the rock

Wow, it has really been an entire month since I have posted. I haven't been necessarily busy now that my job has ended its regular hours, but I've been spending a great deal of time outside rather than at the computer. With the time change, there's been the adjustment to the sun setting at 4:30, and I'm happy to have my early rides and runs back, even though it's the coldest part of the daylight hours!  Most of the leaves have fallen, and some snow is even in the forecast for tomorrow.

The drive to New York a few weeks ago was just beautiful. I'm in the habit of stopping at the midway point, around Mystic, Connecticut, which is a lovely place for a walk break.

 

Another point of interest I recently visited was The Rock, more commonly referred to in other parts of the country as Plymouth Rock. 

There it is! It's at water level, with a crack from it being moved a couple centuries ago to/from another viewing location. No one is even sure if this is the real "rock"-- most likely not, I would think.

The Mayflower II is also nearby.

It also sailed from England, but in 1957 with a somewhat smaller crew, and a pet cat rather than livestock. It's an accurate reproduction of the original ship, and smaller than you would imagine, much like The Rock turned out to be. I can't begin to imagine being on that boat for several months!

 

42 miles for fall

It's that time of year! Fall. Cranberries are being harvested all around these parts. Being from the Midwest, where harvest means that of corn and wheat, it's all new to me. The Cape Cod Rail Trail was a perfect option today for viewing the bogs of floating berries. I still don't have a clear understanding of the process, but it was exciting to see, nonetheless.

This was the midway point of a total of 42 miles for my bike ride. I am now exhausted, so enjoy the photos!

 flooding the field: the water was flowing in from a pond on the other side of the bike path

the equipment

When I returned home, I noticed another red patch through the trees as I rode up my drive.

neighbor's bog

(almost) wordless wednesday

    "And summer's lease hath all too short a date" -- Shakespeare               
                                                                                            (especially up here in the Northeast!)

what are we losing?

A few weeks ago I visited Newport, Rhode Island, where I enjoy visiting the mansions periodically. There were a few more houses I had not yet visited, so I spent the day touring three of them. One of the houses, somewhat more modest in size and decor than, say, The Breakers, neighbors a strip mall.

Our tour guide explained that the original house next to it was demolished to make the parking lot for that strip mall, and that the city had intended to demolish the still-standing home to build a CVS. Their reasoning? The CVS would be paying higher taxes than the historic home. But really, who travels to Newport to visit the CVS? Clearly, the city came to and got their priorities straight by choosing a different location for that store, but it is saddening to think that a structure with such significant historic importance could be so easily cast aside in favor of a redundant national business.

But it is not only CVS, and it is not only Newport. Residents in Turkey felt similar sentiments when their city attempted to turn their beloved community park into a shopping mall.

photo by Eda Gunay

And in Lhasa, Tibet: another shopping mall is currently being built over the oldest and most well-known part of the city, the Barkhor Market.

 

photo by Tsering Woeser

We humans are already so destructive. We don’t need more. We have everything we need. My wish is that we learn to favor new experiences and self-improvement in the form of education and physical well-being over material goods.

night sky

 

Star of the Hero, Nicholas Roerich

I may just have the best view out my bedroom window that I have ever had, or at least the most serene. Each day I can look out onto the pond and watch beautiful white swans resting on the still water, as a pair was tonight, with a golden sliver of the moon and Venus by its side in the sky above. There is little development on this end of the pond and being at the end of a long sandy road, it is completely void of traffic noise, except for a boat or two going by during the day. Tonight the air is very still and I hear only some evening insects. The night time sky fascinates me. In fact, it is the subject of my favorite painting, Night Flight of Dread and Delight, by Ethiopian artist Skunder Boghossian:

One of the most beautiful things I ever saw consists of a night I experienced in Tibet last year:

    I was walking up the hill after dark toward the house in which I was staying and I could see the full moon rising through the valley between two mountains. There were clouds, none covering the brightness, but simply intensifying the illumination throughout the sky. I came around the corner from my favorite restaurant and saw the moon reflecting off one side of the white stupa, lighting everything between it and moon. I had never seen a brighter night sky. The air was so calm and the stars so close, I felt as if I were in a dream. 
 

                                                             (That was the moment I realized why they call it the roof of the world!)

big boat, small boat

It seems as though I have been going non-stop for the past month. There’s just so much to do during the summertime! After a trip to Colorado for a cousin’s wedding, another cousin joined me in flying home to Cape Cod to spend a few days at the beach. Since then the museum and gardens have been very busy with everyone enjoying their last days of summer vacation. It’s been fantastic weather, too! Once I finally had a few days off, I ventured to The City once again. I love New York!

Day one was a trip to Central Park to ride in the row boats. Kayaks, canoes, and small sailboats I am familiar with, but these row boats with their attached oars I am not! They were slow and bulky, but very fun. 

 

The following day, we transitioned to a larger boat bound for Liberty Island. The Statue of Liberty is finally open to visitors after Sandy came through almost a year ago. However, Ellis Island is still closed unfortunately. I wasn’t sure what I expected of this famous statue, but it seemed different than what I had imagined. We boarded the ferry early in order to skip the crowds, and even though our boat was packed, Liberty Island was not—until later in the day anyway.

The water was choppy that morning, and for me, seasickness seems to take hold more easily than being on any other type of transport, so I was more than ready for it to be moving once everyone was on.

Tickets to walk to the crown sell out months in advance, but we were able to make it as far as the memorial inside the base of the statue. Like with anything, being there is so much different than seeing it in a photo. I loved having the chance to walk all the way around and see the statue up close, and the mainland in the distance.

coast to mountains

The day I leave the East Coast is the day it finally cools off to where I need more than a single sheet on me at night. It was down to about 60 which caused a moment of pause this morning as I left the house thinking I might not have packed enough layers for the mountains of Colorado. We'll see. I'm currently sitting in the Boston airport, having woken up at 3 am to take the bus from 1.5 hours south. The bus was freezing, the airport is freezing, so I am now wearing half the contents of my suitcase.

The past few days I spent on foot, for once, in the territory that is usually reserved for my cycling. My New Yorker friend JJ and I had planned to ride bikes down to swim at the beach, but it was a bit stormy, and so we did a walking tour instead of all the pretty churches, gardens and houses in Falmouth that I often pass by while on my bike. It was great to see them up close.

The plane just pulled in to the gate and unloaded, so it won't be too long. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to pop a Dramamine and proceed to my torpor state for the duration of the flight.

the traffic nightmare

The traffic is really a problem around here, and people on Cape Cod say it's been even worse this year. On the 4th of July holiday it was backed up 13 miles down the highway. Just this year, they started a train running from Boston to the Cape for weekends, and it's very reasonably priced. I hope it catches on because at this point it seems people are spending as much time in their cars getting to their vacation homes as they are actually on vacation. Some of my co-workers who live off-Cape spend nearly 2 hours one way to get to or from work-- a drive that takes 20 minutes in the off-season.

I drove into a suburb of Boston today, hoping to take the commuter rail into downtown before my meeting in the evening. Well, of course due to traffic, that didn't happen. I arrived at the station just in time to see the train going by. Since it only comes through every two hours, I wouldn't be able to go into Boston and so stayed on the outskirts until my meeting. 

After two hours sitting in Barnes & Noble, I finished my current book, The Orphan Master's Son. I'll be happy to move on to a more upbeat book, even though I found a fictional story on North Korea to be fascinating. It seemed like the author really did a lot of research, especially while visiting the country.

The highlight of my day was finding a Brazilian restaurant that served feijoada. I didn't even realize that was what was spooned onto my plate until I tasted it. There was sort of a buffet, with a server, who determined the price based on "proportion" rather than weight. It was delicious, and tasted just like my mom's version, so hers must be pretty authentic. It was like comfort food to me, even though it must be strange that someone with no Portuguese or Brazilian background would feel that way, but it truly does remind me of my childhood. When I told my sister about it later this afternoon, she and I both commented that even though my mother has shared this recipe with us, it never quite turns out the same way when my sister or I make it!

the past week

I'm getting accustomed to a new house, and with that, I'm having to adjust to the internet being less available. That's alright. It's leaving me plenty of time to read real books, study up on my languages, and enjoy the outdoors. I'll have to get back into typing out blog posts offline, then pasting them like I did last summer. For now though, some photos.

The trio of young geese are still hovering around the museum grounds. They follow anyone, which mostly ends up more along the lines of chasing everyone. We have tried herding, but you physically have to shove them along to steer them back to the pond-- most stubborn! These are not my mother's ducks.

 I was playing Mama Goose here, as you can tell.

 walking after work one day, when it was still foggy from rain

 I love coming home to these five sheep. They always greet you with 

a loud bahhh! The lightest brown one is the friendliest and always comes up looking for something to eat, or a rub on its patch of forehead wool.

 And of course, Woods Hole, my favorite!

Wordless Wednesday

 US Coast Guard Station, Woods Hole, Mass.

strawberry picking

I managed to get some extra work at a local organic farm for the next week or so since it's getting to be the busy season, especially for strawberries. I spent half the first day weeding onions along with about 8 other girls around my age and since all we had to do was sit along the rows and loosen the soil around the plants to pull weeds, there was plenty of time to chat. Most of them had worked at the farm last year, several grew up in Puerto Rico, some studied anthropology like me, and all are travelers. One of the more permanent workers is from Nepal and she knows Tibetan as well. We had plenty to talk about and they were very enjoyable to work with!

The farm is quite large for an organic farm, and the farm stand has a steady flow of customers throughout the day. They've got produce as well as pork and chicken eggs. There is a leanto shed for the tractors, which looks like any other farm building, except when you go to the outside, the entire roof is solar panel-- not something I ever saw in Kansas! Still, I feel like I'm at home in Kansas when the dust is flying. I suppose anywhere the natural ground vegetation is removed will be as dusty as a desert.

Today our task was to spread organic compost over three rows in preparation for beet planting. The compost came from another organic farm in New York. I suppose this one does not produce enough compost of this type, which was made from stall shavings, horse and cow manure, among other things. (Actually, I found the tine-end half of a fork that was accidentally in there.)

Then it was more strawberry picking! I feel like I've seen about every shape and size of strawberry possible, and it's like a treasure hunt trying to find the best ones. We pile them into trays with 8 berry baskets each. Others with brown or squishy spots go in the cull box, and those are available for people interested in making preserves. Even though it's tough work, it's been fascinating to me simply observing the process of organic growing.

another trip to the city

The Northeast had its first heat wave come through last week. I thought I was melting. My house does not have air conditioning, and opening windows only helped slightly. I also took a few days to go to New York City, where it was just as hot. My friend's apartment did not have air conditioning either, but since I had a car, we drove the measly mile to Home Depot to purchase a window unit. It seems everyone in New York buys these, sells these, or carries them on to their next apartment. Home Depot had pallets upon pallets of them all stacked up at the front! If you're car-less in NYC though, it can't be too easy to get one home from the store.

It seems there's never enough time to see everything on my NYC list, but I am getting to know the area from simply walking.

 Despite the clouds, it was very hot and humid, and I wanted nothing more than to jump in that water!

The clouds eventually starting clearing, and we made a beeline for Bryant Park for its abundance of shade trees, but not before being asked for help by a woman trying to figure out how to get a bicycle from the new Citi Bike stations. I really like this idea of the bike sharing-rental system; it is clearly already popular and easy to use, especially for visitors. I decided to tough it out and keep walking, though.

The park was close to our next destination: The Great Gatsby movie. I loved it! I've always loved the book, and I had been waiting since last year to finally see the movie. I didn't realize the theater I chose was in Times Square, and so $18.50 a ticket. Oops. The showtime we originally planned for what sold out so while we waited for the next showing, we posed for photos (like everyone else) with the mounted police officer, who was just as indifferent as the horse, although the horse appreciated a face rub!

It was all such fun! I am hoping for many more trips to this city!

the rhododendrons are in bloom!

pretty clusters, and they come in all different colors

I was in the treehouse at work and noticed all of these flowering from above.

I saw these bright ones from across a small field and just had to go over and get a look.

touring New England

I was lucky enough to have three days off from work, and what better way to spend it than exploring the neighboring New England towns with a fun friend! We began in Providence where I picked up said friend, JJ, from the bus stop. Coming from New York City, he was ecstatic to spend some time in greener pastures. We had beautiful weather and finally some warmth and spent as much time outside as possible. I love how I can drive an hour from my home and feel like I'm on vacation.

                                Providence is a beautiful city with lots of character, and good sushi, too.

I was intent on driving to the end of the Cape the next day, or "the end of the world" as JJ put it. We never did figure out how to get to the very tip with its little lighthouse, but we made it as far as Provincetown, with a few fun stops along the way.

The Highland Lighthouse was closed "for the season". Clearly, it's spring now! Hibernation ended a while ago. Still, we enjoyed the foggy view of the ocean.

Then we were off to Provincetown, where we enjoyed a walk down the main street, a wayward straggle to a beach we never found, and then a 250-ft. climb up the highest all-granite structure in the US: the Pilgrim Monument to commemorate the first pilgrims. The Mayflower landed here first and stayed for 5 weeks before heading on to Plymouth. The tower was opened in 1910.

looking out

looking down-- far, far down

 I loved being able to see out so far, where back in Sandwich the horizon is shielded by woodlands.
After enjoying my new lunchtime favorite, the Cape Cob Reuben (with fish rather than corned beef), we headed back to Sandwich to finish off a quarter section of watermelon while sitting on the bank of a pond near my house, watching people fishing in their canoes.

Day number three was a trip off-Cape to Newport, RI. We toured the enormous Breakers house, and found our way to the Cliff Walk. It was foggy but warm, and I expected the fog to clear up. Rather than that, it came rolling right back in so that we couldn't see the ocean far past the cliff after some time, but it was beautiful! It reminded me of images you see from England, rather than New England.