot of laughs, went dancing for a little while at the Rose & Crown, and then grabbed some ice cream before heading home. The next day, we got brunch, bopped around town, had more ice cream, I bought new flip flops, and then made a fast dash to the beach before I had to grab my ferry back to real life, I mean, the mainland. It is always so wonderful to see JeGlide and equally difficult to say goodbye. (Sometimes I wish she was still living in Boston, but as she enjoys living on Nantucket and it means that we can go visit her there, I try not to complain.) :)

Nantucket is really a picturesque place, and, if you haven't been there, I highly recommend going, even on just a day trip with your bike. (JeGilde pointed out the newly repaved road and bike trail.) The downtown is quaint, the wharfs have some of the most amazing boats from all over the world, the beaches are both fun and peaceful, and there is nothing like taking a shower in an (enclosed) outdoor shower at the beach. Plus, I am lucky to have a very nice friend who was nice enough to drive me around while I took a hundred photos of a lighthouse. (The best of which I added to my New England lighthouses photoset on Flickr.)

But you don't have to take my word that Nantucket is beautiful; these photos can tell you better than I.

Everything I know about lighthouses, I learned from Pete's Dragon

That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but the first place I learned about lighthouses was the Disney film Pete's Dragon, compliments of the "Wonderful World of Disney" on Sunday nights. (I loved the town's name, Passamaquoddy, and how the film's villain had a hard time pronouncing it.)

Last weekend, Sister K and I went for a walk with our aunt down on Harding's Beach in Chatham, and I took several photos of Stage Harbor light, which is no longer a working lighthouse (hence the lack of the actual light.) It was a beautiful, sunny, and really windy day, and a number of people were kite surfing. (You can see one of the kites in the second photo, the thing that looks like a bird.) The three of us got blown down the beach very well without kites.

"If you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does. Now, uh... Now you tell me what you know."

I have lived my entire life in New England, but this was the first year that I ever got to see a cranberry harvest! This particular bog, on Rte. 134 in Harwich, was being harvested this week, and, even though we got there towards the end of the harvest, there still were lots of cranberries left. It really was quite beautiful to see on a sunny fall day.









Thanks to Groucho Marx's Animal Crackers for that "cranberry" quote in the title of today's post.

Down the Cape

Over the weekend, I went to Chatham with my aunt. We parked the car and took a walk around the town. It was a beautiful day, and I was able to get some pretty nice photos.