Day 306, Year 7: Do Nothing Day
Date: Sunday, September 9, 2012
Weather: Rainy Day
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
It rained during the night and then off and on all day. It was not a heavy
rain, but it was enough to make you feel like you should stay inside and
curl up with a good book. We didn’t do that, but we did have a lazy day.
We made runs to the town dock for water early, but as the rain increased we
retreated back inside Windbird. Mark replumbed the salt water intake to the
forward head. This should also allow the salt water washdown hose in the
forward anchor locker to work again. We didn’t check that, but we will the
next time we bring up an anchor. I spent my day on the computer, backing up
photos and files from the past nine months. That used to be Mark’s job, but
I realized today that nothing has been backed up since December. In doing
this, I discovered yet another external hard drive that is no longer
functional. We think everything that was on it is backed-up elsewhere, but
it is frightening to think that you back up your precious files on these
external hard drives and they just stop working-even when they are brand
new. All of our old ones are still working, so that is a good thing.
In the late afternoon we went for a walk. Instead of walking around Eel
Pond as we often do, we decided to do a bit of exploring. We walked down to
the Coast Guard Station and out to Juniper Point. There is no public access
to this point of land, but we just ignored the No Trespassing Signs and walk
on. Then we walked on the main road towards Falmouth (Woods Hole Road). As
we walked we noticed these unbelievably beautiful berries on very prolific
vines. The berries looked iridescent in colors ranging from a light green
to robin egg blue to deep purple. Neither of us had ever noticed this vine
before, but when I looked it up I found that, although beautiful, it is an
invasive plant native to China, Korea, and the eastern part of Russia. It
was brought to the US in late 1800’s for landscaping purposes and it has
grown prolifically ever since. Evidently people like me who see it and
admire its great beauty have planted it in their yards and have been very
sorry when it has grown to take over everything. It is commonly called
porcelain vine and the scientific name is Ampelopsis brevipedunculata
‘elegans’. It is easy to see why it was named porcelain vine, as each litte
berry looks like a perfect porcelain pearl. I read that the berries are
edible, but I’ll have to look into that further before venturing to try
them. Besides, they are too pretty to eat! We continued our walk which
eventually brought us back to the village of Woods Hole. Once back on the
boat, we talked to our friends Donna and Gerry of Scot Free II. They are at
home in Vancouver trying to decide what to do about getting Scot Free back
home from Southeast Asia. Gerry had a stroke while in India, and although
he is regaining his strength, he no longer wants to sail long passages.
We’ll have to stay tuned to find out what they decide to do.
We talked to Heather today and found out that Oliver has developed a fever
that they are able to control with baby Tylenol. They are not sure of the
cause, but will be getting him to the doctor tomorrow to check things out.
Mark goes to work at 8:30 am, so I will take him in and head to Heather and
Jed’s to help Jed take care of Ollie while he is getting Sam off to school.
Monday morning is Heather’s on-air program, so she will head to Woods Hole
early and take Jonah to school. Monday mornings are the most challenging,
but at least they get the hardest part of the week over right at the
beginning.
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| 120909 Day 306 Cape Cod, USA–Late Summer Colors in Woods Hole |
