2022 Life Logs, Day 286: Bourne Farm AM, Sam to Rowing PM
Date: Thursday, October 13, 2022
Weather: Overcast, Windy, Rain Late Afternoon; High 66, Low 63 degrees
Location: At Home in the Cottage, Falmouth, MA
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the American chestnut tree was one of the largest, tallest, and fastest-growing trees in the forests in the eastern United States. Then they were taken from us by blight. This morning I had an 8 am annual dermatology check-up in North Falmouth and afterwards, I arranged to meet friend Kate Eldred at the Bourne Farm in West Falmouth for a long overdue walk. Shadow and I arrived early and parked facing the fields of the farm. Directly in front of me were three trees with people picking up something on the ground under the trees. I watched more carefully and realized these were young chestnut trees that were full of nuts, many of which had fallen to the ground and were being scooped up. Beyond the chestnut trees, people were picking pumpkins. And fields were filled with people walking their dogs. The farm, founded in 1775, was abuzz on this morning. It was overcast, but we still had a nice walk. We had to do a bit of back-tracking as more than once we came to dead ends on the trail, but we still had a nice walk with beautiful fall views.
About halfway through the walk, I looked down and saw red Indian pipe growing. I have always thought there is only white Indian pipe, but I Googled it and sure enough there is a red variety.
That was an exciting find.
By the time I got home, had lunch, and watched a bit of the Congressional Hearing, it was time to go pick up Sam and head to Harwich for rowing practice. We knew it was going to start raining at some point in the late afternoon. Sure enough, as soon as the boats got out on the water, the sky opened, and we had pouring rain for a bit. Then it calmed down and become more of a constant drizzle. Sam said no one minded the rain. They actually thought rowing in the rain was fun.
