by Judy Handley | Aug 1, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 213—It’s August . . . Yikes
Date: Wednesday, August 1, 2018
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Warm and Humid; High 80, Low 73 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I love summer, but somehow this one seems to be slipping away too quickly. Part of that is because we really didn’t have spring until June and it didn’t feel like summer until July. And part of it is because there has been no consistency this summer. Every week has been completely different, so it has been impossible to establish routines. But we are having fun and will try to make every day from now until the day school starts a very special day. Our plan for today was to go to swim lessons and then spend the afternoon at home just relaxing. But Sam and Jonah got an invitation to go play at a friend’s home which sounded way more exciting than relaxing to little boys. We’ll try for a quiet afternoon tomorrow, but somehow I’m not convinced that will happen. But whatever happens, it will be fun.
The last couple of weeks have been crazy busy and I have not had the time to post photos. I will go back and post those photos this weekend, but I thought I would share some of the best moments here. A photo opportunity capturing my whole family
. . . grandkids kayaking
. . . ice cream at Smitty’s
. . . the Goldstones at Highfield
. . . capturing photos of Jonah and Ziggy who hide from cameras these days
. . . photos of Coco’s birthday party in Puerto Rico
. . . digging clams with Rex and friend Peter Baranowski
. . . visiting with Rex and Diana
. . . the Goldpebbles enjoying lunch at Quicks Hole Taqueria
. . . Ollie frolicking in the water
. . . afternoon at Woodneck with Jeanne Harper and boys
. . . making summer memories.
by Judy Handley | Jul 31, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 212—Fabulous Beach Day
Date: Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Weather: Gorgeous, Sunny Day; High 81, Low 65 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It has been a busy few days . . . so busy that I am just now posting logs for today and the last two days. I wrote the logs, but just didn’t have time to send them.
Rex and Diana left early this morning. We said our farewells and then I was off for a day of Camp Oma. We went to Jonah’s swim lesson and enjoyed the low tide at Menauhant Beach on the sandbar. We were having such a good time but couldn’t stay as Ollie had an 11:30 am dentist appointment in Woods Hole. We left, promising that tomorrow morning we will spend the entire morning playing at Menauhant. While waiting for Ollie to return from his dental appointment, Sam, Jonah, and I bought lunch for all of us at the Woods Hole Market. Once Ollie was back with us, we took our lunch to the Bell Tower on the far side of Eel Pond and enjoyed a picnic lunch in the lovely Bell Tower gardens. Then it was on to Wood Neck Beach and Little Sippewissett Marsh. Neighbors, Cole and Leo and their mother Jeanne, joined us for the afternoon. The boys were in the water for a full four hours and had a wonderful time. At one point in the afternoon, a team arrived from the Woods Hole Science Aquarium to lead interested kids to join staff member in collecting specimens from the marsh. Jonah and Leo joined them and returned with crabs, eels, pipefish, and a couple of different kinds of small fish. While they did that, Cole and Sam spent time on the beach side of Wood Neck and Ollie spent all of his time practicing his new swimming skills. Heather joined us late in the afternoon which was special treat for the boys. It was an incredibly beautiful day making it perfect for beach time in one of the most beautiful spots on earth.
by Judy Handley | Jul 30, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 211—Happy Birthday to Coco
Date: Monday, July 30, 2018
Weather: Mostly Sunny Early, Overcast Late; High 82, Low 64 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Yesterday, my youngest grandchild, Coco Annabelle, celebrated her sixth birthday with friends. But today was her actual birth date and we had a Skype call where her Goldstone cousins and I sang happy birthday to her. Coco is such a happy child who brings so much joy to the world. Happy birthday, Coco!!!
My nephew Rex and his wife Diana are still visiting so I balanced the day between Camp Oma and visiting with Rex and Diana. After swim lessons, the Goldpebbles and I picked them up and headed to Woods Hole to have lunch at Quick’s Hole Taqueria. Rex has a quest to eat lobster as many ways as possible, so today we added lobster tacos and lobster quesadilla. While in Maine he had steamed lobster, lobster bisque, seafood stew with lobster, lobster roll, scallop casserole with lobster, and three other lobster dishes. In one vacation week he has had lobster ten different ways. Go, Rex! While in Woods Hole, we visited Jed’s lab and then headed to Menauhant Beach. Unfortunately, by the time we got there it was overcast, so we didn’t stay long. We ended our day at Heather and Jed’s where we had clam chowder and salad for dinner. I steamed the big clams from our huge Sunday clamming expedition and prepped the other ingredients for Heather who made the chowder. It was absolutely delicious. What a special treat! Thank you, Heather.
Rex and Diana will be heading home to West Virginia in the morning. It has been wonderful to have them here. Time together is always too short, but I cherish whatever time I have with family.
by Judy Handley | Jul 29, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 210—Rex and Diana Arrive
Date: Sunday, July 29, 2018
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 84, Low 67 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
My nephew Rex and his wife Diana arrived today. They just spent a vacation week in Southwest Harbor in Maine with friends and are on their way back home to West Virginia. They will just be here a couple of days, but I always enjoy their visits. This afternoon Rex and I went clamming. Friend, Peter Baranowski, went with us and with his expert advice, we made quite a haul. Rex had never been clamming and he was quite good at it.
We had five dozen small clams for dinner and tomorrow we will steam the larger clams to make clam chowder. Tonight Heather and family joined us for dinner. We had steak kabobs, local corn, salad from my garden, all topped off with strawberry rhubarb pie. Love summer food!
by Judy Handley | Jul 28, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 209—A Day All to Myself
Date: Saturday, July 28, 2018
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Some Rain; High 82, Low 67 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I spent a day to myself catching up on paperwork, doing some gardening, cleaning the house, grocery shopping, and getting ready for my nephew Rex and his wife Diana to arrive for a short visit. And then I spent my evening watching a movie. Not my normal day, but it was a delightful change of pace.
by Judy Handley | Jul 27, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 208—Art and Science Walk at Highfield Hall
Date: Friday, July 27, 2018
Weather: Sunny and Warm; High 84, Low 69 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Fridays are free of any lessons or sports practice, so I have been thinking of them as Free Fridays. So, it is the one day of the week when the boys don’t have to be whisked out the door to swim lessons. They enjoy a slow start to the day, playing games and just relaxing.
But today we decided to take an afternoon walk at Highfield Fall with Heather and Jed.
Highfield Hall is an historic site here in Falmouth and serves as a cultural center for the community.
This summer they offer an Art and Science Walk. There are 12 science-related art pieces scattered around the Highfield Hall grounds to be discovered in a scavenger hunt manner. It was so special that Heather and Jed could join us and I think everyone enjoyed the walk. Heather, Ollie, and I really enjoyed a stainless steel sculpture named Pollinate. We imagined that we saw a very busy bee pollinating a flower. Then that flower became a bird. When Jonah joined us, he said he saw a dog. Then we moved to the cast bronze botanical fainting couch. The twenty-six letters of the alphabet that form the chair are each imprinted with plant textures.
For instance, A is for Acer (maple tree), B is for Begonia, and C is for Comptonia (sweetfern). Our favorite was K for Krasheninnikovia which is winterfat. None of us had any idea what that might me, but we all loved the word. I looked it up tonight and it is a type of amaranth. The special thing was that there was a map showing where many of the plants were located on the property. We visited the main garden where we enjoyed watching funnel web spiders
and just enjoyed the beauty.
We enjoyed seeing Pangea which is a glass mooring ball and as we walked in the woods adjacent to the property we discovered Migration, a terra cotta sculpture of migrating fish,
Tumblestar which was steel sea stars painted with acrylic paint where everyone did their best to look like a sea star,
and a rope main lift line from Alvin. It was biggest rope I have ever seen in my life and very heavy!
Finally the Chimes and Musical Instruments made of anodized aluminum. The boys, as well as Heather and Jed, loved playing the instruments which made such beautiful sounds.
Heather had to return to work and Jed headed home to work on the upstairs bathroom project. Sam went with Jed, but Ollie, Jonah, and I drove downtown get a shellfish permit so we can go clamming. That ended up to be a frustrating experience as I was told that I do not exist in the city data-base. Since I know that I pay excise tax and that I have bought permits for the beach and the city dump in the past few months, I found it very frustrating that they could not find my name today. I finally asked that they look under Mark’s name, and there I was a secondary listing. Since this has not been a problem in the past two years since Mark’s death, Jonah decided the problem arose when I moved in May. He might be right, but it is something I need to deal with through Motor Vehicles according the woman at City Hall. Frustrating! But we got the permit and traveled on to the French bakery to get a treat for the Goldstones to enjoy after dinner tonight or in the morning. And then before returning home, we went to Smitty’s to get an ice cream treat to celebrate the half-way point of summer. The Goldpebbles, plus myself and Heather and Jed, can hardly believe that this ten-week summer is half over. It has gone by so quickly, but in our celebration this afternoon, we pledged to enjoy each day as we move forward and to do our best to slow-down time.
