Beginning of Fall – If October is the Beginning

Walks on the Cape Cod Rail Trail are a favorite thing any time of year. And are actually a “must do” for any week to be complete here. Hubby likes the noise of the crunchy fall leaves underfoot, and the last few days have provided the sights and sounds of fall.

A couple of photos to illustrate the point.

Twin maples in the Hot Chocolate Sparrow parking lot
A crunchy path awaits. Doesn’t this make you just walk around the corner to see what’s there?

End of Summer 2024

While I’m bemoaning the end of summer and yet still celebrating the colors of fall and the beautiful warm weather we’ve been having — I found two photos on my laptop from this past summer that need to be reviewed.

Looking up Cove ….

Some early sweet peas along the bank and “ditch lilies” along the garden

… and looking down Cove (both from my quilt studio deck)

Hydrangeas were beautiful this year. And my potted plants did great too!

Both were taken July 7 right in the start of the glorious summer weather.
Tomorrow? Maybe a post with some late summer or fall colors.

Lupine Day

A beautiful day for a walk — up to Fort Hill. And a beautiful reward once we got there

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Rainbows and Raking Light

Yesterday’s early afternoon rainbow out over the Atlantic was a real treat. Rain showers had been everywhere, just not directly overhead. But the showers out over the ocean provided us with some beauty as the sun was getting ready to set.

Rainbow on Saturday April 13 , 2024 at 6:37 pm

And then Sunday morning a raking light highlighted the dining area with the new table runner (made of Nantucket Summer Moda fabrics) and the new luminara candles purchased specifically to go in this setting.

Raking light on a beautiful Sunday morning, April 14 2024 at 7:13 am

I particularly love the yellow background outside the dining area windows — yellows curtesy of the daffodils that line the bank and the forsythia that are blooming just below the edge.

Ahhhh………..spring on Cape Cod

New Year’s Resolutions in August

My birthday is at the end of August and usually causes quite a bit of reflection on the year just past and how quickly it passed. During those reflections, I also take the opportunity to make “new year’s resolutions”. So stay tuned, dear blog, as I document some of them and attempt to make some progress too.

One interesting note about the 2022 resolutions was that one of them was to pack up and get moved to the Cape. Well that one is done and dusted as they say. We’ve had all our “stuff” here since the 26 foot dropped it off on June 1st and considered the move really complete when the sale of the Connecticut house closed on August 4.

I’ve spent the past weeks as I drive my Audi out and about on errands and meetings (it’s only been her since June 1) thinking to myself and often saying out loud “I cannot believe that I really LIVE here and that this is now home”. It’s been a crazy busy summer, tourist wise, so we’ll see how this feeling lasts into the dreary months of January and February.

But here I am and here we are and here we go!

BeeHive? Chickadee Nest?

Such a dilemma. I am unpacking (FINALLY) the quilt studio at the Cape house, our full time residence since the moving truck dumped the last of our stuff on June 1. It’s been like walking down memory lane opening these boxes, many of which have been packed since April. A lot of projects are coming out of hibernation as a result and I’m working on yet-another pile of stuff to donate to the quilt guild. In my current “to be quilted pile” are the two quilts below –Halloween and Christmas. So these are ready for the sit-down quilting machine, the Bernina770. The Halloween quilt has been basted for about a year and the Christmas Sampler a little longer. The Christmas top is the second oldest quilt top that I have. It was finished in a 2000 quilting class at Homestead Quilts in Bethel. It’s about time it was done and on display. While I’ve gone on to complete many others, this one has never made it to the finish line. So now, 23 years later, its time has come.

So now — the question posted in the blog post title? What to call this quilting space at the Cape. My Connecticut studio was called the BeeHive and I am tempted to keep that name. However, this studio is on the second floor with a “bird’s eye” view of Heron Cove, the ocean to the east and Snow’s Point across the cove in Orleans. So, I’m tempted to call it the Chickadee nest and since the Chickadee is the Massachusetts state bird, it seems appropriate. Guess I’m going to think about it for a while.

In the mean time, there are some boxes in the bathroom (about 7 of them) that need to be unpacked and lots of stuff that needs to find a permanent storage place.

A Glorious Evening

Last Wednesday’s sunset was found at First Encounter Beach in Eastham. I do like the summer time schedule — you can eat dinner and go out for sunset after. It was a glorious night at the end of a nice warm day and for once I was organized to get dinner cooked, served, and cleaned up after with plenty of time to get to the bayside for sunset.

We spent some time looking at Paco, talking to his owner, and trying to get him to say “hello”, which he eventually did as we were walking away.

Paco

And we also spent some time watching an absolutely beautiful sunset.

Heading into Orleans for a coffee, we drove by Rock Harbor and discovered, as is often the case, that the sunset “afterglow” is sometimes more fantastic and sky-filling than the actual dropping of the sun below the horizon.

And across from the Hot Chocolate Sparrow where we were enjoying lattes while sitting outside at the end of a wonderful day ……… along the bike trail ……..

Rock Harbor Flats at Sunset

One of the distinctly Cape Cod things to do in our area is to go to Rock Harbor in Orleans and view the sunset. If the timing is correct and it’s low tide, you can walk the flats. The wet sand goes out forever and ever. It is so interesting to walk where the water has just been, looking at what’s left laying by the receding tide and watching the glorious oranges, yellows, purples, and blues of the dropping sun. A glorious summer activity that never gets old.

setting sun, summer of 2021
Patterns in the sand

Happy New Year – 2022

I feel I should be saying “Happy Ground Hog Day” since: 1) it is just two days after 2/2/22 and 2) I am about to write post about how I’m going to pick up the blogging, AGAIN!

So:
1) Happy new year!
2) Happy ground hog day!
3) Happy “year of the tiger”
4) Happy opening day of the 2022 olympics

No photos here, but will hook up a camera soon – or transfer some from my iPhone (if I can figure out how). So much has changed technically since I used to do this easily. Apple, in its ongoing effort to make things more interesting, has actually made it harder to grab photos randomly from my iPhone and put them on my MacBook. Go figure!

And, if I weren’t so tired, I’d put in a haiku here as that’s one of my “resolutions”. So, nothing profound here; nothing new either.

But, begin as you intend to go forward, or something like that.

Life is an Adventure

Hubby and I set out today to go out to lunch, each of us in our respective convertibles. His (a 1951 Crosley) and mine (a 2005 Mini Cooper). I was following him down the road when he rolled to a stop on the low bridge over the swamp / Norwalk River about a mile and a half from home. Assuming the car was out of gas, he sent me back home for the gas can. But even when the little “yella fella” was fully supplied, he wouldn’t start. An antique car enthusiast stopped by but all he was able to do was use his pickup truck to successfully protect the little car from traffic while they tinkered with it.

We pushed it onto a convenient parking area alongside the road and I took Hubby home for the truck and trailer. As you can perhaps tell, it was a beautiful day. Facebook photos for documentation purposes.

Yella Fella safely tucked into trailer.

Still smiling

Yes, an adventure, but I would have rather had the lunch on the deli’s patio that we had planned.