by Judy Handley | Oct 14, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 287: Falmouth’s 1st Indigenous Peoples Day Observance
Date: Monday, October 14, 2024
Weather: Overcast with Rain; High Temp 61, Low 31 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
After a fabulous few days with Kevin and Claire visiting, they left this morning, and not long after they headed out, I headed downtown with Heather. Each year since 2021, Falmouth’s Select Board has proclaimed the second Monday in October to be Indigenous Peoples Day. Today, however, was the first official program. It was a wonderful reminder that here in Falmouth we live on the sacred homelands of the Wampanoags, the People of the First Light. Today’s program honored the culture and history of the people who lived in the Americas before Christopher Columbus’s arrival. Many Massachusetts cities and towns have changed the name of this holiday to Indigenous Peoples Day, but it is not yet a statewide mandate.
The rest of my day was spent focused on getting ready for Wednesday’s Encore general meeting. Then this evening Heather invited me over for dinner. Jed has been in Maine at his mother’s summer home in Boothbay since Friday and today he and his mother Marti drove here from Boothbay in separate cars. Tomorrow Jed will drive Marti home to Washington, DC, in her car and then fly back home on Thursday. It was great having the time to visit with Marti over dinner tonight.
The house feels so empty tonight as I sit here writing this log. For the past couple of evenings, as I sat here, Kevin and Claire were in the dining room practicing the songs for the upcoming sing along at a friend’s wedding. I should listen to music more often as it truly soothes the soul. I just heard from Claire that they made it safely to their next destination and had a wonderful Ethiopian vegan dinner with their friend in Brooklyn. Their staunch dedication to eating a vegan diet always inspires me when they visit. I don’t intend to become a vegan as I still eat fish. But each year when they visit, I rededicate my efforts at eating a diet that is good for me and good for the planet. They are definitely a good influence!
by Judy Handley | Oct 13, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 286: A Marathon Kind of Day
Date: Sunday October 13, 2024
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Rain Late; High Temp 59, Low 56 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
As I started off on my walk with Shadow this morning, I heard Kevin and Claire from behind me saying good morning. They had been out for their morning run and were almost home when they saw me in the distance. They caught up and decided to walk with me and my Shadow. I was headed to Mullen-Hall School to check out the Cape Cod Marathon finish line. Kevin and Claire had arrived at the starting line earlier and got to hear the brass band send off for the runners. But back to the finish line, as we were watching some of the 5K runners come in, we spotted Sam giving out mylar thermal blankets to runners at the end of the race. And then I took a closer look and saw Jonah and his friend Kaden doing the same. They had volunteered to come help with the set up of the finish line area at 6:30 am and when that was completed, they were asked to stay and hand out the blankets. Claire picked up a few of the discarded blankets to take back to Mexico. She covers their motor home with them to help insulate it from the sun, a great reuse of the blankets.
Speaking of Mexico, the rest of the day was spent participating in another ‘marathon’— getting the camper van packed to head to Mexico. They will leave here tomorrow morning, and after a few more stops, they will head west and south to the border. When they drive away, I am always sad that I won’t see them for another year, but we always make the best of our short time together.
by Judy Handley | Oct 12, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 285: Cranberry Harvest
Date: Saturday October 12, 2024
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 71, Low 41 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
Check … Northern Lights. Check … Cranberry Harvest. Claire had both these items on her bucket list and during her visit here, we have been able to check off both of them. She wants to see a New England coyote. Our coyotes are not pure. They are a mix of coyote, wolf, and dog. One source on Google says, “Coyotes in the Northeast are mostly (60%-84%) coyote, with lesser amounts of wolf (8%-25%) and dog (8%-11%).” I don’t know if that is accurate, but it is close enough. After my experience with Shadow yesterday, I’m steering clear of coyotes for a bit, but hopefully Claire gets to see one tomorrow.
This morning, Kevin, Claire, Heather, Olga, and I walked in the Coonasmessett River Restoration. The sky was Cape Cod blue and it was sunny and warm. There are some maple trees in the Reserve, and they were gloriously red.
The most exciting thing of the day happened on the way to the Coonemessett Reserve. When I went to pick up Olga, I drove by the bogs on Old Barnstable Road at the intersection with Old Meeting House Road. I saw that the bogs on the west side of the road were flooded with water, which at this time of year usually means they are ready to start harvesting. After our walk, on my way back from taking Olga home, I drove by again and saw that the harvesting was underway in one of the bog sections back from the road. Bingo! Claire got her wish. We parked and walked back to where they were harvesting. I let Claire take my phone to take photos as she had left her phone at home, and she delighted in taking photos and videos of the process. She can now check that one off her bucket list.
The first cranberry harvest I witnessed was in early October of 2013. Mark and I were at Heather to take care of 18-month-old Ollie for the day when we heard machinery. Heather was at home and we asked what the noise was all about. She knew right away it was cranberry harvesting, so Mark and I put Ollie in his stroller and headed for the bogs. It was exciting to watch for the first time, but over the years, I still marvel at the beauty of the harvest each year.
For dinner tonight, I made one of Claire’s recipes from a cookbook she is compiling called Plant-Based Cooking for tiny kitchens. This recipe is her version of Shepherd’s Pie made with lentils instead of ground beef. It is called Gardener’s pie and it is delicious. I now have a plant-based substitute for one of my favorite comfort foods. Thank you, Claire! And I have to thank her a second time for the new address sign at the head of my driveway. No one can ever find my driveway, so this morning at a give away yard sale around the corner from my house, Claire pointed out a wooden whale painted red. It was exactly what I have been looking for the past year to put out front so I can tell people to turn at the red whale. I love it.
by Judy Handley | Oct 11, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 284: Work, Play, Music, and a Coyote Chase
Date: Friday October 11, 2024
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 61, Low 56 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
With all of the excitement of the northern lights last night, today seemed quite calm. Kevin and Claire did some of the tasks on my to do list for me and I managed to once again spend much of day dealing with Encore business and dealing with more issues for my sister. The issues are small, but the time taken to deal with them just keeps piling up.
Kevin woke up this morning with an allergic reaction, possibly to all of the falling leaves. By afternoon he needed a nap, and while he slept, Claire and I continued to work. She was putting the finishing touches on a playlist that she and Kevin will use to lead a sing-along one evening at a friend’s wedding they are attending next weekend. The wedding takes place in a remote AMC center in the Kittatinny Mountains where the Appalachian Trail winds northward through western New Jersey. Evenings will probably be spent outside around a campfire, so Claire thought that putting this playlist together and leading the singalong would make a special gift for their friends. They spent this evening practicing around the dining room table while I was puttering about in the kitchen.
But when they were singing ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love with You’, it stopped me in my tracks. It was so beautiful it made me cry. They both have beautiful voices and in combination with Claire’s flute accompaniment and Kevin on the ukelele their rendition of that song was just so special. They finally got me to sing along when they played ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’. Claire explained that playing the flute and ukelele are newly learned skills for them. A few years ago, they were aboard their sailboat Merganser spending the night tied to a dock on Smith Island in Chesapeake Bay. The couple on the only other boat on the dock were playing the mandolin and singing. They decided then and there that they would someday do that. I have known Kevin and Claire for over 20 years, but I didn’t know until tonight what an amazing musical talent Kevin possesses. He can listen to a song a few times and come away knowing the lyrics and can then play the song on the ukelele without ever having seen the music. Claire has been making a list of the songs he knows by heart. That list is nearing 400 songs, and she knows there are many more. Amazing.
In the late afternoon, I was outside playing ball with Shadow. While we were in the backyard, a coyote started walking into our yard from the empty lot behind us. Shadow took off like a streak of lightning to chase the coyote away, and I took off running after Shadow trying desperately to stop him. I knew if the coyote turn on Shadow, there would be nothing I could do. Then the chase became a stare down. When the coyote would stop and turn to stare at Shadow, Shadow would stop. But as soon as the coyote took off again, Shadow was after him. Finally, on one of the stops, I finally got hold of Shadow’s collar and practically had to drag him back to the house. I am going to have to start putting Shadow’s electronic training collar on him when we go outside to play. He does stop and come when I use that, but I have never had to use it for a coyote chase.
by Judy Handley | Oct 10, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 283: Northern Lights in Falmouth
Date: Thursday October 10, 2024
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Cooler; High Temp 59, Low 42 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
Wow! While Kevin, Claire, and I were out walking Shadow this evening, Claire looked up and saw that the sky to our left was glowing red. She asked if I knew what might cause that. Could it be Arora Borealis? I didn’t think so, but I called Heather to see if she knew. She confirmed that indeed we were supposed to be able to see the northern lights tonight. Due to a geomagnetic storm that could reach Earth today, yesterday NOAA announced that the northern lights might be visible over much of the country tonight. Claire had never seen them before, and she was super excited. Kevin, with his wonderful sense of humor, thanked me for arranging this specular event while they are visiting. We were just so lucky to be outside walking and have Claire notice the sky. Mark and I saw green-colored northern lights when we were in Alaska in 1974 but seeing them around the corner from my house on Cape Cod was thrilling.
The first photo I took at 7:26 pm was just a quick point and click with my phone’s camera and I was elated that it came out great.
It captured perfectly the deep pinkish red color that we could see with our naked eyes. We walked up and down the street to try and get a better view and then I suggested we abort the walk and drive down to Falmouth Beach. By the time we got there, the deep pinkish red was no longer visible to the naked eye, but we saw other people with their phones pointed to the sky. We walked to the end of the beach to get away from the streetlights and then we could see the faint outline of what we thought might be the lights. So, I pointed my camera in that direction and the camera could ‘see’ much more clearly than we could. I changed the setting on the camera to nightlight that takes a photo over a 3 to 5 second period of time and that captured the lights.
But I must admit that as beautiful as the photos were, seeing the red sky when Claire first noticed it was the truly exciting moment.
When we got home, Claire and I stayed outside and took more photos, capturing my house and their ‘house’ in the photos.
I am not sure what I can arrange for tomorrow to top seeing the northern lights tonight, but I thought out loud that it would be amazing if the cranberry bog harvest started tomorrow. I don’t think we can possibly be that lucky, but I can hope.
by Judy Handley | Oct 9, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 282: Encore Board Meeting, Kevin and Claire Arrive
Date: Wednesday October 9, 2024
Weather: Partly Sunny; High Temp 63, Low 44 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
Kevin and Claire arrived late this afternoon and it is so good to be with them again. I spent a good deal of the afternoon fixing stuffed acorn squash and a green bean casserole, both vegan. There are so many reasons I love having Kevin and Claire come to visit, and one of them is that we share a love of eating healthy food. Each time they visit, they leave a trail of new and wonderful ideas for living a healthy lifestyle. After dinner, we took Shadow for a walk and then came back and spent time catching up on happenings in our lives. That, of course, will continue tomorrow.
My morning was spent in a Encore Board meeting. That was over a little before noon, but then one of our webmasters came home with me to go over a website tour she will do at our general meeting next week. We have two webmasters, and they do fantastic job on keeping the Encore website up-to-date and interesting. The purpose of the website tour at next week’s meeting is to try and get more members familiar with that wonderful resource.
Lastly, Hurricane Milton has come ashore on one of the barrier islands near Sarasota. The amount of damage won’t be known until tomorrow morning. But it is clear that the damage will be severe and widespread. My thoughts are with the members of Mark’s family, and all Floridians affected by this storm.
