East Sandwich

I love my village, East Sandwich.  It's a lot different than downtown.  The old homes are on decent size plots of land, although A LOT of developments have gone in.  Not so much in my part of town though. The Rte. 6A/Old County Road Corridor to the town line with West Barnstable, has remained virtually unchanged since I grew up there.  E. Sandwich has always been rural, lots of salt marshes too.  And woods, though those have disappeared to said developments.  There were benefits and liabilities to growing up there.  It was peaceful but it was a lonely place for an only child to be raised.  Now that I'm back and appreciate it more, I have a hard time not stopping my car every few feet to shoot another set of photos of another quaint old home, gnarled tree, cranberry bog, pond, railroad track, ad nauseum.  So here are a few pics of E. Sandwich. For now anyway.

The Lavender Moon's sign could use a touch up.  I love the flowers wrapped around the pole.  I could buy everything in this shop.

Sandy Neck Beach

Soakin up the rays on a spiffing fall day

Tide pools

I built this little stone beach cairn and circle of rocks.

This Canadian flag at the Riverview School caught my eye and I had to drive in and shoot a photo of it.  Incidentally, I highly recommend checking out the link to the school (click on the name of it) to read the school's history.  Note to Val: You, especially, will find their story interesting. 

Scorton Creek at high tide

High tide in the salt marshes

Scorton Creek bridge on Rte. 6A.  This is another popular place for kids to jump into the water at high tide.

This is another fave place, given my addiction to glass.  The Glass Studio on Cape Cod is well worth a visit.  Glassblower Michael Magyar's work seems to be very influenced by Dale Chihuly.

I covet all this glass slag and the tinier glass fragments.  Better yet, I would DIE to find this as beach glass.

Sandwich Fish Hatchery

Did you know that, officially, we are known as the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, instead of State of.... ? There are only 4 Commonwealths:  MA, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Virginia.  The MassWildlife has run a fish hatchery in Sandwich for a long time.  It's free to visit and a very peaceful place to take a walk.

Looking down the entrance road to the fish hatchery.

I'm not entirely sure why a fish hatchery needs this much firewood.

These pools hold the large breeder fish.  Different kinds of trout are raised for stocking in the rivers, streams, lakes and ponds around the area.  I find it sadly ironic that they go through all this trouble to raise the fish only to be caught and eaten.  

Rainbow trout

.25 will get you a handful of food pellets to feed to the fishies.  

Pumps keep the water circulating.

That one guy on the left has a seriously bad skin condition.

Sandwich: The Oldest Town on Cape Cod

Sandwich, MA is the oldest town on the Cape, having been founded in 1637 and incorporated in 1639.  Sandwich has a very long and interesting history and it's worth checking out the link to learn more about my hometown.

This jaunty fellow is located on Rte. 6A near the Shady Nook Inn.

Kousa dogwood, aka Japanese flowering dogwood.

This is Clark-Haddad Hall, which was built in the 1880's as the Sand Hill School for kids of families that worked at the old Sandwich Glass Factory.  When I was a kid, it was known as the Legion Hall, before the 'new' Legion was built out on Rte. 130.  The town doesn't know what to do with this building, which is now empty and boarded up, and is contemplating moving the entire structure to another location.  

Rusted door at the back of the building.  Yes it's rust, not blood.  ;-P

I found the back of the building to be more than a little bit creepy.

I thought this bulkhead looked like a collapsing coffin.

Birdhouses in the marshes near Boardwalk

Looking towards Town Neck Beach, across the marshes, near Boardwalk.

I will spend more time in this neighborhood shooting photos of the old homes.  The Glass Factory used to be located in this area, and was in operation from 1826 to 1888.  Most of these homes date to that era.

In front of the old MacDonald's Hardware Store, on Jarves Street x Rte. 6A.  I remember going here in the early 70's when I was little, to buy trinket holiday presents for my friends, as they had everything. I used to get my Duncan yo-yo's here.  Kites too and stuff for the beach. Gerry MacDonald was a friend of my dad's. His daughter now runs it as a really cool craft collective and souvenir shop, and she's married to one of my closest  friend's brother. Small world!!  I am hoping to get my stuff on display here.  

I keep teasing my squeeze that I'm gonna pose him under this old sign, which has marked the building on the corner of Jarves Street and Rte. 6A for as long as anyone can remember.  He is much less enthusiastic than I am about that photo session.  He's already grown weary of me saying, "Oh look, there's your corner" whenever we pass by. hahaha  

Joe's Lobstah Maht, on the Canal.  If you like shellfish/seafood, this is the place to get it.