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Whales to the Left, Whales to the Right!

A overcast, somewhat chilly, but beautiful day to be out on a whale watch today. As we headed out from Provincetown Harbor we were into the wind and the boat ride was like a roller coaster crossed with a water flume ride. The folks who stomaches were not “sea worthy” were in pretty bad shape. But for Hubby and I the only challenges were to stay standing as the boat rolled and pitched — keeping our eyes on the horizon for the water spouts of whales. Out on the South edge of the Stellwagen Bank the whales were feeding, diving, breeching, and in general providing a great nature watching event. The bright sun was the only thing that ruined some of my photos but the day was great.
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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

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Cape Cod – and it’s still Summer!

Beautiful summer weather greeted us as we drove onto Cape Cod in August — and it’s still here.  Weather folks are saying this is the most summery weather they’ve had in a while.  We’re loving it.  Out on the bicycles, out on a whale watch, out on a seal cruise, or sitting on the deck drinking iced tea and reading a book ——- the weather has been fantastic.

This photo just screams “Cape Cod” – light house on the far reaches of Chatham —

Cape Cod lighthouse (Chatham)
Cape Cod lighthouse (Chatham)

And we saw whales on the “high seas” on Wednesday of last week

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And the seals were so cute!  They were almost all very curious about the boat as it approached and often turned to stare at us.

Hello!

 

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Will work part-time as traffic cone

While on vacation in Vermont in July, I found an expensive a great jacket which turned out to be fantastic for bicycling on cool September days in Cape Cod.  It is a rather vibrant orange with red accents and I decided that it looked quite like traffic cone orange.  So, while on the bike path, I couldn’t resist having Hubby take my picture.

I call this “will work part-time as a traffic cone”

Traffic cone on the bicycle path
Traffic cone on the bicycle path
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Out of hibernation – AGAIN!

Off in Cape Cod on our annual vacation and determined to re-awaken this blog.  Apparently Facebook is causing me some problems.  It is so easy to do a quick post and then forget about it.  They are much harder to review, however, and I miss looking back at my year on this blog.

My birthday is at the end of August, and for the past few years, I have used this date as the start of a “New Year”.  I make more resolutions at this time than January 1st.  And, I enjoy the fall cleaning more than the spring cleaning.  So, in many ways September is a new start for me.

So, in the purpose of a new start — the first blog post of the new year — from Orleans, MA in Cape Cod.

Selfie at Wellfleet Harbor
Wellfleet Harbor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a little catch-up with the goings on ………

TV is prepared for hanging

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The great TV migration of 2013 started with the purchase of a new large-screen plasma TV which had not yet been delivered.  So the old flat-panel went up to the bedroom, installed by handyman, a.k.a. Hubby.

... and it's up on the wall
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Long time no blog!

Well, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Blogging seems to have fallen by the wayside with my current addiction to Facebook and Twitter.  But — not enough words and no opportunity to post multiple photos.  And I find that I miss looking back at my blog which has become kind of an electronic scrapbook.

I have some great photos (still on the Olympus SLR) but will be posting them soon so that at least I can look at them.

In the mean time ……… from our September Cape Code vacation ….. our bicycles parked in front of the Chocolate Sparrow in Orleans

Rest stop at the Chocolate Sparrow
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Newport in July

Hubby’s birthday — quick trip — wonderful respite.  Newport, RI is beautiful this time of year.

Ocean view from the cliff walk
Hydrangeas are everywhere and beautiful
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As we batten down the hatches

Batten down the hatches — That’s all we’ve been doing since we got home from our brief respite (to celebrate my birthday) in Newport, RI.

No time to edit the beautiful photos I took of the J-Boats racing in Newport Harbor as our boat sailed near, then tacked to get out of the way.

No time to upload the beautiful photos of the courtyard outside our room with the fountain, flowers, and flowering trees.

No opportunity to even download from the camera the photo I took of Phyllis the frog beside the pond tonight.

Instead, we’ve been battening the hatches in preparation for Hurricane Irene — expected to landfall  Connecticut sometime after midnight Saturday night, but near “lunchtime” on Sunday according to the latest.  Bridgeport is “her” current target, but it’s only about 15 miles east of here.  The eye of the hurricane is supposed to be wider than that, so for a while we will be in the eye of a hurricane, literally. I have NEVER wanted to be in the eye of a hurricane.

Much work remains tomorrow — lawn furniture and giant plant pots need to be moved into the garage.  Apparently 85-100 mph winds can move almost anything and would definitely destroy my summer plants at the height of the beauty right now.

Then, we’ll sit, and pray, and watch the storm from safe inside our home, which I’m hoping will keep us safe and dry.  We’re high up on a hill, so won’t be affected by any flooding.  But our 3 acres are covered with giant oak, maple, ash, and hickory trees. We don’t hold much hope that our lovely property will go totally unscathed.

Power is expect to go out and stay out for days, so it will be quiet around here except for the sound of the generator!  So, photos of the lovely 2-day vacation, almost totally forgotten already, will just have to wait.

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Geeks on Vacation

While I was reading a book on my Kindle this morning and occasionally responding to an email1313 summons from my BlackBerry, hubby was hard at work enhancing the website for the symphony orchestra in our home town.  Pictured here with one computer at each hand he’s testing how his website appears on various operating systems and alternate browsers.  Rented a vacation house with the required high-speed internet — and that’s what geeks do on a rainy vacation morning.

geeks on vacation
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Cape Cod Whale Watch

While it has been two years since we’ve been on the Cape for vacation, it has been at least three years since we’ve driven up to Provincetown and gone on a whale watch.  We always ride on a Dolphin Fleet boat as they are staffed by naturalists and are actively doing research on every whale watch they conduct.   Though yesterday was cool and breezy and quite cloudy with ocean swells in the 5 to 8 foot range, they decided to head out quite far to the East side of the Stellwagen Bank to watch the whales feeding.  Due to the cloudy day, the fish (sand eels) that the humpback whales feed on were really near the surface (within 50 to 100 feet or so).  This resulted in the whales making only shallow dives to go down for feeding and not showing us too much tail!  But, they also were lunging up out of the water with their mouths full of fish and actually completely breaching the water — as in leaping out of the water COMPLETELY.  You haven’t seen a fish jump until you have seen an adult humpback whale leap out of the water.  They only did this once the boat had left the immediate area they were in, so I didn’t capture any photos with the camera — just with my memory.

Here are some “shots” from the day

— the humpbacks were often quite close to the boat and there were often more than one at the surface — I left this one un-cropped so that you could see how close to the boat it was

Now I know why they are called "humpback" whales

— sometimes they did do a deep enough dive to show us their tail’s underside — each humpback whale has a distinctive marking on the underside of his/her tail by which they can be identified

With a final wave "goodbye" this whale dives for deeper water

— lots of photos snapped (yeah for the world of digital cameras) as this whale was with us on the surface for a while, then was going, going, gone

going
going
gone, . . . . . bye bye