2021 Life Logs, Day 137: Walk, Talk, Watch
Date: Monday, May 17, 2021
Weather: Sunny and Warm; High 72, Low, 52 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
What a day. I was all over the place, both physically and mentally. I started the day with a walk with friend Olga Mitchell. Olga is in her mid-80’s and recently lost her husband. She is also a woman her spent her life working for the Bell Lab as a physicist and loves nothing more than doing loops and spins in her Decathlon aerobatic plane that she keeps in her garage. She lives in the Falmouth Airpark and can drive her plane from her garage onto a fairway that leads out to the main airstrip. And she walks like she flies. We walked at least two to three miles in in an hour and half on the paths through the woods near her home. And when we got back, I was astounded by the shitake mushroom ‘forest’ she has growing on oak logs outside her garage and a worm farm with more garden worms than I have ever seen. I wish I had half of her energy. She is an amazing woman.
I got home just in time to take Shadow for his morning mile, had lunch, and headed into town to talk with Jerry Lanson. Jerry is a Professor Emeritus at Emerson College, and a former newspaper editor, reporter, columnist. I signed up for his Newcomers Memoir Writing Class last year and he encouraged me to start writing in earnest about the Voyage of Windbird. I haven’t talked to him since I did start writing in earnest in January of this year, so today’s conversation was about how things are going. We met at Coffee Obsession, outside in the beautiful weather, amongst others outside and unmasked. It seemed so normal! He asked one question that I did not answer out loud as I answered in my head. He asked who I perceive to be the target audience of my book. In my head I thought, “People who believe in fairy tales.” Out loud I answered, “People who enjoy adventure and travel.”
But then tonight I got a text from Sam and Dawn on Windbird. They wanted me to know that they had finished getting Windbird ready to be put on the market. She is in North Myrtle Beach, where we left her in the February of 2016 and where they first saw her and purchased her. The same agent and friend that sold her to them for Mark and I is the same agent and friend who will attempt sell her this time. They sent photos and she looks great. And they wanted me know that I will always be their “sailing fairy godmother.” Maybe the book I am writing really is a fairy tale! It is certainly the story of a woman who was incredibly reluctant to sail around the world and transformed into a woman who thought sailing around the world was the most wonderful way to see the world and get to know her people.
I picked Ollie up after school and he came home with me to cut the grass in Shirley’s side yard before I took him home. While he was cutting the grass, I played ball with Shadow. Then when I took him home, I got to see the kittens, Mel and Leo, at play. They are doing great and are so much fun to watch. And then I came home to quickly get dinner for Shadow and for myself and tune into a Zoom presentation presented by the Harwich Conservation Trust. It was advertised as a presentation to help you learn how native plantings can create a more inviting and healthier yard for birds, beneficial insects, and other wildlife. The talk was by Doug Tallamy who has written bestsellers on enhancing your eco-friendly yard. His books include Nature’s Best Hope and Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens. I was definitely convinced that turning your yard into a native plant haven is well worth the effort—less grass and more native plants.
