by Judy Handley | Jun 25, 2020 | 2020 Life Logs |
2020 Life Logs, Day 176: Afternoon at Wood Neck
Date: Thursday, June 25, 2020
Weather: Sunny; High 81, Low 66 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It was a beautiful day. I spent the morning running errands and spending time with Shadow. Then at 1 pm I headed to the Goldstones to pick up Sam, Jonah, and Ollie and head to the beach.
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We went to Wood Neck, my favorite beach as it has both waves on the shore of Buzzards Bay and the beautiful Little Sippewissett Marsh where you can spend hours exploring. We usually set up our things on the marsh side and that is what we did today. Soon after we arrived, a family that was using our favorite spot left and we moved to what the boys call The Living Room. The view from there is of the entire marsh. Jonah, Ollie, and I walked through the water and back into the marsh and eventually Sam joined us. Jonah brought the Moray boogie board that was Justin’s when he was a teenager. Everyone had a great time running and jumping onto the board and surfing across the water. That boogie board is over 25 years-old and is still going strong. Near the end of the afternoon, we returned to The Living Room home base, where I sat with the sun at my back watching the boys build a sand fortress on a little islet.
Tomorrow is finally the last day of school for the boys and it is Jonah’s birthday. If the weather cooperates, we’ll spend the afternoon at the beach again and then have a family birthday dinner. Jonah is excited about that, but he is really excited that he will get to see three of his friends at a party on Saturday that Heather has planned to be Covid-friendly.
by Judy Handley | Jun 24, 2020 | 2020 Life Logs |
2020 Life Logs, Day 175: Skate Park and Water Work & Play
Date: Wednesday, June 24, 2020
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High 79, Low 66 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It was a cloudy day with some patches of sunshine, but because of the weather, the Goldpebbles weren’t interested in going to the beach. But they did want to return to the Skate Park. Heather was hosting a webinar from home this afternoon, so we decided that we would leave her in peace for the whole afternoon. The plan was to go to the Skate Park and then head to my house where Ollie would have his 3:45 pm violin lesson on Skype. We went to the Skate Park, but by 2:45 pm everyone was ready to leave. We then headed to my house.
Sam was interested in making some money by cleaning out the roof gutter on the front side of the cottage, so we launched into that project. The hose attachment that the Baranowski’s loaned me for gutter cleaning looks like a very long, extendable cane. You put the curved part in the gutter and turn on the water full blast. Sam was super excited about having a water battle using the attachment after we finished our job. It wasn’t much of a battle as a regular hose with a spray attachment was absolutely no challenge. But all three boys enjoyed seeing just how far they could shoot a stream of water with the attachment. Best water gun ever.
by Judy Handley | Jun 23, 2020 | 2020 Life Logs |
2020 Life Logs, Day 174: Free and Easy Day
Date: Tuesday, June 23, 2020
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 80, Low 67 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It was a free and easy day. The Goldpebbles were busy with various activities this afternoon, so I stayed home and just watched the day roll by. I did wash and wax my car and I vacuumed out the inside. Peter and Karen Baranowski came by to drop off groceries for the aunties and Karen invited me to come to her house around 4 pm to check out all of their new landscaping. I love one of their new trees called a Harry Lauder Red Walking Stick. It has fabulous dark red leaves and a trunk and branches that twist and turn like a corkscrew. It is interesting in the summer with the leaves on, but I can’t wait to see it in the winter with no leaves.
The new landscaping all looks great, but the highlight of the visit was sitting with Karen on the their porch and watching the amazing array of bird life at the feeders—woodpeckers, downy and red-headed; finches—yellow and purple, red-winged blackbirds, chickadees, cardinals, mourning doves, juncos, a Baltimore oriole I missed, but Karen saw, and the most beautiful little hummingbirds. With rabbits hopping along under the trees surrounding one of the feeders, it looked like a scene from a Beatrix Potter book. My only regret was that I didn’t have my camera with me. I took a few photos with my phone, but it is not great at distances. With or without photos, it was a delightful time.
by Judy Handley | Jun 22, 2020 | 2020 Life Logs |
2020 Life Logs, Day 173: Gardening and Skate Park
Date: Monday, June 22, 2020
Weather: Foggy Morning, Partly Cloudy Afternoon; High 74, Low 63 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It was another foggy morning, but the fog didn’t clear by noon as it has on most days recently. The overcast skies persisted into the afternoon.
Eventually we got a little sunshine, but it just didn’t feel like a beach day. So, after lunch, I persuaded the Goldpebbles to go to the Skate Park for an hour or so. We made a stop at the downtown skateboard shop on the way and I bought a trick skateboard to add to our repertoire of skate park equipment. Sam has a long skateboard, but that is not what is needed at the Skate Park. The new board ended up to be a great addition to the two scooters that we have. Both scooters are old and need to be replaced, but for today, at least, each of the boys had something to ride on. We basically had the whole park to ourselves and we all enjoyed our little outing. Sam used the new skateboard most of the time while Ollie and Jonah used the scooters. Fun time.
I came home to do a little cooking and finish a gardening project I began this morning. I restrung the bean tower that will serve as a trellis for the vining luffa sponge plants, put it in an area I cleared in Shirley’s landscaped area next door, and planted the seedlings I started inside in early May. Hopefully the plants will like the sunny spot and I will get lots of luffa sponges in the fall. These can be used as you would use any sponge. So, if I get a good crop it will be fun to experiment with different ways of using them.
by Judy Handley | Jun 21, 2020 | 2020 Life Logs |
2020 Life Logs, Day 172: Happy Father’s Day and Happy Birthday to Jo
Date: Sunday, June 21, 2020
Weather: Overcast Early, Then Sunny; High 80, Low 63 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Here’s hoping all of you fathers out there had a wonderful Father’s Day. And a very special Happy Father’s Day to the fathers of my grandchildren, Justin and Jed. I know Justin spent his day at the beach where Jo tried out her new paddleboard birthday gift from Justin. And I know Jed spent his afternoon at the beach because I was with him. We had a great time and I’m hoping that Justin, Jo, and kids also had a great day. Happy Birthday, Jo.
This morning I delivered the strawberry-rhubarb pie that I made for Jed for Father’s Day. Jed is still recovering from the biking accident he had recently, so he was the only Goldstone that did not participate in the 5k run for the Falmouth Education Association this morning. This fundraiser is usually a run on the waterfront and through the adjoining neighborhoods in Falmouth Heights. But because of the coronavirus, the run was done informally in various neighborhoods and parts of town. Heather and boys ran and biked in their neighborhood. I arrived shortly after the end of the race and was convinced by Sam that I needed to join in for a family afternoon at the beach. They had decided to go to Quissett so I could bring Shadow, so I headed back home to get things ready for the afternoon.
It was a beautiful and very warm afternoon with lots of people on the beaches. Unfortunately, when the Goldstones arrived at Quissett there was no place to park. They called me and told me to stay put. They were going to check out Menauhant and let me know if we could meet there. But that was also a no go because there was no place to park. The backup to the backup was my suggestion to try Callie’s Beach off a dirt road in Mashpee. This beach is on Waquoit Bay. I was introduced to it by Karen and Peter Baranowski and on weekdays there are usually very few people there. It was a little crowded on one end of the beach today, but on far end, there were only a couple of other families. I was able to take Shadow with me to this beach and we had a lovely afternoon. It is very shallow, so the boys could walk and snorkel far out into the bay. The boys were able to get Shadow to come out into the water a little ways with them, but he always headed back to shore to bury himself in the sand. I’m beginning to think he didn’t get the water gene. The boys and Jed and also launched into building sandcastles all along the water’s edge.
Before I left for the afternoon at the beach, I delivered a strawberry-rhubarb pie to the aunties next door and I got Shirley’s permission to plant my luffa sponge plants in her landscaped garden which gets full sun all day. I have no place in my yard that gets full sun, so I am very excited about getting Shirley’s permission to plant on her side of the driveway. I’m hoping to get that planting job done tomorrow. This evening when I got home from the beach, I gave Shadow a much needed bath to get rid of all that sand and then I headed down to the dock with him so he could dry off in the sunshine.
It was after 6 pm and at that time of day, the only sunny spot is down by the water. I love sitting on the dock in the sun, so we enjoyed almost an hour of drying time. Then it was back to The Cottage so I could bake a strawberry-rhubarb pie for myself. I watched a Masterpiece Theatre double-header and just had my first piece of that pie. It did not disappoint. But what was disappointing was that I had to spend part of the evening trying to deal with a computer issue. Something is blocking my email from coming into my Outlook account. I can get email on my phone but can’t get into it on the computer. Unfortunately, I will have to continue with that issue tomorrow.
