2022 Life Logs, Day 317: Dreary Sunday
Date: Sunday, November 13, 2022
Weather: Overcast with Rain; High 55, Low 34 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Overcast, gentle rains turning to downpours, periods of no rain, cool. Yes, it was a much more typical November day. Dreary, but sometimes a dreary, rainy day is good for the soul. I finished packing for Puerto Rico, picked some no rain times to walk with Shadow, turned the outside water off and removed the drip irrigation controller, installed a new carbon monoxide and dangerous gas monitor in the basement, replaced a carbon monoxide alarm in the upstairs of the cottage, replaced the screen with the storm window in the back door, but I didn’t get the hole in the front of the house repaired. That last one needs some explanation. Last week, Shadow and I kept hearing a loud pecking sound on the front of the house. When I heard the noise, I would go out and see a bird flying away. Then on Thursday, I was shocked to see that one of the cedar shingles on the front of the house was missing. And unfortunately, it was one of the shingles covering a two-inch diameter hole that Mass Saves drilled in order to fill the walls with insulation. They had covered the hole with white Styrofoam insulation so no critters could get in and then covered it with the shingle. I taped over the hole and thought it would be fine until I could deal with it. Then on Friday morning, I heard the tapping again and went out to see a very determined downy woodpecker flying away. The tape I had applied had blown off during the night, but I had to leave to go downtown for the Veterans Day ceremony, promising to come home and do something about this. When I got home, that little woodpecker had been very busy. She had drilled out the white Styrofoam and entered the hole and emptied as much of the blown in insulation as possible onto the ground. Unbelievable. I covered the hole with a cork coaster and fashioned a bird deterrent by cutting long strips in an Amazon bag and nailed it over the area. Saturday afternoon Jed gave me a sheet of shingle material, but I still need to cut it and put it in place. It was too rainy to deal with it today, so that is tomorrow’s job.

2022 Life Logs, Day 316: Cooler Weather Arriving Tomorrow
Date: Saturday, November 12, 2022
Weather: Sunny and Warm; High 73, Low 50 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

We have been enjoying a run of warm weather, but it looks like that ends tomorrow. The forecast going forward for the next ten days looks much more like November in New England—highs in the 40’s and 50’s with low’s in the 30’s. It’s time, but I will really miss the warm fall 70’s and 80’s there. I will get one more week of warmth!

I spent my morning packing for that trip and then this afternoon, Shadow and I took Sam and Jonah to Harwich for soccer try-outs for the next season. Since they are already on the team, they are assured a position, but all players were asked to come and play. It was a great afternoon to be on the soccer field.

When I got home, I took a close look at the garden. Monday night the temp is supposed to dip below freezing, so I picked the last of the tomatoes. There were just a few Matt’s Wild Cherry tomatoes, so I will savor those. Then Shadow and I went down by the water to play fetch and watched the sun go down, turning the white clouds a peachy pink. Not dramatic, just lovely.

2022 Life Logs, Day 315: Honoring Veterans
Date: Friday, November 11, 2022
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Warm; High 68, Low 63 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

The morning was spent honoring our Veterans, the early afternoon was spent helping Ollie do yard work at the Goldstones, and later in the afternoon, I took Sam to Hyannis to meet up with his friend Robert and took my little Fit to Lou’s Custom Exhaust garage to get an estimate on repairing a rusty flange in my exhaust system.

Each year I attend Falmouth’s parade and ceremony on Veterans Day. I started going because the Goldpebbles march in the parade with their Scout troops. I still go for that reason, but I also appreciate setting aside the time each year to give thanks to those who serve our country. I think the first time I attended Falmouth’s Veterans Day ceremony was in 2016. And my oh my, how the Goldpebbles have changed. Today, Ollie was in the Webelo Color Guard. In 2016, he was too young to participate, and I have a photo of him sitting on the library lawn proudly holding up a late season dandelion he discovered. Today, Jonah was also in the Color Guard for his Boy Scout troop. In 2016, he was a Cub Scout and marched alongside mom, who was also a troop leader. Today, Sam was the tallest Boy Scout in the parade. How did that happen?

It was warm today, but there was no sunshine. Tonight, we are supposed to get rain and wind from Tropical Storm Nicole. The clouds are holding the warmth. It is after 10 pm and it is still 66 degrees outside. It was even warmer earlier today. After the ceremony, I stopped by Heather and Jed’s to pick up big bags of leaves to bring home for my soil building project. I wanted to get them before the wind and rain predicted for tonight. Ollie had three big bags ready for me, but there were empty bags and lots of leaves, so I stayed while he filled more bags. I decided to help by mowing the leaves and Ollie emptied the lawn mower bag into the big paper bags. He also rode his little tractor while holding the leaf blower in order to blow the leaves where he wanted them. He is quite creative and a hard worker. We ended up with ten bags of leaves by the time I had to leave to take Sam to Hyannis. But Jed reported tonight that Ollie kept working and has more bags that he put in the garage for me to pick up tomorrow.

I picked Sam up from the fire station at 3:30 to take him Hyannis. He and Jonah were at the fire station attending the first in a series of first aid classes. I think he said there are seven more classes in order to get the First Aid badge. I delivered Sam to Barnes and Nobles to meet up with Robert and then headed to Lou’s Custom Exhaust. They can do the job, but I have to return to Hyannis early on Tuesday morning to have the work done. The good news was that the estimate I got this afternoon was $150 instead of the $2,000 it would cost to replace the whole system. Whew!

2022 Life Logs, Day 314: Dancing Leaves
Date: Thursday, November 10, 2022
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Windy; High 63, Low 54 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Today’s highlight was watching the piles of oak leaves swirling in the wind. They looked like they were dancing. At one point when Shadow and I headed down Debbie Lane to begin our walk, we were following the dancing leaves. Otherwise, it was just a day . . . early morning dental cleaning, running errands, playing with Shadow down by the water while being watched by our resident great blue heron, picking up Jonah and his big bass guitar after school, getting a muffler issue checked out, food shopping, and finally home. Tomorrow is Veteran’s Day and tomorrow night we are expecting gale force winds and rain from once Hurricane Nicole as she rolls northward as a storm. But by noon on Saturday, the rain and wind should have moved on leaving us with good weather for the remainder of the weekend.

2022 Life Logs, Day 312: Climate Hell
Date: Tuesday, November 8, 2022
Weather: Sunny, Windy, and Cool; High 57, Low 34 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said at the opening of COP27, the climate talks in Egypt, “We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator.” The words to the AC/DC 1979 song, ‘Highway to Hell’, need to be rewritten.

The full moon was bright last night, so bright that the first time I got up during the night and looked I, I thought it had snowed. The moonlight shining on the pebble driveway definitely looked like snow! But by 4:30 am when I got to see the eclipse underway, the moon was behind the trees and out of my sight. But never fear. My son Justin, along with Ziggy and Coco, got up early this morning and drove down to the ocean to capture the eclipse. Justin got a great photo just before the full eclipse, but when the eclipse was complete, the sun had come up and the moon entirely disappeared. Despite that, he relayed that it was a nice way to start the day.

And I made a decision to end my day once again focused on the moon. It was full yesterday, but still spectacular tonight. I went on an organized walk from Chapaquoit Beach to Black Beach with the 300 Committee. Olga Mitchell invited me to go along, and I am so glad I did. It was magical, especially viewing the full moon through the phragmites along the way and then viewing her from the beach with the sound of the waves washing ashore.

Watching the election returns. No comment . . . yet.

2022 Life Logs, Day 311: Newcomers Field Trip to the MFA
Date: Monday, November 7, 2022
Weather: Partly Sunny, Cooling Down; High 68, Low 41 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Early this morning, I was off to Boston with a few Newcomers on a field trip to the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston. When we arrived, Jane Woodin wanted to find the ruby and amethyst starfish brooch once owned by actress Claudette Colbert. It is about four inches across and very red, much like the sea stars I admired so much in Madagascar. Our next stop was a quick run through a favorite for both of us, the Impressionism galleries. I had to see my favorite, Monet’s Water Lilies (1907), and today I was fascinated with a much earlier painting, Flower Beds at Vétheuil (1881). As with the sea star brooch, it was the bold red blossoms that caught my eye. I left Jane in the Art of the Americas galleries as she toured Art and Jazz as I had a timed entry to a LIFE Magazine exhibit.

The LIFE Magazine and the Power of Photography special exhibit was a display of the work and thinking of former LIFE contributors, subjects of photo-essays, and contemporary artists that addressed LIFE’s collaborative editorial process. I was especially impressed with the work of Alfredo Jaar, a Chilean-born and New York City based artist, whose work is a deep criticism of the media in questioning the ethics of representation and the politics of images—role of the photographer as witness. I loved the quote on the wall above Jaar in a video presentation. “Never be afraid of the enormity of the possible.” Then there was the display of Alexandra Bell, whose work challenges how the news is reported, giving a critical view in this era of fake news. Alfredo Jaar and Alexandra Bell offer, through their work, a new way of thinking about contemporary media today. Needless to say, the exhibit was thought provoking.

There were two car loads of us visiting the museum, and after lunch, my group met outside the museum and asked someone to take a photo of us before we headed home. I made a pledge to return to the MFA more often. A quote from a book I read this summer sums up the feelings I had as we left. “Beautiful art opens our eyes to the beauty of the world. It repositions our sight and judgement.”

2022 Life Logs, Day 310: The Return of the Swans
Date: Sunday, November 6, 2022
Weather: Mostly Cloudy and Warm; High 73, Low 62 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

My winter entertainment has arrived. Today as I sat at my dining table, I heard a familiar sound. I looked out the back door down toward the water, and there they were. The swans have returned for the winter. I only saw two today, but more will come. All winter long, they glide up the canal that I can see through the windows in the back door. And when they reach the end of the waterway, they fly back, always catching my attention. I welcome them, but I don’t welcome the geese that are also returning. I hate the mess they make in the backyards down by the water where Shadow and I love to play fetch. I know I have to share my little slice of paradise, but couldn’t the geese find somewhere else to hang out?

Again, it was unseasonably warm today. I haven’t replaced the screen in the back door with storm glass just yet, so tonight I am sitting here with the back door open to try and cool down. This morning, I went out to do some leaf blowing. I was wearing a cotton long sleeved shirt and to complain about heat. I love it. But it was hot today and still is this evening. By Tuesday, the temp is going to go back down a bit for a couple of days, but then it will be back in the 60’s.
The climate conference in Egypt starts tomorrow. It is going to be interesting to see what happens this week. I don’t hold much hope, but I can’t stop hoping.

2022 Life Logs, Day 309: Fall Back
Date: Saturday, November 5, 2022
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Warm for November; High 71, Low 61 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

It is that one night of the year when we redeem the hour we lost in March when we had to spring our clocks forward, losing an hour. I like gaining back the hour, but I hate what it will mean tomorrow. It will be getting dark by 4:30 in the afternoon. Since I am not a morning person, gaining the hour in the morning will go unnoticed by me. I will find the next two months of late afternoon darkness depressing. I look forward to the winter solstice in December, the longest night, as it means the next day we start gaining extra seconds, then minutes, of daylight.

Tonight, my daughter Heather is somewhere between here and London. It will be morning there when her plane lands, so she plans to spend as much of the day as she can walking through London. She has an evening business meeting and then on Monday morning she flies to Egypt for the UN Climate Change Conference, COP27. My daughter-in-law Jo is exploring the rainforest in Costa Rico, and if her posts on Facebook are any indication, she is having a wonderful ‘explore’. I talked to Justin, Ziggy, and Coco in Puerto Rico via Skype video this evening, and they seem to be surviving the rainier than usual rainy season. And Jed and boys are all away at Boy Scout Turkey Shoot camping weekend. This is the one weekend a year they get to practice target shooting with rifles and bow and arrows in a very organized and safe environment. Jed sent a photo of Jonah after he won the Junior division in 22 rifle competition. Then there is me. I am right here in East Falmouth holding down the fort and continuing to enjoy this warmer than normal weather. It was in the low 70’s today. We didn’t have sunshine, but it was warm. Shadow and I went down by the water to play fetch. The tide was the lowest that I have ever seen it, so there was a lot of mucky marsh mud exposed. Shadow spotted a dead rabbit floating on the water and ran right down the bank and into the mud to try and get to the poor critter. I love the marsh, but not the black, sticky, stinky mud. That ‘explore’ by Shadow necessitated a trip to the bathtub to melt the mud away. Then we went back outside and Shadow ran around in the leaves as I used to leaf blower to clear the driveway. That’s it for news from here today.

2022 Life Logs, Day 308: Apple Sauce and Pumpkin Pie
Date: Friday, November 4, 2022
Weather: Still Warm and Sunny; High 68, Low 58 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Tonight, my dining in group met at Bruce and Jane Woodin’s home. I had volunteered to bring pumpkin pie and whipped cream, but then homemade applesauce got added to that. Peter and Karen Baranowski could not come, so Karen asked me to make the applesauce she was supposed to bring. She and Peter have been kidsitting their grandchildren in Norwood all week while their son and his wife are away. Their daughter was supposed to come from New York to take over them today so they could come home for tonight’s dinner. But then she got sick with a killer head cold. So, they are with the grandkids and I gladly made the applesauce and took it as well.

Dinner was fabulous. Jane and Bruce provided the main entrée, the best and most tender pork tenderloin any of us had ever had. Midge brought the roasted veggies and Terry and Olivia brought the appetizers. It was a good dinner, but not quite the same without everyone with us. We will meet again in early December here at the cottage, and I do hope everyone will be able to come to kick off the holiday season.

Late this afternoon Jed left with the three boys for Scout Turkey Shoot camping weekend. Heather leaves tomorrow for Egypt. So, I’m on my own until Sunday when Jed and the boys return. I might try to get some of the carpet of leaves under control tomorrow. Or maybe I’ll just enjoy yet another beautiful fall day.