2020 Life Logs, Day 143: Rainy Day with the Goldpebbles
Date: Saturday, May 23, 2020
Weather: Rainy Day; High 63, Low 45 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
On this first day of the Memorial Day Weekend, Heather and Jed started laying the new wood flooring in the bedrooms on their second floor. Sam’s bedroom was to be the first one. At the end of the day, it was not done, but great progress was made and it looks great.
I went over mid-morning and kidnapped the Goldpebbles so that Heather and Jed could concentrate on the work that needed to be done. It was pouring rain when I arrived but the boys had come up with a rainy day activity for us. The idea was spawned when Sam mentioned Spohr Gardens to Jonah and Ollie. Ollie had no idea what he was talking about and Jonah had distant memories. So, they decided that we should go there for a walk in the rain. I have been there on multiple occasions with Sam through the years, fewer occasions with Jonah, and only once with Ollie when he was just a wee one. Going there for a walk today sounded like a great idea, so off we went. Charles and Margaret Spohr lived on the six-acre property for 40 years and developed it as a miniature botanical garden interspersed with a collection of old stone mill wheels and anchors, large and small, from ships around the world. The property sits on Oyster Pond and the views from the pond go out to the Nantucket Sound.
It is now maintained by a trust as a Falmouth community resource and we certainly enjoyed our visit this morning. Jonah immediately noticed that the stone mill wheels look like the logo on Taza chocolate bars. Taza is a Boston-based chocolate company that stone grinds their organic chocolate from hand-carved granite millstones. Then Jonah found an anchor from the 1700’s that said HMS Bounty (?). He didn’t know about the HMS Bounty, but Sam filled him in on this bit of history, and he was super excited that this anchor might have been on that ship.
Sam enjoyed leading our tour, Jonah enjoyed making discoveries and posing as a victorious explorer, and Ollie quietly and carefully explored each and every find. We were soaked to the bone by the end of our tour, but it was worth it. All of us had a really fun time.
We arrived at my house, dripping wet. We got out of our wet clothes and hung them in the bathroom with a little heater running to help dry them. And then I gave each boy a blanket to wrap up in. We decided to watch a Harry Potter movie while waiting for the clothes to dry and half-way through the movie, I served a late lunch and then hot chocolate. After the first movie, we decided to do a Harry Potter marathon and watch one more. I didn’t really get to watch all of the second one as I was trying to prep dinner. I had invited Heather and Jed to come here for dinner. But late in the afternoon Heather sent a text asking if Sam would like to come help with the flooring. We quickly changed plans, packed the food in a big box, and headed to 43 Grasmere where I finished cooking while the last of the flooring for today was put down. We had oven roasted Pacific salmon for dinner. I fixed a giant skillet latke for the boys and oven roasted veggies and kale for Heather, Jed, and I. And we topped it off with an out-of-season pumpkin pie that made Ollie a very happy little boy. Pumpkin pie is his favorite. I have no idea what adventures await for tomorrow, but I’ll enjoy whatever.
