Calm Before the Storm

I walked my beach tonight: Clear and starry sky, cool breeze, crickets chirping, gentle waves lapping the shoreline, a distant lighthouse light pulsing through a hazy horizon... Tomorrow the first of the high clouds will appear, and then, on the next day, my beach will be pounded, beaten, and torn to shreds by the lashing winds and waves of the hurricane. Hold tight, beach. Hold tight!

Oh man, what a good beer!

I got this "Once Upon a Time" beer tonight after another outstanding Friday-night-beer-tasting event at the "Grain and Vine" liquor store in Hyannis. This beer, put out by "Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project" comes in a BIG bottle with a BIG price... but it was WELL worth it. The brew is based on a recipe from 1832, England, and it's just an all-around great beer. Wow... Thanks Alan for recommending it. I didn't think I'd be able to down the whole bottle by myself, but after this week... it really hit the spot.

If you're in Hyannis, and you like beer, don't miss a stop over to the Grain & Vine on Rte 28, near Kam Appliance. They have more beer varieties than you could imagine and there's a beer tasting every Friday night.

Cape Cod Bay - Cold Sunset

Late afternoon, while looking out my back window, I became aware of a few bands of long grey clouds that had materialized in the western sky. There was barely any wind and they were stacked up loosely, with bright yellow-white sunlight shining between them on their lower ranks. It was 4:00, and the sun would set at 4:30. Since I have tall trees that block my entire view of any horizon, I hurried off to the beach to see if there was going to be a show. Well... there was.

I walked out onto the foam-ice-covered beach to watch the show. Starting at about 4:15 the grey slowly gave way; cloud-edge by cloud-edge, to light pinks and fuschias. And then at 4:30 as the sun must have hit the horizon, the whole sky exploded with deep purples, reds, yellows and oranges. The photo here doesn't even show how brilliant it was.

It was barely 20 degrees out though, and at some point just after this photo, I realized I couldn't feel the shutter button under the bony peg that had once been my right index finger. In fact, ALL my fingers... in both hands... were pegs - additionally they didn't work any more. I couldn't even depress the shutter. I realized they HURT too... numb and painful at the same time. It's a deep frozen hurt, and a hurt that I knew would get worse as my fingers warmed up. So, deliberately, but reluctantly, as the colors faded, I slogged back to my car to try to thaw out. And yeah... they hurt worse as they thawed. Even so... it was worth it. Next time... better gloves. The fingerless-es just don't cut it at 20 degrees. (click photo for a bigger view)

We DID get the snow!

Today we woke up to about a foot of snow. This is the storm with the center of rotation just south of Cape Cod. You can see one of the big snow bands, in the darker blue, right over our house. Photos coming.

Finally... Some Snow!

At 10:38 pm, I saw a few flakes in the front outside lights. The next time I looked, at 11:10, it was a white-out and the ground was covered. So... here's our blizzard: The Blizzard of Ot-Nine.

Here it Comes!

Winter on Cape Cod is nothing to feel bad about missing altogether. For the better part of 6 months its just cold damp and monotonous. The weather can never seem to commit to either sleet or rain - rarely snow. But, every so often, the weather service sends a little ray of winter sunshine in the form of a "Winter Storm Warning." Here's the latest; and because of where we're situated; 30 miles out in the relatively warm Atlantic, we sometimes find ourselves in the birthplace of these storms or "Nor-Eastah's" Here's the report I'm watching (doesn't it sound GREAT!)...

A BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 4 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 1 PM EST SUNDAY.

A CLASSIC WINTERTIME NOREASTER WILL CONTINUE TO DEVELOP OFF THE MID ATLANTIC COAST TODAY. IT WILL MOVE NORTHEAST TONIGHT AND LIKELY BE SITUATED JUST SOUTHEAST OF NANTUCKET EARLY SUNDAY MORNING. SNOW WILL SPREAD NORTHWARD IN ADVANCE OF THIS LOW AND WILL REACH THE WARNING AREA BY THIS EVENING. THE SNOW WILL BECOME HEAVY AT TIMES OVERNIGHT AND CONTINUE SUNDAY MORNING. THE LOW WILL PULL AWAY DURING THE DAY SUNDAY WHICH WILL ALLOW THE SNOW TO TAPER OFF AND END SUNDAY AFTERNOON.

AS THE LOW APPROACHES TONIGHT... NORTHEAST TO NORTH WINDS WILL BECOME QUITE STRONG. SUSTAINED SPEEDS OF 25 TO 35 MPH ARE EXPECTED TONIGHT AND SUNDAY WITH GUSTS POSSIBLY REACHING 60 MPH. THIS COMBINED WITH HEAVY SNOW WILL CAUSE BLINDING SNOW AT TIMES... WITH VISIBILITIES BEING REDUCED TO UNDER A QUARTER MILE. SIGNIFICANT BLOWING AND DRIFTING OF THE SNOW IS ALSO EXPECTED. THE SNOW MAY MIX WITH RAIN OR SLEET FOR A TIME ON NANTUCKET AND THE OUTER CAPE TONIGHT. STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL AMOUNTS ARE EXPECTED TO BE 7 TO 15 INCHES. LOWER SNOWFALL AMOUNTS ARE POSSIBLE ON THE OUTER CAPE AND ISLANDS IF MORE RAIN MIXES IN LONGER THAN EXPECTED.

TRAVEL IS NOT RECOMMENDED TONIGHT AND SUNDAY AS IT WILL BECOME DIFFICULT AT BEST... AND NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE AT TIMES.

Winter's Here

This early morning, still dark, but light enough to make out remembered shapes, I thought I could make out the cold blue patterns of what could be snow. Not a covering snow, but what I imagined I saw was a wind-swept confectioners-sugar dusting, so sparse and fine it could never hope to make a defining hold in a breeze. It could though, settle in pavement-cracks and between driveway-pebbles. It could cling to the outlines of roof shingles and in the crags of tree-bark. And in these places, I strained to certify the shapes and patterns as snow. And, that it was... with the first pink half-hearted hues of morning pink, I could just make out for sure, our first snow of the season. Our first insignificant snowfall, if you could even call it that. Still it was snow, and if its going to be bitter cold, let it snow!

I planned to get a picture of it on my way to work, but as I left our street and headed onto 6A, I never saw it again. It must have been one of those very local, very fleeting, bursts of precipitation, and just for us... or maybe us and East of us. Now its just cold. Very cold. 20 degrees and blowing 30 kts.

Some are Getting Snow... Lots O' Rain For Us

We had a big storm form off the coast over the weekend. It's mostly passed now, but there are still some pretty big winds. Friday was basically a washout and today was so windy and cold you wouldn't want to be outside anyway. Take a look at this maelstrom in the Benny's parking lot taken this past Friday, Nov. 27. - Dennis, Massachusetts. Cape Cod

Oystering Day 2

The weather this Sunday was much better than last... by far. The wind that had been blowing all day, finally calmed aound 1:00. And, although the clouds never went away, the water was clear, calm and not-so-cold. The oysters were easy picking, which allowed me to be choosy... only taking the perfect ones: rounded bottom, 3 1/2 inches or so. The previous week was so bad, I took whatever I found that was at or above the 3" limit.




This is my new gear this season: An actual clamming bucket, rather than a 3-gallon paint bucket. I just put the orange water-noodle on it this week. With a leash, the bucket now floats at arms reach from me. I also have a deeper plastic tub (to keep the waves out), a 3-foot "grabber," and the sleeves from my old surfing wetsuit.

This is a full 5-quart catch, or about 4-dozen 3 1/2-inch oysters. I didn't see many people leaving today without their limit.

Brewster Oysters - Tough Day

Every season, in October, if you hold a Brewster shellfishing license, you are welcome to brave the elements for your share of the town stocks of oysters. Last Sunday was opening day, but since we had a Nor-Eastah' that lasted for nearly four days, the harvest was cancelled.

So THIS week became opening Sunday. I arrived with the masses at about 1 1/2 hours before the low tide and joined the rest of the oyster-addicts out there in this week's slightly-less-than-a-Nor-Eastah'. The wind was blowing 20mph from the North West, and it completely churned up the water into a dense brown soup. You couldn't see a thing. The only way to find 'em was to take off your gloves and just blindly feel for them on the bottom. I felt lucky to get my limit.

If next week is decent weather, there should be a bunch, since there were a lot of people leaving the beach with only some or NONE in their baskets. (look at the frustrated look on the guy standing to the left)

(click images for a larger view)

Wow... Guggenheim Grotto Acoustic... Just Wow.

I went to see the Guggenheim Grotto in Cambridge last night. What a show. It was well worth the long drive up to Boston as well as dealing with the bridge-repair traffic.

They played to a packed house, but it was a very small, very intimate venue. I was at a table, second out from the stage and it was really a treat. Two hightlights for now before I get back to work... 1) In the song, "Cold Truth," Kevin plays the lead guitar. I never realized this until I watched Mick pass the Guitar to Kevin, that Kevin plays left handed and holds the guitar upside-down. And 2), for their encore, they did a three-song set that included at the very end, a completely un-mic-ed "What is this Feeling." It sounded something like this one from another show... [watch video]

(The photo is a still from a youtube vid at the same venue back in June)

Turtles!

Today, at the kids' soccer games, one of the girls came up to me and said, "Wanna see our turtles?" She had one of those padded cooler bags and I thought "odd," but OK, "Sure!" I said. "Let's see the turtles."

She set the bag down and opened it up. Along with a pile of orange wedges and a few bottles of water were tiny, half-dollar sized little turtles. There must have been around a half dozen and one of the girls picked one up. "They're snapping turtles!" she excaimed with glee. "They were all over the field. We kept these ones... We're going to put them in our pond," she said.

"Yikes!" My mind instantly flashed back to the Mill Pond and all the white-whale adventures we had floating around on that murky pool. I don't remember our monsters there as cute as these little hatchlings. (The movie, "Gremlins" comes to mind) Soccer saved the day for these guys, and surely an opportunistic gull missed out on a quick and easy breakfast.

And, it wasn't only snapping turtles that caught a break today. When I was buying Milk at Cumberland Farms today (only because they charge an average dollar less than the grocery store charges), a Chatham nartural resources officer pulled up, and he had an endangered Kemp's Ridley sea turtle in the car. They wash up on the beach this time of year, and usually in bad weather. They are cold stunned and lost on their migration back to the south.

No Oystering tomorrow. The town postponed the harvest until next week due to the extreme weather. (Noreaster blowing since Thursday)

Cranberries on Cape Cod

After being shaken off of their bushes, these cranberries are floated in the flooded bog and harvested. This is from a bog in Harwich two days before harvest. (Click photo for bigger photo)

Oyster Season!

It's October on Cape Cod and that means Oysters!

These are from "Brewster Oysters" grant, here on Cape Cod Bay, and they are about as good as you can get 'em.
(Click Image for a bigger view)

Peach Harvest

When we moved into our house a few years ago, we found out we had a peach tree. The first year, we got a few hundred rotten worm ridden tiny fruits. That year I pruned it and the following season we got none. The next year, we got a few, but they were still very worm eaten. Then the next year, I used an oil on them to keep the bugs off them. We got a bunch, but they were all small, and still pretty buggy. A golf-ball-sized one with only one worm was a good one! The next year we had a baby and I didn't have time to deal with them. This year I fertilized and oiled and we started out with hundreds of tiny peaches on the tree. By late summer though, most had rotted on the tree and fallen off. I'm guessing the early cold and rain caused the rot. We did get a few that made it though and they had some good size. Still, even though I oiled, I got the bugs in most, but I did get about 5 or 6 nice billiard-ball sized fruits, and they tasted very good. NEXT year, I will try thinning out the middle of the tree, fertilizing twice during the growing season, culling a lot of the fruit early and spraying the tree more often. (I use a non-chemical insecticide oil.)

What a Difference a Day (and a half) Makes!

Max and I went to the Sox vs. Rays game on Friday night to watch Lester load the bases in the pouring rain before the game was put on delay. Two and a half hours and a few hot dogs later, they called the game. Our tickets would be good for the day game on Sunday... which turned out to be PERFECT weather for baseball (even a bit on the hot side). Sox won 3-1 in fine fashion.

(click images to see them larger)



Buchholz piched a gem. Kotsay, gathering up an overthrow to first, threw out the go-ahead run at the plate, and Oki came in to hold 'em in the eighth. In the bottom of the eighth, Poppi pinch-hit for Bay and blasted a double into right field. He was in turn, pinch-run by Joey Gathright. Elsbury bunted him to 3rd (and almost beat the throw to first himself). Then, Pedroia tried to sac-fly Gathright home and ended up hitting himself a 2-run homer. Papelbon came on in the 9th to close it out and the Sox had 2 out of 3 from the Rays. Later they would win the 2nd game of the Double header to complete the sweep.

Great Whites off Chatham

There are seven different confirmed Great White sharks off the Atlantic side Cape Cod Beaches. This is pretty cool, having some visiting top predators to our area, especially since they can't get out of the water to come eat us.

We went looking for them today, but didn't see any. We did see their buffet table though - a few hundred seals, blobbing about in the water of Chatham. We watched the seals for a good part of the afternoon, but the sharks never showed. Later that afternoon, Chanel 5 News nabbed Amy and the kids for a few quick questions... Amy made the news! Check out the spot here: http://www.thebostonchannel.com/video/20764973/index.html

Aliens Hatching!!

It's been 10 days since this guy went into his cocoon,
now it looks like it's about ready to come out...


(Monarch Caterpillar Cocoon about to Hatch. Click for a larger view)

Nature Aliens

On Monday we found this guy on a milk weed plant.
We took him home, along with his leaf, found him
some MORE milkweed and let him eat...


(August 19 photo)

He ate all day Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday,
he hung upside down, and on Thursday around noon,
when no one was watching he turned into this...

(August 21 photo)

(click photos to see bigger images)

Coming Soon to Cape Cod...

Hurricane Bill
Cat 4 today

We'll at least be getting some waves and very likely a tropical blow.