Thanks Raw_Boston for featuring some of my work!
Category: Scenic Photography
A Case of the Mondays
For the start of the week I finally decided to swap in some new hydroponics. The lettuces we had growing there were mostly used up by now, from me either eating them or giving away some of the leaves for a friend’s Guinea Pig pets. So this time around I’m mostly going with herbs such as chives, mint, parsley, lemon basil and oregano. Also had an extra spot so I stuck in a mini cherry tomato. If it all goes to plan they should start sprouting in a bout a week or so. I find that herbs and lettuce do the best in this little hydroponic garden of ours.
Been trying a new meal kit delivery service but so far this one hasn’t been impressive. It seems like they are all kind of the same after a while. They generally start out good but sooner or later, something goes awry with the shipping or you just get bored with the choices. I did learn how to cook a bunch of things though so it has been somewhat educational for me and given me skills that I can use to cook up own own creations or even just recreate some recipes that they’ve shown me in the past.
Would like to try to get through a bunch of little things tonight. Work is changing their communication systems over to Google from Zimbra so I need to go through some setup and change a couple of passwords and such for that to work. Set up 2FA, all that fun stuff. I’ve been putting it off because I had changing settings but if I don’t do it by early October I won’t be able to log in. Speaking of work, they’re also changing up their CPR scheduling so we all have to take that again in a month or so even though we just had it a few months ago but that’s cool.
I caught some of some local documentary yesterday entitled Chet’s Last Call which was about a Boston dive club just above another dive bar called the Penalty Box where Mafia guys hung out across from the Boston Garden in the 80s that hosted local bands. It was sort of a dedication to the bar’s owner, named Chet, who gave a lot of these groups a chance. This was 20 years before I had gotten interested in the local scene so most of this was before my time but some famous type groups who did play there were the Beastie Boys, Hüsker Dü, Bim Skala Bim and the Mighty Bosstones. It was sort of interesting, it definitely was a very different time. Anyways it got me in a Boston remembrance state of mind so I’m reposting this photo from Beacon Hill. I also spent some time at the gym to watch LD do her swimming thing. She invited me to see her do her thing so I obliged. She’s doing great and loves it so much. I found my old ‘All the Feels’ shirt so I wore that trying to make a statement.
Which brings to mind my next point. Is this blog getting stale? Feel like I really haven’t put up any interesting content in a while.
Went (Yacht Club) Clubbing
Earlier in the day started watching an old movie that was on cable called The Three Faces of Eve (1957). You’ve probably heard of it. I thought it was going to be hokey but I found myself actually enjoying watching it. By early afternoon LD was jonesing to get in some beach time so we headed over to Rexhame for a few. It was actually pretty busy and a lot warmer there than we expected. After a few hours of relaxation there we grabbed a late lunch over at Snug Harbor and ate it while watching the sights along the Duxbury Yacht Club.
You Can Feel The Fall Crispness in the Air
I can definitely feel the autumn coming in the air as I head out there in the early mornings. Feels good though. The new bathroom is coming along really nice – I am actually impressed at how it all came together so quickly. There’s still more to do aesthetically but basically it’s ready to go for the most part. In the early evening we tried a Greek place I’ve been wanting to try for a while for some take out. It was actually pretty good, but the service could have been better.
A Reverence for the Schooners
The schooner has served as the iconic representation of Cape Ann’s seafaring history for more than three centuries. These sailing boats are quick and skillful, capturing the interest of both tourists and locals. On a schooner, sailing is thrilling! Its power and splendor are unmatched by any other kind of watercraft. When you board a schooner, it’s impossible not to feel a strong connection to the countless brave fishermen who risked it along the eastern shores!
What did you do today?
Love for Schooners
A pretty good Saturday as far as Saturdays go. I saw a coffee table on someone’s curb in the neighboring town in the morning that they were trying to get rid of (the wonders of the Internet to get the word out). I recall my mother stating she was searching for a coffee table for her outdoor back deck, and I believe this one will work out rather well. Therefore, we went and picked it up. I’ll deliver it there on Tuesday and see if she digs it. This one is a little bit smaller and nicer than the free one I gave her the last time, which is fine but in retrospect is just a little bit too big for the space. I think she will like it.
I grilled a bunch of salmon and corn in the afternoon for this picnic that our other friend couple had invited us to. It took place in Milton at Houghton’s Pond. Thought we’d give it a go even though we weren’t sure whether we’d be all that into it, but actually once we got there and started hanging out it was actually a rather enjoyable and fun time! So, glad we went. As we were leaving we came upon these two super cute dogs and petted them. There were a bunch of dogs there all day and all were very cute, such as Spaniels, long haired Dachshunds, and a bunch of other dogs that all have very short legs!
Today’s photo is from the Gloucester Schooner fest from a few years back. It’s that time of year again, and so looking at this has inspired me to go check it out again this year, tomorrow in fact. I’m going to try to get some good shots by climbing up on some high rocks so wish me luck and hope I don’t break anything!
Think I might try to watch that new Elvis movie tonight on HBO Max. I’m not a huge Elvis fan but I’ve heard it was a pretty good movie, so maybe. Can only watch so many Dateline reruns.
Love Waking Up to Early Morning Sunsets
High point today was watching LD work on her swimming strokes over at the pool at the gym, doing laps and such. She’s become quite the expert! So proud of her! Enjoy this lighthouse pic of the Nauset that I took a little while back as the sun was starting to rise in the early hours of the morning.
A Couple of Rainy Day Activities
Going through some of my archives and I came across this picture I took of the Castle Hill Lighthouse in Newport, RI that I thought was pretty cool so I thought I’d post it up and see what folks think of it.
Heading over to the supermarket this morning I noticed some chips that I had seen mentioned on the Phantom Gourmet the other day in my channel surfing. They are Lays chips but with flavors taken from other snacks, such as Lays chips with cool ranch Doritos flavor, and one with Cheetos. I picked up those two. They also have Funyuns and Fritos flavors but I didn’t see those. These are supposedly only available for a limited time. I’ve thus far tried the Doritos flavored and it’s pretty good, especially if you like cool ranch flavor.
Like I mentioned in the previous post I started reading a book about the two kids really (at the time) who created Doom and basically started the first player shooter sensation. It’s a pretty amazing read and I highly recommend it. It came out in 2003 so it’s not pricey. Having lived through and experienced many of the same things at the time growing up that these kids did made me really soak up this book. Brought back memories in the 80s of buying computer magazines at the time that had program code in it’s pages that you’d have to type in in order to play the games. And of course, I’d always make a typo somewhere so it wouldn’t work and I’d have to painstakingly try to find where it was, and the code was always a confusing mess of letters and numbers. Anyone remember that? I had totally forgotten all about doing that back in the day!
A Case of the Mondays
The picture says it all. More later? Since today was a rainy day finally I got off to finishing The Gift of Rumi: Experiencing the Wisdom of the Sufi Master. Now I’m off to read Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture so as you can see my reading tastes are quite varied!
Calling to Me (Sun’s Out, Hot Dog Buns Out)
Firstly, here’s another pic of the Nubble from earlier in the week. A classic Lighthouse destination and one of our favorites.
Saw this hot fog food truck was around that I wanted to try. Ended up going with one that had grilled corn, queso cotija, crema mexicana, with some chili lime salt on top, and it was pretty good! Then it was off to Wellesley for a mail pickup where I ended up eating some cod. Guess I was a little hungry this afternoon!
I also spent a bunch of time nodding off in my gravity chair out on the back deck in the sun. Totally relaxing!
Finished the day off with a night by the fire pit. Ah! Finally ended out the evening by watching the documentary “I Just Killed My Dad” on Netflix.
Plug 🔌 time: Smooth Sailing now available for purchase. Wouldn’t it look so nice on your wall?
Buzzing Around on Buzzard’s Bay
Got to hang out in Fairhaven with friends yesterday and pretty much made a day of it, swimming in Buzzard’s Bay, having tacos for lunch, and a great dinner outside as the sun started to set and a beautiful full moon rose.
Good hang and good food with good friends, you can’t ask for anything more. Thanks for having us!
Birthday Shenanigans in a Treehouse
Too many things to say about my birthday getaway right now. But the highlights were hanging in an Airbnb in Dover NH that had an actual treehouse overlooking the scenic Piscataqua River, watching baby robins being fed by their mother in another tree in the back yard, getting clean in the shower that had two showerheads almost opposite each other which was really cool, grabbing burgers at the BRGR Bar in downtown Portsmouth, getting some shots over at the Nubble, hanging out and swimming at Long Sands beach, eating clams at Bob’s, and getting a gravity chair that I wanted and a book about Rumi that I also wanted to read! It was really hot outside but it is Leo Season as they say! Naturally I must thank LD for making my birthday amazing and every day, as always!
I’ll need to expand upon this at a later date, but all in all, totally amazing!
Love to Sail
Went to a farm today, picked up some fresh produce to cook on the grill tonight. Ended up taking a nap in the afternoon, for some reason I felt tired and the map for an hour really helped pick me up. Dinner ended up being excellent though: salmon, corn, carrots, and a delicious peach and nectarine salad. Top it all off with this shot of a sailboat moored in Cape Cod bay at sunset. Perfection. Ended up watching a documentary on Netflix called The Girl in the Picture. My heart aches for that girl.
Friday Frolics For New Kicks
Watched this documentary last night which was about the debacle that was Woodstock ’99. Crazy crazy! This afternoon LD and I went down to the New Balance Factory Outlet and bought matching sneakers. She thought it a little ridiculous but I think it’s cute. Maybe we’ll both wear them at the same time! Haha!
Here’s a flashback photo of me visiting one of my favorite places along the eastern seaboard, Pemaquid Point in Maine.
Running with the Sunset 🏃♀️
Spent the day at the beach today. It was, in a word, glorious! One cool thing was watching all the piping plovers run along the shore. They are so small little creatures, but they can run on those little legs of theirs pretty fast. Anyways, by the end of the day for whatever reason (perhaps it was the sea, the sun, lunch, and eating a huge lobster roll) we were pretty zonked. I mean, I could not keep my eyes open. When we went to bed we slept the whole night solidly.
Backstroking Into the Week Like…
Here’s a pic from the Chatham Fish Pier. Now this is a working pier so during the day they really don’t want you hanging around here because the fisherman are trying to do work, bringing in their haul and all that jazz, and there are signs all over to that effect. However, if you go, like after 5 pm, you can just go into the lot and take a look around. This is a great place to see seals for free. Since this is where the fisherman unload their stuff these guys think they may get a free meal out of it, and a lot of times some of them will just be milling around hoping for some grub. Naturally you can’t find them, that would be a bad idea, both because it’s not good for them and also that they could bite you. Anyways while we were there these three seals were swimming around and this particular one seemed to be having fun literally swimming on his back just breaking the water line. He was putting on a little free show for us! So, if you don’t want to pay for a seal tour and hope to get a glimpse of these guys just head down to this pier. Sooner or later you’re bound to see them!
Hiking the Coastal Trail to a Scene of Beautiful Paradise
What did we do this morning? After a quick dip in the pool, we went over and hiked the Eddy Trail, probably one of our favorite locations to hike of all time. As an added treat they had the story of The Lorax all laid out along the trail, a page or two every so often along the way. The finale (well, really the half way point since you have to walk back) is ending up upon the cliff face. It just so happened to be high tide, so we got to see various boats floating along the flats. We even got to see a baby bunny along the trail. Of course it was scared but very cute as we said hello and went on our way.
Currently Reading: From a little library in Chatham by the lighthouse: Hell’s Half-Acre: The Untold Story of the Benders, a Serial Killer Family on the American Frontier. I think I might have heard bits of this story before but not really sure. You can look it up on Wikipedia, talk about a strange family.
In case you missed it, I decided to add my shot Where Time Has No Meaning to the shop as well. A nice relaxing Cape scene I think I captured pretty well.
A Full Day in Dennis, Harwich and Chatham
Another day at the beach! Swimming, Sunning! Earlier in the day I hung around the Bass River and checked out some of the sights around there. The majority of the day was spent as West Dennis Beach, like I said, swimming and sunning, and then swimming again until late afternoon. Finished it off with a visit to Mac’s in Chatham, hit a couple of Little Libraries (have you tried to new mobile app for it yet? It’s pretty great – much better than dealing with the website), then back to the condo for some chill out time. We were literally out practically all day from sunrise to sunset. Damn, are we tired! Tomorrow, we plan on doing our usual hike through the Brewster forest that leads out to the cliffs overlooking the flats.
Great Beach Day
Too tired to describe everything that happened today. Highlights were spending most of the day at West Dennis Beach, playing in the surf and then just enjoying sitting in the sun and soaking up the breeze. This afternoon really did seem like the perfect beach day. After all that and grabbing a pizza it was off the Breakwater Beach to catch tonight’s sunset. Here’s one of the shots from tonight.
“Beach, Please!”
Went down to the Chatham Fish Pier tonight and was greeted to quite a show as a bunch of seals including a harbor seal swam around on their backs and made us feel lucky to see them. I’ll upload a pic of them in a few days as they were captured on my DSLR and I cannot easily upload them to the site until I get back. Got some dinner in Orleans and caught a sunset at Skaket. Saw some cool whale art installation in Chatham center as well where you could also bid on the artwork. We also got to see a large heron fly over our heads which was really cool.
Linnell Loving Sunset
As the ocean is never full of water, so is the heart, never full of love.”
– Anonymous
Wellfleet Wellness (Day 02)
All the fun things we did yesterday with a couple of guests we had over for the overnight.
- Swimming in the outdoor pool in the afternoon to cool off a bit
- Getting lunch sandwiches from a local deli
- Checking out our favorite spots at Nauset
- Heading over to Macs on the Pier in Wellfleet enjoying a dinner on the beach
- Passing by an amazing property and then noticing some crazy cottages and their asking prices for essentially a unheated shack
- Heading over to Rock Harbor to catch the last rays of sunset
- Grabbing some desserts at the Sparrow as per our usual routine!
- Winding down with the charcoal grill doing up S’mores and turkey burgers and washing them down with beers
- As always, illuminating conversation!
- Falling asleep as midnight approached
All in all, a quite full day!
Crosby Beach Sunset (Day 01)
Well, we made it down here by mid afternoon. Not too bad. Got a early dinner over at Mac’s (one of our favorite places). LD got some pool time already. Night swimming! Just before that though we headed over to one of the nearby beaches as sunset approached and I took some shots. Unfortunately I’ve discovered that the converted Chromebook does not seem to recognize the DSLR camera so the high res shots will have to wait until I get back but it does recognize my cell so that’s what this shot is from. I think we’re going to be having a full day tomorrow so I’m going to end it here for now.
Off and Away!
I’m off to one of my happy places. Stay tuned for the latest updates!