It's a cranberry world on Cape Cod

I haven't posted for a while; at the little church, we've had two weddings, three funerals, and a newsletter, so my carpal tunnel problems are giving me a great deal of trouble. 

But, without a doubt, it is the most beautiful time of year here on Cape Cod, and I wanted to share it with you! Many of the growers are wet-harvesting on the cranberry bogs, and, believe me, when I see all the rosy glory on a lovely fall morning, it's very, very hard not to pull over and drink it all in --the views across the ponds and bogs are absolutely breath-taking. 

If you ever have the opportunity 

to visit Cape Cod in the fall, please do come visit...

and until then...eat more Cape Cod Cranberrries!

(By the way, if you'd like this Cape Cod package sign for yourself, get in touch with my fabulous cousin, Jan, in the Buffalo, New York, area. Her business, The Traveling Picture show made a gorgeous framed copy for my kitchen.

Oh, beautiful

America the Beautiful

Katharine Lee Bates, the author of the poem "America the Beautiful," was born right here on Cape Cod, on Main Street in Falmouth in 1859. If you ever come to visit the Cape, you can find out more about Miss Bates's life at the Falmouth Historical Association's Museums on the Green, a lovely grouping of sea captains' homes and gardens overlooking the town green where militia men paraded during the Revolutionary War. 

Falmouth revers Miss Bates; the beautiful Falmouth Public Library is located on Katharine Lee Bates Road, and one of the most popular sites in town is named after a line from her most famous poem. 

The Shining Sea Bike and Walking Path follows the coast from downtown Falmouth to Woods Hole, skirting the harbor. It continues through a shady, tree-lined walkway, then passes through cranberry bogs, ponds and woods. Closer to the coastline, you emerge along the water, where you can see ferries making their way across the ocean to Martha's Vineyard. A few miles later, the path reaches the harbor at Woods Hole, where you can stop to browse the shops and Oceanographic buildings and have a cold drink or cup of espresso at Coffee Obsession. On a nice day, the path is filled with the friendly bustle of walkers, skaters and bicyclists, and you can rest at benches and small bridge vistas along the way. My mother, sisters and I love nothing more than taking this walk together, and, if ever pressed, I'd chose Shining Sea as my favorite part of Cape Cod.

America the Beautiful

Words by Katharine Lee Bates,
Melody by Samuel Ward

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

The two most beautiful words

Summer afternoon--summer afternoon; 

to me those have always been the two most

beautiful words in the English language.

--Henry James, as quoted by Edith Wharton

Mirrored garden streamers tutorial

Mirrored 

Garden Streamers 

by Jude at 

Dolce Cape Cod

Years ago, I received a present of small mirrored streamers to hang in my garden. They were simple sets of mirrors on either end of a string a few yards long.

They were made to be draped over branches to catch the sun, with the mirrors working as counterweights to hold the streamer in place, The streamers are quite magical when the light  reflects off the mirrors, and they're especially enchanting when a gentle breeze catches them; sparkling fairy circles of light dance across the ground.

It's like jewelry for your garden!

 

 I thought these would be easy to make -- and they are, now that I've worked out the kinks. Most of my effort came from finding the one and one-half inch mirrors and figuring out which kind of line to use. I found many suppliers of one-inch mirrors, but the smaller size just didn't produce the proper effect.  Fortunately, I finally found an inexpensive supplier of the correct size mirrors here. The mirrors come packaged as a cute little rolled paper cylinder.Each one-and-one-half inch mirror is 14 cents, or $10.08 plus shipping for 72 mirrors. Pretty darn inexpensive, don't you think? You'll need four mirrors for each streamer.

I also went through several prototypes using various materials to use as the streamer string that connects the sets of mirrors. Fishing line was a nightmare -- can you say "big, fat, tangled, snarly mess?" 

After that,  I decided to go the natural route, and used hemp twine. I hung the dangles outside one afternoon, and spent the next morning picking up sliced twine  from the ground where the pieces of streamers had fallen after the rough edges of the branches halved them. Next, ribbons. Very pretty, but also not  transparent, so the streamers lost the magical hey-where-did-that-light-come-from effect.

.

Finally, in Home Depot, I found just what I needed: twisted mason line. The price for the mason line was just a couple of dollars, and it was made of nylon, polyester and polypylene. There are times when a good, strong, man-made fiber is just what you need to survive outdoor conditions. This is one of them.

Okay, are you ready to make these for your own garden or porch? Here's my tutorial. It's only the second one I've created, so I'm very eager to hear your comments, and I'm really, really hoping everyone likes it; please come visit me here on Cape Cod at www.dolcecapecod.blogspot, and tell me what you think, okay?

Mirrored Garden Streamers
from www.dolcecapecod.blogspot.com

Supplies you'll need:

One and one-half inch mirrors 
(Each streamer uses 4 mirrors)

Waterproof glue (I used E-6000 and Gorilla Glue, and both worked very well)

Mason line

Equipment you'll need:

Scissors

Plastic clips or clamps


Here's everything I used, lined up on my 
"work" table on the patio:

Step One:

Get your supplies ready.

For each streamer, lay out four mirrors, reflective side down.

Measure out and cut a piece of mason line several  yards long. I  used the fabric tip rough measure way: Just hold the line from your  nose to your outstretched arm. Twice.

Step Two:

Form the end of one line into a small coil, looping the end of the line through the coil several times to fasten loosely. Repeat at other end. (If you don't coil the line into loops, the weight of the mirrors will pull the string out from between the mirror sandwich, and you'll be left with string hanging down with mirrors on the lawn. There's a reason I know this.)

Step Three:

Place looped ends on mirrors and cover liberally with glue to secure.

Sandwich with other disk, and clamp securely with the plastic clips.

Step Four:

Let dry thoroughly, according to glue instructions.
I left mine to dry for 24 hours. Longer is even better. In the meantime, start making more for your friends and family; they make great gifts!

Step Five:
Drape your streamers from branches. Watch mirrors waft, spin, dangle and catch the light.

  

Smile.

Morning has broken on Cape Cod

It's early morning, and I'm listening to Cat Stevens singing "Morning has broken." This is something my cousin Beth does every day. She gets up very early, and once she's in her wheelchair, and settled, she plays it on her computer.

She says it's her prayer. That's nice, don't you think?

Here it is for you, with lovely photos to go with it. Enjoy:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ESHjYat9r

Happier....

It's my day off .

...and I'm happier than
a seagull
with a French fry!

Have a lovely day,

August angst

I've heard that people hate the month of November. And I know that March can be tedious. But, for me, August is the cruelest month. Please, August, go away.

Until several weeks ago, Cape Cod had a "summer without a summer." It rained. Every day. For weeks. And weeks. And, even when it wasn't raining, it was cold. I used my electric blanket during the month of July. Yes, I know what you're going to say, but the night air gave off a nasty cold damp, and I do sleep alone!

But, er, anyway, in the garden, everything that loved the shade did well, and my artemisia and ferns are like jungle changelings. And my impatients! Oh, my, they loved the rain.

For the flowers and vegetables which need sun, however, it's been a sad state of affairs. Instead of massing over the outdoor shower walls, my Heavenly Blue morning glories, which are usually just as divine as their name, are only eight to ten inches tall, and I've seen narley a glimpse of blue. My roses pettered out early, and even the varieties of daisies were none too happy.

On the vegetable front, my dad's tomato plants grew to lumberjack proportions...with no fruit. He's only just getting little green tamaters, and while he waits for them to turn red, I'm ashamed to say that my potted cherry tomatoes have been giving me a handful of heirloom yellows. Tomato growing is not a matter in which I have any desire to show my father up, accomplished Italian tomato farmer that he is.

And now that August has finally struck Cape Cod, we've been hit with the part of weather I hate the most -- the humid, heated weather that hits you over the head from behind and then comes around to kick you in the belly. This weather makes me feel ill, and I'm completely lacking in ambition. The floors are sticky, no matter how often I wash and clean them. The yard is overgrown and seedy. And my office looks like an empty classroom.

So, all in all, I'm tired of August, and darn it all, I want it to leave! August is like the house guest I never really wanted, and now that it's here, I can't wait for it to go. Go away, August.

Foggy Cape Cod Bloggy

So often, here on Cape Cod, it's hard to know what the day will be like. Some mornings, the fog from the ocean will hang on, pulling back gently to tease with just a bit of sun, a small glimpse of blue sky, and, just as you've decided, "Oh, it's going to rain," or "Oh, there's the sun," changing yet again.

The first time my cousin Janice and her husband Patrick came here to visit me, I worried every morning about the weather. I wanted everything to be perfect for their vacation here. And, every morning, the fog would drift away as they pulled out of the driveway for another one of their Cape Cod adventures (more on those in the future, I promise).

This August morning, as I sip my coffee, I wonder whether I should close the windows before I head off to the Outer Cape. Some mornings, the sun will break through before I leave, but as I drive towards Skaket Harbor on the Mid-Cape Highway, I can see the eastern end of the sky in front on me enveloped in dense clouds and mists. No matter...by the time I'm opening the blinds in my office, the sun may well be shining.

Hello. blogworld!

Hello blogworld!

I’m writing from my little house in a village of Barnstable to tell you about the simple, everyday pleasures of living and working here on beautiful Cape Cod, the “arm of the sea” in Massachusetts.

I’m just learning how to do this, but please visit me again!