The Earth Turns

And so a few days pass and it's been a week suddenly. I figured I'd check in and let you all know what's been going on, more or less.

We had a little rain this evening, perhaps in sympathy for those standing in the face of Hurricane Ike's arrival along the Gulf Coast this overnight, but generally, it's been a week of lovely days and pleasant evenings...and when possible I've snuck off to enjoy little bits of nature here and there throughout a week filled with other things.

I've now got telephone, cable and internet service at the Nest, which is fun, but the blogging could cut into my actually accomplishing things, too, so I beg your patience with sporadic posting. I'll try to make the wait worth your while.

Thanks to some regular watering, the recently potted up annuals seem to be recovering nicely from such late-season treatment.


Most of the paint has arrived now and I've even made a bit of a start on that, getting a nice solid two coats of Cape Cod Gray (which as you can see has a nice blue cast in most lights) onto the walls in the bedroom...as a base for things to come.

I sort of enjoyed this tribal-looking mark I got on my palm in the process...looks like the sort of cool representation of the sun you might see on a cave wall somewhere, eh?

I really like the way the Cape Cod Gray plays with the green that was in so many rooms here. Much of the green will go away, partly because there's been some spackling work and it'd be too tricky to try to match the color. Fortunately, some green walls are spackle free and I'll be preserving those as accents of a sort.

I know this next photo isn't especially clear, but I could hardly resist teasing you with the image of what I found myself sketching on one of the living room walls the other evening. It should embiggify for your straining eyes' ease.

In between applications of the blue paint the other night, I took a break and found myself over at Nauset Beach, on the ocean side. It's about a five minute drive from the Nest, especially with the minimal traffic we're seeing out here now that September's here for sure.

It was after dark, but the sight and sound of the crashing surf in the moonlight was pretty amazing and I just sat on a bench and enjoyed the show for a while.

Another night, I found myself at First Encounter Beach, watching the sun sinking in the west, spreading its saturated colors across the sky in its wake.

All the colors of the rainbow were there in the sky, starting at the horizon and climbing toward the violet heavens. In the center of it all, a sailboat moved silently across the bay, perfectly silhouetted, making it postcard perfect.

That night I forgot my camera, naturally, so you'll have to trust me on that.


As the sun's light faded from the sky and the moon rose in the east at my back, I heard a thrilling sound from the marsh behind me, as the Coyote Revival Meeting got underway. They were far enough away that I wasn't concerned, most likely on the far side of Bee's Creek, but it's funny how the sinking sun and the ebbing tide take away so much sound from an evening, making the cry seem all the louder.

First it was just a single howl, and then the call and response of a second...and then a third...and then all of a sudden there was a great howling frenzy of them, all greeting the moon as she took the sky above.

Someone wrote recently to ask if the Monkey Slippers were still around and yes, they most definitely are. As the season turns and the days cool a little, they are becoming pretty popular again.



We bachelors are managing pretty well, but since it's a landscape of boxes and milkcrates and such still, it's really a cat's playground and Badum's been zooming through the night, or slinking through stacks of boxes and books, or batting around catnip mice to his heart's content, when he's not lying around on his back, admiring the ceiling.

He's almost always met me at the door when I came home, not just here. But it's fun at the new place, as I can hear him talking to me from inside the door as I climb the stairs after being out. Well, until we got television...and now I've caught him snoozing a time or two.

Last weekend, during the move, a misplaced half-packet of cat grass seed appeared and once we'd settled in a little here, I got the seeds planted...Sunday night, I think. Already, it's begun to sprout and will be something to make my buddy feel a little more at home. Plus it's fun to have something new growing.


On the way to the bank this morning, I spotted this pair of birds soaring in the sky above First Encounter Marsh, sometimes just hanging in the air on the breezes from the bay.

Although they look like big seagulls in this particular shot, I did get a much closer look at them before the camera was ready and the wingspan here was truly impressive. I wasn't able to actually get out of the car (there's really no place to pull over), tho fortunately a lack of other vehicles coming along allowed me to stop and get a few snaps.

I still can't say for sure if they were eagles or hawks...I've seen both in that area before...and I suppose it's possible they were ospreys, whom I'm really not familiar with. No matter their identity, they made an impressive sight on an overcast morning.