by Judy Handley | Nov 19, 2016 | Life After Windbird 2016 |
Life After Windbird, Day 99: Exploring the Outer Cape
Date: Saturday, November 19, 2016
Weather: Overcast and Misty; High 47, Low 34 degrees F
Location: At Home at the Studio, Falmouth, MA
Great day but too late to write much. We joined forces with Heather and the Goldpebbles to explore the Outer Cape today. We went to Marconi Beach in South Wellfleet to see the site where Italian inventor, Marconi, completed the first transatlantic wireless communication between the United States and England in 1903.
We then walked the mile and a half Atlantic White Cedar Swamp Trail where we encountered monkeys climbing in the trees.
The weather was not perfect—overcast and misty—but we persevered and had a great explore.
We then drove back toward home to the Salt Pond National Seashore Visitor Center
where we found a nice little museum of local history and watched a couple of videos—one about Marconi and one about the geologic formation of the Cape. We continued our trek back toward home and stopped in Orleans for lunch and a walk at the Kent’s Point Conservation Area.
Heather and Jon leave in the morning and then Kevin and Claire will fly home on Monday evening. We don’t yet have plans for tomorrow, but I’m sure we’ll find something interesting to do together.
by Judy Handley | Nov 18, 2016 | Life After Windbird 2016 |
Life After Windbird, Day 98: Having Fun with Kevin & Claire, Heather & Jon
Date: Friday, November 18, 2016
Weather: Sunny and Clear; High 55, Low 46 degrees F
Location: At Home at the Studio, Falmouth, MA
It was a fun day with Kevin and Claire and Heather and Jon. And Heather and Ollie joined us for lunch, so that added even more fun. After a big breakfast, we headed to Woods Hole to go to the aquarium and the WHOI Exhibit Center. We started at the aquarium for the seal presentation and then toured the aquarium. All of us were fascinated by the tiny sea horses.
After that, Claire gained entry for us all to tour the Marine Biological Lab building that houses holding tanks of critters that are sold to other research institutions. There was a big tank of skates and another one of skate egg cases. You could actually see the developing skate inside the case.
Squid, horseshoe crabs, sand dollars, and small sharks were among the list of critters in the other tanks. And after this, we headed to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Exhibit Center.
Heather and Ollie met us there and we all went to Quicks Hole Tavern for lunch. On the way home we made a stop at the Nobska Lighthouse
and when we got home, a down time was in order for all. Once we regained our energy, Kevin did the prep work for dinner and then Jon helped him grill the steaks.
Tomorrow we have decided to not go to Nantucket, but to stay on the Cape and do a little exploring. We are hoping to encourage Heather and boys to join us. Ollie told Heather he wanted to go with Oma’s friends to “explore the world”—so we’ll try not to disappoint.
by Judy Handley | Nov 17, 2016 | Life After Windbird 2016 |
Life After Windbird, Day 97: They’re Here
Date: Thursday, November 17, 2016
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High 53, Low 43 degrees F
Location: At Home at the Studio, Falmouth, MA
Hurray, hurray! Heather and Jon drove to Boston from Vermont, picked up Kevin and Claire at the airport, and they all arrived here by 9:15 this evening. I had a late dinner ready and we ate and talked and talked and talked. The five of us haven’t been together at the same time for eleven years, so this was a very special reunion. We made plans to go to Woods Hole tomorrow and maybe to Nantucket on Saturday. That is still to be determined. But whatever we do, we’ll have a great time.
I spent most of my day going to the grocery store and then cooking for the weekend. I took time out in the late afternoon to drive to Woods Hole to pick Ollie up from school and take him home. He was very jealous that I picked Sam and Jonah up three days this week, so today was his turn. As we were driving home he noted that Granddad always sat in the front passenger seat and now I have no passenger. Oh, how right he is. But I reminded him that he is now my passenger. He just went on to say that he really loved Granddad and that he misses him so much. Love that little munchkin.
by Judy Handley | Nov 16, 2016 | Life After Windbird 2016 |
Life After Windbird, Day 96: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
Date: Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 57, Low 43 degrees F
Location: At Home at the Studio, Falmouth, MA
There is a children’s book called, “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie . . .” And, of course, if you give a mouse a cookie, he is going to need glass of milk. And if you give him a glass of milk, he is going to need a napkin, and you can see how the story goes from there. Well, today, I rewrote that story. It went something like this. If you decide to clean the kitchen, then you are going to wipe down the glass mason jars full of nuts and seeds. And if you do this, you are most certainly going to drop one of those glass jars on the kitchen floor. And then you are going to have to clean up the mess . . .” And this goes on and on. Well, I did drop a quart jar of quinoa and the glass and tiny little quinoa seeds went everywhere. My kitchen floor is tile and when the glass jar hit the floor, glass flew all the way to the front door. And if you are not familiar with quinoa, the seeds are teeny, tiny and they also flew everywhere. I vacuumed and vacuumed, and still there were little seeds all over the floor. Needless to say, the clean-up was pain-staking. It made me think that cleaning is way over-rated because cleaning up the mess with my small shop-vac led to cleaning the shop vac and this led to cleaning something else, and on and on. That’s how my day went, until, thankfully, I had to go pick-up Sam and Jonah from school mid-afternoon. That ended the cleaning spree.
Tomorrow I will do a little cooking to get ready for visitors. Sure hope that goes more smoothly than cleaning.
by Judy Handley | Nov 15, 2016 | Life After Windbird 2016 |
Life After Windbird, Day 95: Homemade Apple Cranberry Juice
Date: Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Weather: Overcast and Rainy; High 58, Low 50 degrees F
Location: At Home at the Studio, Falmouth, MA
Heather was in Boston today, so I picked up Sam and Jonah after school and we headed home to make apple cranberry juice. As part of my ‘get healthy’ focus of the past few months, I bought a juicer. When Heather, Jed, and boys went to Maine over Columbus Day Weekend, they brought back apples from the very old apple trees on the family farm. The very next weekend was cranberry harvest time in the bogs here in Falmouth and we picked off the berries left behind by the professional ‘pickers.’ On Sunday when I was at Heather’s I saw that the last of the apples from Maine needed to be used, so I arranged with the boys to make juice from their Maine apples and our local cranberry harvest. When we first got home, we had to do homework. And by the time we got everything set up to make juice, Jed got home with Ollie. So all three boys were able to join in the fun.
And it was the perfect rainy afternoon for this indoor activity and it was raining outside. The boys really enjoyed de-stemming and cutting the apples in half and then putting them through the juicer. I had no idea if they would like the fresh apple juice. You know how kids are. They want everything store bought, not home-made. And Sam doesn’t eat fruit. But the apple juice was a definite winner. Hurray! We then tried juicing the cranberries and this was trickier than expected. You put the fruit in the top of the juicer and try to get the tamper in to prevent the fruit from being shot back out of the top. That was hard to do and we sometimes ended up with cranberries shooting back out at us. Of course, the boys loved that, but it made quite a mess. But what beautiful, bright red juice we got.
If you drink cranberry juice, you must have noticed that there is always added sugar or a mix of other juices, as on its own it is quite tart. But it was so beautiful that all three boys wanted to try it. It was tart, almost bitter, so they wanted to mix it with the apple juice. It was enjoyed by all. I felt bad that Jed was trying to cook dinner while we were finishing up our juicing experiment, but he tolerated our craziness and enjoyed the results as well. Everyone agreed that the cranberry apple was the favorite, even though it was on the tart side. I think it was because of the beautiful red color, but whatever, I’m just glad that all three boys liked homemade apple cranberry juice.
I went to the gym today to ride the recumbent bicycle and use some of the weight training machines. And I was quite surprised when I got there. When I was there a week ago I was told that construction of the new studio would begin in a day or two and that there would be no more classes until after the construction project was completed. But it hasn’t even started. I could have been going to classes all along. Supposedly it will start on Thursday of this week, but now I know to check the gym’s Facebook page for updates.
Tomorrow I will start getting ready for the arrival of friends on Thursday night. Kevin and Claire from Virginia, and Heather and Jon who are home visiting while their boat Evergreen waits for them in Spain, are coming to visit for the weekend. We all became friends when Mark and I lived aboard Windbird in Boston from 2003 to 2005 and we have remained close over the years. I’m old enough to be their mother, but regardless, we have always enjoyed a friendship as equals—blind to the age difference. It will be the first time we have all been together at the same time since 2005, so it will be a very special weekend.
by Judy Handley | Nov 14, 2016 | Life After Windbird 2016 |
Life After Windbird, Day 94: Delightful ‘Do What I Want to Do’ Day
Date: Monday, November 14, 2016
Weather: Sunny; High 59, Low 50 degrees F
Location: At Home at the Studio, Falmouth, MA
Today was a delightful day of doing just want I wanted to do—which was not much. I caught up on watching a number of health-related web programs and then this evening I went to Heather and Jed’s to spend time with Ollie while Jed took Sam and Jonah to their scout meetings. Heather is in Boston at a conference and will return tomorrow evening. So tomorrow afternoon I’ll go pick Sam and Jonah up after school and we are going to experiment with making apple cranberry juice from apples from Maine and cranberries from the neighborhood bog.
Got some great news from Puerto Rico late this afternoon. Justin and Jo have been trying to buy a house, the same house, for over a year and a half. The bank bureaucracy to get the loan has been crazy. But finally today they got the ‘approved’ email. I am so happy for them. That’s it from here for today.
