The Histories: Summer-Fall of 2019

Half of 2019

This post is very long (June-Sept.) so you might fill up your coffee.

It includes the Cape in July (tornado!) and September, the harvest, bedroom painting, shutters, and camping in New Hampshire in late August.

And Connecticut

To shoot the vibrant late summer colors at Salmon Cove from rte. 149, I had to pull over on a narrow shoulder, hurry across to the guard rail and watch for traffic. Fortunately it is usually not a busy road!

Salmon Cove, East Haddam CT where the Salmon River joins the Connecticut River

A streak of sunlit meadow behind the yard

Late summer shadows

The cats followed be to the back wall for a long Zen moment. I took this video:

Click here for Cats and late summer bugs video

Connecticut Beach

Hammonassett State Park, is 40 mins south of Moodus. It's probably the most popular beach in Connecticut. Soft sand.

Sunset as seen through the ramp to the concessions at Hammonassett.

SHUTTERS

The house came with 24 shutters, stored in the shed. The house already had holes drilled in the siding to put them up, which made it easy. The color needed to be darker. Another painting project begins.

The first coat went on in the garage. Below, I laid them on the driveway for the second coat. The color is Midnight Dream by Benjamin Moore.

House with no shutters:

And with shutters!

The second-story shutters won't be installed till I get a ladder.

BEDROOMS

I painted the bedroom in late summer. The original color was drab green with dark stained trim. Below you can just see a little of the green because I already was applying white primer.

I was hoping to keep the original stain, but the room always looked dark whatever wall color I tried to match with the stain.

Below, I started priming the stained woodwork.

The finished product, is below. The gray wall color is called Cobblestone Path, and the darker accent wall behind the bed is Ashland Slate. Both are Benjamin Moore. The trim and woodwork I painted pure white. Any off-white color looked pale or sickly yellow next to the gray.

The accent wall behind bed.

The original door hardware was tarnished brass which looks all shiny now after brushing everything off!

The second bedroom, I painted Springtime Peach, and the dormer ceilings Ecro, both Benjamin Moore. I lived here a couple days while painting the master bedroom.

CAPE COD JULY 2019

Wellfleet July 22

The Edward Gorey House, Yarmouth Port on July 22. Edward Gorey wrote the graphics for the Masterpiece Theater Mystery! introduction. He also wrote the Gashlycrumb Tinies and many other illustrated books.

The house is a museum now. Throughout are objects from scenes in the Gashlycrumb Tinies for visitors to find. "J is for James who took lye by mistake"

"A is for Amy who fell down the stairs"

The house was full of books and bookshelves everywhere until Gorey died in 2000. Many books were sold to help restore the house.

Gorey made this serpent from irregular rocks.

The Marconi Maritime Museum, Chatham

In the early 1900s, the inventor Guglilmo Marconi designed a radio antenna array in Chatham to reach ships far into the Atlantic Ocean, and also to radio England. It was the where the Titanic rescue was arranged from. The museum contains equipment from the stations use through the 1950's.

One of the original early antennas is seen in this antique photo below. It was a spectacle for the locals.

The tornado on July 23 did this tree damage along Route 6 in Harwich, as seen a day or two after.

Memory Lane

Other than the tornado, the Cape was life as usual with patchy weather. Hydrangeas were at their peak blue everywhere. I drove by to look at Grandma and Grandpa's in South Yarmouth. I introduced myself to a woman tending her yard there. She was welcoming and showed me around the yard. She told me that the previous owner, who lived there for 10 years, was an author named Joan Harrison who has a couple books published on hydrangeas on the Cape. Behind the house ,the yard looked like this (photo isn't mine, it's from Google search).

These hydrangeas were in Provincetown.

This photo was on the road we stayed, in Chatham, day after the tornado.

Provincetown

The tornado chased us east to Eastham, then we went on to P-town. Here's a woman in a quaint alley off the main street.

Provincetown being full of art.

Some semi abstract and not-so-semi expensive ocean-themed art:

The Lobster Pot extends from the street back to the waterfront where you get harbor views.

Lobster Pot dining area

Commercial Street is the main street of Provincetown

Provincetown harbor

Race Point, Provincetown

Chatham, probably

Cahoun Hollow Beach, Wellfleet

Chatham, below, our street the day after tornado. The tornado mainly touched down in South Yarmouth and Harwich, and just a little of Chatham. The storm continued to Eastham then out to sea eastward while we sheltered in an Eastham restaurant. Then on to Provincetown to enjoy the afternoon.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

It was a 6 hour drive to Lake Francis State Park, Pittsburg NH.

We hiked to Fourth Connecticut Lake from a parking lot at the New Hampshire-Quebec border crossing at Pittsburg-Chartierville border station.

After climbing up a ways, this view

The trail runs along the border. The border is known as the Slash because the trees along the border are cut down. You can read about the border slash here:

Click here to read about the border slash

Here's a border survey stake along the border. We passed several.

Fourth Connecticut Lake is the official beginning of the Connecticut River. The lake is small, quiet and pristine, and mostly swampy.

We hiked the trail that encircles the lake

A moose on the way to hiking!

the Slash

Hiking the Slash

My camp site at Lake Francis

Lenticular clouds forming

Lenticular clouds over First Connecticut Lake

Friends photographing the full moon over First Connecticut Lake

Intermission

The Mass. turnpike at sunset one day driving home

The concert by artist Rick Springfield at the NY State Fair

Summer clouds on the drive back from Syracuse, between Syracuse and Utica

HARVEST

This year, butternut and watermelon!

Prepping squash for processing and freezing

I diced the roasted squash. Froze half the dices, and pureed half the dices and froze the purees in 1-cup sizes.

CAPE COD SEPTEMBER 2019

Our vacation rental host from July offered a free stay because he felt bad about the tornado and otherwise not ideal weather in July.

Below, is the Surf at Ballston Beach, Truro. We chose this beach because sharks were seen here recently, and we did see a shark. The shark fin was loping along through the water, and wasn't too scary because there was no menacing music. No shark in the photo. The beach wasn't very crowded, being the off-season, and nobody went in the water.