2020 Life Logs, Day 316: Rainy Day Activities
Date: Thursday, November 12, 2020
Weather: Rainy; High 64, Low 47 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, Falmouth, MA
Yesterday’s mist turned to real rain last night and still continues. It is not a hard rain, just a constant drip drop. According to Weather Underground, today was one degree warmer than yesterday, but it sure felt chillier. The rain is forecast to continue through tomorrow and the temp is supposed to drop by ten degrees and get even cooler through the next week. Next Wednesday is supposed to have a high of 40 and a low of 26 degrees F. Time to break out the fall sweaters!
There was a Newcomers monthly meeting this morning on Zoom. I tuned in for the 30-minute business meeting and then an hour presentation by a Massachusetts cranberry grower. Dawn Gates Allen led us through a year in the life of a cranberry. The United States is the world’s leading cranberry producer. There are five states that grow cranberries and Massachusetts used to lead the pack. But it has now been surpassed by Wisconsin. Wisconsin produces half of the cranberries in this country, followed by Massachusetts producing another third. Washington, Oregon, and New Jersey produce most of the rest. Cranberries are native only to North America, although China is trying to get into the cranberry market. Cranberries are one of three commercially grown crops—cranberries, blueberries, and Concord grapes–that are native to the United States, and all three are native to Massachusetts. I gained a greater appreciation for the organically grown cranberries that I buy. There are a couple of insects that make the use of pesticides almost a necessity. I would love to learn how the organic growers get around the use of pesticides.
It was after 11:30 when the program wrapped up and Shadow was waiting patiently for his morning walk. It was raining, but not hard enough to keep us from doing our daily mile. Then I launched into a photo book project for Ollie. I promised to get a book made for him about yesterday’s tour of the Mayflower II and Plimoth Patuxet. Normally, all Falmouth third graders would be going on this field trip. But because of Covid, there are no school field trips this year. So, Ollie wanted to share his trip with his whole class. I had barely hit the send button to CVS to get a same day book printed when it was time to go pick Ollie up after school. I took him home and headed back to my house to spend the last few minutes of daylight with Shadow. And I had a phone call from my good friend Leslie Kole in New Hampshire. I haven’t talked to her since August, so we had lots of catching up to do. She has a brand new puppy, a female cockapoo named Quinn. She is very excited but struggling with those first few weeks of training with a new puppy. By the time I got off the phone with Leslie, it was time to go back to the CVS in town to pick up the photo book for Ollie. I delivered the book and asked him to proofread it to make sure Oma had not made any mistakes. He was very excited and took the proofreading job very seriously. He found only one error. I wrote that he was ‘sitting’ on a rock when he was actually ‘leaning’ on the rock. I told him that I hoped he might be the only person who notices that mistake. What a careful eight-year-old proofreader!
