Painted Bridge in Bourne

Not too sure of the history of this painted train track crossing, near Aptucxet Trading Post.  I can't remember if it was like this when I moved in 1989 or is new since then.

It's a nice quote.  Pity it was by "Wordsworth" not "Wadsworth".

It's 65 miles from Bourne to Provincetown, so about an hour's drive.

Upper Cape (well not Barnstable, that's mid-Cape).

Mid-Cape

Lower Cape.

This side depicts Aptucxet Trading Post and a ship in the Manamet River, before it was dug out and became the Canal.

Looking up at the railroad tracks.

Bay State Oddities and Hauntings

I never truly appreciated all that my home state had to offer when I grew up here.   We have a lot of rich history, as it pertains to the birth of our nation.  Plymouth, Boston, Lexington-Concord, Bunker Hill, etc. I blew it off when I was young, and rolled my eyes whenever out-of-towners would arrive and want to see the tourist attractions in and around the Cape and Boston (don't get me started on the "I wanna see the Kennedy Compound" requests...).

In addition to the historical stuff, Massachusetts is home to a lot of weird phenomena as well.  And like the Pilgrims and Revolutionary War stuff, I knew of the ghost stories and the whole Lizzie Borden thing, but I never paid much attention to it.  The Dillingham House in Sandwich is allegedly haunted by the 9 orphaned Dillingham children, whose parents died in 1813 (the house itself, however, dates to the late 1600s).  My dad did the plumbing there for years and years, and as a non-ghost-believer, he never encountered any hauntings that I know of (or that he would admit to anyway).   

A few years ago, I'd scored a book called Weird Washington, with the intent of visiting as many of the attractions as possible.  But I put it off, figuring that I'd get there eventually and could "always go". Well, that didn't quite work out the way I'd planned!  Weird WA was an offshoot of the original Weird U.S. book that came out a few years ago, and I believe it was also a documentary, because I recall watching it several years back.

But lo and behold!!!!  I was strolling through the giant Stop & Shop in Wareham, and saw this in their modest book section:

I made a mental note to purchase it from Amazon.com because let's face it, they have the best prices around and I do try to avoid the cover price for books when I see them in stores or catalogs!! My new book arrived on New Years Eve (along with a bunch of movies, Inheritance by Christopher Paolini and a Carolina Liar CD), and I eagerly started poring over it.  I had no idea that Mass had so much to offer in the way of unusual sites!!  My squeeze is much less enthused about visiting these places than I am, as he does not, and I repeat, does not, like ghosts, ghost stories and haunted places at all.  That's OK, I don't mind going on my own and maybe I'll see if any of my friends are game for a day trip out to one of the many places mentioned in this book.  

Stayed tuned for photos of Weird Massachusetts adventures!  My most probable first stop will be the Borden house & cemetery plots in Fall River!

Confused

It's hard to see, but there's a large V of geese headed back north in the below photo.  Spring is on the way, right?

Beautiful full moon again....

...looking eerie with the spiky tree branches.

Woke up on Saturday......Erm.....WTF?!?!?!?!

And then 2 days later, my kitchen window is open!!

Ma Nature is clearly having issues!!!

Happy 7th Birthday Sagan!

My little fella turns 7 today!!!  Happy Birfday baby guy!!!  Mama so happy to have you home wiff us!!!  So hard to believe I've had him since January, 2006 when he was only 9 months old.  

"I haz a duckeh!"

SQUEEEEE!

April, 2012 - Blogging From A to Z Challenge

Bev, over at Blue Velvet Vincent, asked me if I wanted to join her for the Blogging A - Z Challenge and I figured sure, why not?  It starts on Sunday, April 1, with a letter A topic, and each day gets a new letter.  Thereafter, you don't post on Sundays, so the 26th and last day of the challenge falls on April 30th. I think this will probably go a lot easier than Project 365 because you only have to commit to 26 days, and posts can always be prepared and saved  as you think of topics.  I already have "A" in draft, and C, D, E, U and Z are scheduled to publish on their respective days. Because I'm anal that way.

Anyone else want to join us?

Wordless Wednesday

March: In Like a Lion. Ugh.

In the parking lot of the Forestdale post office in Sandwich.

Lovely End to February

Popped  over the Sagamore Bridge to Sandwich for lunch at Cafe' Chew with one of my friends on 2/28.  It was another nice winter day.

After lunch, Laurie wanted to show me the herons in the marshes and I noted it was low tide, my fave time to beachcomb.  I didn't bring my zoom lens so I had to massively crop this picture to show the heron.

After Laurie and I parted company, I swung up to Town Neck Beach to see if I could find any treasure.

It's super rocky at this beach, because it's where Sandwich meets the Cape Cod Canal.  This would be a sand bar on any other beach, but here it's a rock bar.

Rock bar and seaweed

Rock bar in the foreground, and that's the fog horn & light on the jetty at Scusset Beach.

There was a whole line of shells on the beach at the same place, where the water deposited them.  I found a handful of white periwinkle shells, like that one on the right.  I'd never seen them on Cape beaches before (or any beaches for that matter).  The rest were snail and slipper shells.

Barge leaving the Canal into Cape Cod Bay

Maco's Bait & Tackle Shop

I have been meaning to check out Maco's Bait & Tackle for quite sometime.  Last fall, I posted a couple of pictures taken outside it, one afternoon when it was closed.  I confess it bugs me that 'buoys' is spelled wrong on that sign.

I shot a similar picture at a souvenir shop last fall, but I do love how these colourful Adirondack chairs look all lined up.

Love this weathervane!!

I want this for my yard.  It's so unique and so me.

Ever since one of my friends pointed out that the pig tail looks like a duck's head, I can't unsee it.  lol

I snuck this picture inside the store.  That mason jar had beach glass for sale, and there was another jar full of beach glass also for sale.  I was VERY tempted, but I don't think I want to purchase treasure someone else found, unless I'm going to use it for a craft project.  I want to find it myself.

Back outside the shop

Cranberry boxes

I will stop by again closer to summer!  I hope my little girl statue is still there. 

Rest in Peace Davy Jones

I am completely gutted over the news that Davy Jones passed away.  I have loved the Monkees, both the TV show and their music, since I was about 4 or 5, in the late 60's.  Their music has been part of the fabric and soundtrack of my life, always. My fave tape that I listen to in my car all the time is one with alternating Monkees and Partridge Family songs. I got to see Davy, Peter and Mickey perform in 1986, both in Cohasset and at the Melody Tent in Hyannis.   I went to the latter show with my friend Jack, and we didn't have tickets.  We snuck into the show after hanging around at the back of the Tent near the tour buses before the show started.  Davy emerged from the bus and passed close enough for us to touch him.  It was a night neither Jack nor I will ever forget.

My sincerest condolences to his wife, children, family and friends.  He will be missed.

Life and Stuff

Wow the first two months of the year are gone!!!  I'm always kind of sad when that happens, especially when January ends.  I love January.  It seems like the year starts flying by so quickly after the first 2 months end.

Sagan looks much better and is slowly filling out.  He's a happy little guy who still loves playing with his squeak toys and cuddling.  I took him over to my mom's house earlier in the month and she couldn't help but melt when he went over for pets.  He was very good over there and with her, and she didn't even mind when he got up on the couch and snuggled in my lap.  I know he misses having a couch and window to look out of.  He loves that.  Am hoping to get at least a loveseat by April, and possibly the couch that goes with it. That will involve a lot of rearranging in the livingroom....I'm being lobbied hard to move the stereo somewhere else, because it doesn't get used when he's home, and to be honest, when I'm here alone, I like it quiet during the day and the TV is on at night.  So yeah, it's not getting used.  

Speaking of Sandwich, here are a few pics from the day we went to mom's.  This is at one of the cranberry bogs near Spring Hill Beach in E. Sandwich.

An awesome sunset at Shawme Pond.

Driving home to Buzzards Bay.

Canal and Bourne Bridge in the distance.

Buzzards Bay

Full moon that night (2/7/12).

Here's an adorable pic of da Bean, sitting up next to my chair, working the cute to get a snack.  (Note: Since I was asked on Facebook what that red light is, it's the power strip switch for the stereo)

Not too much going on at all with life itself.  Pretty much same ol', same ol', which is fine with me.  Things are happy and peaceful in my little world.  We had some snow that didn't stick, but it was pretty to watch falling that day.  I mostly did crafts and coloured.  Oh yeah, the one sucky thing was that I got my tax return back and I owe quite a bit of cash.  More than I thought, and way more than what I have. So that really sucks.  But my squeeze held me tight and reassured me, as usual.  He's such a good, sweet man.  He works so hard too.

I have looked around for work but alas, I am unqualified for everything that's out there, and most jobs are so far away that it wouldn't make sense to increase fuel costs and put wear and tear on my car, which has over 93,000 miles on it, or start to incur car payments if I get a new used car, which will have to be Jeep-like.  It's almost more cost-effective, in the long run, for me to remain unemployed right now, b/c I have so much flexibility to pick him up and drop him off, without our needing to get a second vehicle.  And I admit, I reeeeally don't want to go back to work yet.  I love being at home for the first time in my life.  Since Kindergarten, I've always had to have a Monday thru Friday schedule.  College was the same, and I went right to work after college. I am enjoying the sweet freedom of sleeping late, doing crafts, taking walks, spending lots of time with my doggies, etc.  I love being domestic.  Getting the house clean and laundry done, stocking the pantry and fridge with my honey's fave things, cooking for him when he gets home, spoiling him rotten when he gets in. 

Oh we had some really great news though!!!  I emailed our landlords that we would love to stay in the house when the Lease is up in June.  I wanted to put it out there early, in case they had intended on not renewing, or putting the place up for sale.  In that case, I would have to start looking for a new rental and start the task of packing what I just unpacked not that long ago. I was on tenterhooks waiting for a reply, and scared to check my email in case the reply wasn't what I'd hoped.  However, to my delight, I got an email back right away saying that they were hoping we'd stay, they were gonna ask us to stay and they weren't going to raise the rent!!  So we are here till at least June, 2013 and that is a huge relief and burden off my shoulders.  I don't even have to think about having to move for over a year.  I expected, and would have accepted, a rent increase but no increase is just too awesome!  I do love this house and Buzzards Bay.  I'd never spent any time in BBay when I grew up in Sandwich....I only ever saw the Rte. 28/Main Street corridor on the way to and from NY, before the Rte. 25 connecting highway was built, bypassing downtown BBay and Wareham, allowing us to get onto I-195 from the Bourne Bridge.  Oh, and we used to bowl here in BBay when we were kids.

Sagieboo continues to push the boundaries by stealing chairs or snoozing on the bed during the day.  He wouldn't dare do this when my love is home, but when he's on the road, Sagan likes to sit in the Man of the House's chair.  He was all curled up but then sat up when I went to take his picture.  Doofus.

So of course what's good for the gander is good for the goose, and now Pepper decided to sit in Uncle Daddy's chair too.  Dontcha love the "Go-ahead-make-my-day-I-dare-you-to-kick-me-off" expression?  

This one sums up the relationship between brother and sister.  He was grunting happily and squeaking a toy, which was freshly repaired that morning, oblivious to her exasperated stare.  

My boys having a snuggle moment one lazy Sunday.  I'm so pleased that they continue to bond.  Sagan hides from the ever present paparazzi.

We continued to have great weather for the most part.  Sunny and clear, but chilly.  Certainly mild by New England standards. I had to run up to town hall to drop off my voter registration, so decided to finally check out this vista point along the Canal.

I was eager to see what I could only assume would be a lovely, three mile, sweeping view from the Bourne Bridge to the Railroad Bridge, so I braved the icy cold wind and headed up the path.

And it is a lovely view.  Too bad it's almost completely obstructed by power lines, poles and several trees!!  I was so shocked that all that money was spent on benches, a little table and covered viewing area, so that you could look at lines.

Facing toward the Railroad Bridge is even worse.  What were they thinking?  HELLO!  No matter what you do, you cannot get a decent photo from this 'vista point'.  The lines are unavoidable.  Oh, and as a side note, look at where the vista point railing is, on the far right edge.  That shows you how far I was leaning out, attempting to get a halfway decent picture.  The shorter power pole top that is blocking the right side of the bridge actually completely blocks the bridge if you aren't leaning halfway over the rail!!!  I can only guess that further views of the Canal are obstructed when the trees are in bloom as well.  

I'm struggling with Project 365.  It's way harder than I thought it would be to shoot one picture every day.  Sometimes I shoot 5 or 6 that are decent enough for a week's worth of daily photos, but that's not the spirit of the project.  It's supposed to be shot and posted the same day.  I admit I've cheated a couple times and posted pics not shot that same day.  Everyone that started doing 365 with me in early January is having the same problem too.  

For the most part, February was a month of crafts, which is always good.   Gotta start thinking about building that fence in the back yard too.  Sagan will turn 7 on March 11th, and there's a party for Russell's grandmother's 90th birthday coming up too.  Am already considering some recipes for something to bring.  And his birthday as well.  Would love to take some more day trips but the rising gas prices are, again, making me think twice about venturing too far.  I expect I'll be making a trip up to Eastham and P-Town fairly soon though.  Or should I say 'down to' since that area is known as the Lower Cape, even though it curves upward.  Never got that at all.  The Sandwich/Bourne/Falmouth/Mashpee area is called the Upper Cape.  Go figure.  Hopefully March will continue with mild weather, peace and calm cause that's what we like!

Happy Leap Year and I leave you with one more picture of the kids, which I have titled:

"Archie & Edith"