2019 Life Logs, Day 307: Women at Sea Presentation
Date: Sunday, November 3, 2019
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 59, Low 35 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It was early to rise in The Cottage this morning. Heather and Ollie were off to go to a running class while I got ready for the day. 
After running class, Heather, Ollie, and I went out to breakfast and then I took off for Chatham to have lunch with Barbara Semple and then attend her Women at Sea presentation.
When I gave my Voyage of Windbird presentation to the Chatham Harwich Newcomers group in the spring, Barbara was in the audience and came up to introduce herself afterwards.
She explained that her Aunt Frances Brastow Amesbury from Rockport, Maine, had sailed with her husband, Captain Stanley Amesbury, in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s during the China Trade years. When Frances died, Barbara and her brother were given many of the artifacts from Frances’ days at sea on the Bark Adolph Obrig and the Ship William H. Macy. One of the artifacts was Frances’ diary, and in recent years Barbara has spent many hours pouring through the years of diary entries to write the story of Frances. The Women at Sea presentation comes out of those years of writing and now Barbara is starting to present it to various organizations here on the Cape. When I met her in April, she invited me to today’s presentation, so I put it on my calendar.
Barbara and her husband Paul live in a home overlooking the Nantucket Sound in Chatham. I arrived there for lunch and found the views from their dining room table absolutely breathtaking. And while having lunch, I discovered that Paul and Barbara had moved to their current retirement home from Hopkinton, New Hampshire. Hopkinton is right next to Concord and we discovered that we know many people in common. What a small world!
After the presentation, I drove to Bruce and Jane Woodin’s to dig up some Jerusalem Artichoke roots to transplant. I was late getting there and Bruce and Jane had a big bag of roots all ready for me to take home. With the time change, it was almost dark, so instead of heading home to plant right away, I stayed and had Happy Hour with them.
It was a great weekend. I loved having Ollie and Heather spent Friday and Saturday nights with me. It was a special treat. And when I got home this evening, I called to check-in and found that Jed, Sam, and Jonah had a great weekend at the Scout Turkey Shoot camp-out. Jed leaves for England for five days on Tuesday and I will be spending parts of Wednesday and Thursday helping with childcare in his absence. Heather has a 14-hour workday on Thursday. I’ll spend the night there on Wednesday so I will be there when Heather leaves at 5:30 am. I’ll get the boys off to school and then return after school to get dinner for the boys and get them into bed. Heather’s public radio station is trying to do all of their fall fund raising in one long day. Sure hope their efforts are successful.
