Kitchen Paint and Flowers

The on-going painting campaign at the Nest resumed shortly after the sun had set on Sunday evening, as I turned my attention to the terribly-pink kitchen walls, which are being covered with a brick red called Mexicana.

I'll admit I was a shade non-plussed to open it in the artificial light of evening, where it seemed a little browner than I thought I liked. And I still see a little of that in proper daylight, but it's a sort of terra cotta note, which I quite like.

And I'm very fond of the way the peachy-orange dining room walls are playing with the red of the kitchen.

I'm not brushing/rolling the Mexicana, though. I'm applying with a sea sponge, which is creating a sort of mottled texture to the painting. Plus, the more you work the paint with the sponge, the more you can get the over and under tones of the color to come out a little to build on that texture.

The cutting in's actually the worst with this treatment, since you need a wee bit of sponge to get into the cracks and corners...and I've had some bad luck with masking tape adhesives failing just as I start laying paint along the edge.

Ah, well...all the trim in the place will get a nice fresh coat of white once all else is finished, so no real worries there.


There's just the west wall of the kitchen left to get the Mexicana, though that will be a project for tomorrow night after work.

The bricky-red should butch up the pink walls that will remain in the pantry.

Meanwhile, I thought I'd share with you a few snapshots from the garden at work.

I just love these yellow David Austin roses. I can't recall the name of this variety, but the scent is just lovely, even muted a little by the recent cool temperatures.

These single pink roses are also nicely scented. You can see that the rose plants are looking a little scraggly at this end of the season, even though they are continuing to bloom. They'll do so on and off til around November, weather allowing, which it often does. That's always nice.

Just a bit of blush from cool evenings on the flowers of this PeeGee hydrangea. You can also see the wear of this part of the season here, as well.

This first evening of autumn (sob...) brings us temperatures teetering between 58 and 59 the last couple of hours. It's mostly comfortable, but every once in a while there seems a bit of chilled air current (not really a breeze, per se...) that suggests I ought to have all the windows closed. I've shut a few, but not all of them.

I like the fresh air as much as I enjoy a comfy flannel shirt.

Outer Cape Afternoon

Twelve years ago this week, I traveled from the Adirondacks to Provincetown, where I spent ten fantastic days exploring the wilds of the Outer Cape, both in the narrow streets and the dunes.

When the days turn a little cool, I always remember that trip and what fun it was. That trip marked the first real vacation for me as a so-called grown-up, and I remember what a joy it was to spend the week in a place where being gay was the norm, not the exception...and by the end of the week, I recall my face actually hurt a little from all the grinning I was doing.

Also, by this time in September, frost has usually put the gardens of the Adirondacks to bed for the winter...but arriving in PTown, I discovered gardens still blooming their little heads off, if looking a little bedraggled for the recent passing of Hurricane Eduardo.

It was this week that made me fall in love with Cape Cod as a place to make a life and by the end of the week, not only was I a grinning fool, but I realized after leaving for home that I was homesick for the place and I began to lay my plans to move out here. The rest, as they say, is history.

Yesterday was one of those pretty fall days. It started that way, anyway. We were still enjoying the warmer temperatures that Wednesday had featured...but while I was doing laundry in the morning, we had some dark skies and the temperature managed to drop ten degrees...a Canadian cold front, someone who was watching the TV told me.

I was back at the eye Doc, to check up on things, as my eye is taking just a little longer to heal than anticipated, but we were able to see improvement since Tuesday, so I will resume being patient with myself, since it was probably hurrying that caused the injury in the first place.

Meanwhile, it was a late September day and I had a hair appointment in Provincetown, so after the laundry, I spent some time in the office and then hit the road for the Outer Cape.


This bit of wild phlox caught my good eye, growing as well as it was in a tiny little bit of earth between two sections of macadam outside the salon. I moved some of this stuff to Harwich last fall, but it never managed to bloom for me during the summer. I wonder if its doing so now...

I've always been impressed with the gardens and plants of Provincetown. The quality of the light is amazing there and so that must encourage plants to do their best, as it also does for painters and other artists. Some of the gardens are narrow little patches in narrow little back or side or front yards...and the results never fail to amaze me.

It's always fun to ramble around town a bit, enjoying the seaside views and the scent of the sea air and such.





Of course, there's always a few interesting people and or dogs to be seen in Provincetown.

With cooler temperatures coming to bear, there weren't any scantily clad beautiful people to enjoy (they have probably headed south for Key West now...as flannel becomes a more popular seasonal choice...), but I enjoyed this dog, who was sharing a bench with its people out on MacMillan Pier.

There wasn't much in the way of boating activity this time of year, but it was still kind of cool to walk out along the dock and enjoy the sky and the seabirds who were filling it.


Plus, from out at the end of the wharf, you get the most enjoyable views of the town itself.

One of the things I had hoped to do while I was in town was to replace a bit of stained glass I had purchased on that long ago trip, which had recently broken. It was a very simple stained glass rainbow flag, but it always made my heart sing a little as it caught the sun.

I was sad to discover that they no longer make this particular bit of stained glass, though after twelve years (and with PTown becoming a little more exclusive as resorts go, the whole rainbow flag culture has faded a little...as you may recall from my hunt for the sight of one of the flags back in June...)...but as I walked away, I was a little surprised at just how sad I felt about it...

...which is when I remember that this was actually my second day without a nicotine patch (62 days altogether since the last cigarette...), and so as I go through this final stage of withdrawal, I suppose its not unreasonable that I should be an emotional mess. This, too, shall pass. Of course, the Nicodemon isn't entirely to blame: it was on that long-ago vacation that I also first met Owen, too.




I enjoyed this large frog outside one of the stores on Commercial Street. He's actually a large vase for the flowers held in his left hand. Pretty cool, huh?

I wandered through some of the shops at the Whalers Wharf complex...just one more representation of the way in which the town has changed in ten years.

Of course, WW used to be a big open area indoors, with a sort of disorganized array of vendors and their relatively inexpensive wares. It was that sort of set-up, I imagine, that allowed the fire that destroyed the place the winter I moved here to take hold and spread so crazily.

While the floors in this new place appear wood-like, they are actually some kind of composite flooring cast to look like wood. I did enjoy the way the hanging gardens looked from the second story, though.

And these steel flowers added a nice counterpart to the cosmos I found blooming a little further down Commercial Street, as I made my way back to the car.

A few weeks back, I made a big deal out of all the things I'd done in the Harwich garden which probably encouraged my sunflowers to "be all they could be", but I couldn't live Provincetown without showing you these guys. In just a few scant inches of earth between the street curb and the foundation of this house, these tenacious little fellows are putting on a nice show all their own.





Cape Cod Light, aka, Highland Light, has always been one of my favorite things about the outer Cape and I used to enjoy the way its beam would sweep across the Provincetown night sky.

It was actually a story about the moving of the lighthouse away from the crumbling cliffs above the ocean in Truro that gave me the idea to come to Provincetown on vacation that year long ago...and I've always considered this lighthouse a sort of beacon for me.






A nice sunset capped the day.

With forecasts predicting a low of forty degrees possible overnight, I was happy to head home and close some windows in the apartment, and to spend a little time snuggling with my buddy, Badum, who is pretty good at throwing the heat on a cool evening.

A Few Things

This morning, I was sitting at the computer with my first cuppa Joe, trying to get my eyes open and make some sense of the world around me, when I heard this sound through the open window. It was like someone had bit into the world's largest stalk of celery. I looked outside and saw a rather large squirrel standing atop one of the older, drooping sunflowers, gnawing through the stalk and harvesting the entire seedhead. Pretty impressive.

What was less impressive is that my camera had just enough to battery to turn on and tell me I didn't have enough power...and by the time I'd recharged fifteen minutes later, the squirrel had fled with the object of his affection.

However, a few minutes later one of our neigh bor hood gold finches showed up to do a little harvesting and munching of his own. The lesser sunflowers are certainly providing a great breakfast buffet to this little guy and his family.

Meanwhile, you might recall me recently mentioning the canna lily and pondering what color it's flowers might be. Red is, I believe, the standard shade for these guys, though I've also seen some nice yellow ones.

But I'm not sure I was expecting such a lovely shade of orange. What a treat!

Now, my friends, I must offer in advance an apology. I'm about to include something a little less pleasant than I often like to...in fact, you may find it downright upsetting. If you don't, I'm inclined to actually be a little concerned that we're friends. But I've learned something about Sarah Palin, the Republican nom for VP who's been ALL over the news this week...and it's too important, too dastardly, for me not to make sure you know.



Again, I'm sorry. I've been hearing about these aerial hunts for a while now, but I never imagined, innocent idiot that I am, that we could be faced with the architect of such barbarism as a possibility to lead our country. As if we weren't in enough trouble already.

Now, take a deep breath, and look at these pretty marguerite daisies I found in a planter outside my friend Jane's office in Chatham.

You may recall my mentioning Jane back on June 12th, when I was celebrating Best Day Ever and treated myself to a massage (it was complimentary, actually) at Jane's new practice, Cloud Nine Bodywork. Hoping to mitigate some of the stress knots that I'd been accumulating in my back the past week, I called Jane and got myself an appointment for today, my day off.

To sweeten the experience, when I arrived, Jane offered me a nice discount if I'd let her practice her new hot stones technique on me. So, a few dollars less and a little minor scarring later (ha ha, only kidding, Jane dear...it was absolutely lovely!), the Midnight Gardener greeted the afternoon a soothed man.

After collecting my paycheck from work and doing some banking, I got myself a nice deli sandwich and headed for the beach. I'd thought to spend my lunchtime in the company of the Atlantic proper, but the beach parking lot at Nauset Light Beach was absolutely packed, and so I opted for my favorite bench at First Encounter Beach, on the bayside.


It didn't take my liverwurst sandwich and I any time at all to be targeted by an assortment of gulls, those seabirds known for having invented the expression, "You gonna finish that?"

They were pretty entertaining, though. I was more inclined to slip a few scraps of bread crust to the little guy, but he was deferring to the big one, who wasted no time in muscling the smaller one out of the way to grab what bits I was willing to share.

The tide was nearly all the way in and since it was a windy sort of an afternoon, there was a bit more splashiness to the bayside surf than we normally see there.

The wind also supported that interesting thing you sometimes see shorebirds doing, where they seem to pause in the air floating on the wind currents. As Douglas Adams once wrote, hanging in the air exactly the same way that bricks don't.

It's a neat trick, that. Unless, of course, they are hovering right over one and one's sandwich. I didn't dally with the sandwich, just to be on the safe side. I've never aspired to being Tippy Hedrin.

It was a beautiful day, for sure. Sunny and bright and clear, a touch of humidity sneaking in at us today, probably a prelude to the arrival of Hurricane Hanna and/or her remains on the weekend. The sun was pretty strong, so I didn't stay for too long, as I had other fish to fry and no sunscreen handy.



Next stop was my new digs, where I wanted to confirm my continuing interest in the place. I was greeted in the driveway by this wonderful hedge of roses.

Just a few weeks back it sported but a single blossom, but now, it's covered with them again. Oh, and the scent from these was quite delightful...just what I might have wished for!!

It was nice to get another look at the place today and start to get a sense of the layout of it all. I measured the ceilings for consideration of moving some bookshelves, and then talked paint colors and gardening opportunities with my friend L, who will also be my landlord.

On the latter front, I was happy to hear that there's plenty of room to play...and a pretty open form to it all. Apparently one of the neighbors also gardens, and has been occasionally discovered planting her divisions in the yard here. Colonizing, I suppose. Sounds like a fun place to bring some plants.

It sounds like this will be a great place for me and the cat, very comfortable and spacious, with lots of light and character. Here's a look at the place--the second story will be the gardener's new nest. To the left is one of several large lilac bushes all around the house and property.

It's also very nicely located for not only groceries and possibly walking to work, but it's also very near the bike trail and just down the road from Rock Harbor...and the nearby marshes I enjoy so.

Sunday Garden Report

I have completed the Dragonfly Trifecta!

In July, Patrick danced with dragonflies and Joe had cocktails with one. Today, one of these garden visitors decided to stop teasing me and posed on the faded head of a plantain flower. And what a chance to see what the new camera could do.

Do click to embiggen and admire those wings!

Yes, there's a new camera. It's been a tax-free weekend here in Massa chusetts and I'd been saving up some money saved from not smoking (30 days today!!) and such since my old camera went on to its reward back in the spring.

So now I'm experimenting with something new, an Olympus FE-310. So far, I'm having a great time with it, though I'm not sure I'm interested in the photo program that came along with the camera...my PhotoPlus 6.0 does all I need it to for developing purposes.


The first tentative photos were taken at that house party I visited last night. To the left are Vera and Chicao, two of our hosts...and down below is the whole bunch of us.

There had been other guests earlier, whom I unfortunately missed, but it was still fun to hang out for a while with everyone who was there when I arrived after a long night at work. Good tunes, a little dancing and Vera's special Brazilian potato salad!

Mmm mmm.


Here's me with Maria Paolo, Rocio and Katerin, who are all here on work visas from Columbia this summer.

By day, they are working as chamber maids, but in the evenings, the make the best team trio of dishwashers our restaurant has known in years! Plus, they're funny and sweet and great to party with!!


Despite the late night (it was around 2 a.m. when those pictures were taken!), I was up pretty early this morning, since I couldn't wait to get the new camera out for a spin in the garden.

A fresh round of bachelor's buttons provided some nice camera fodder. These little flowers - each one's about an inch across - just keep coming and coming...and in a great assortment of colors.




I just love the blue ones, but there are many of them up and down the fence garden. Naturally, I'm being won over by the purple ones in the color range, which were part of a range of about five different colors, so they are fewer in number.


The dappled sunlight behind this pair of purple pals is pretty delicious, too.



There's lots to learn about the new camera, so eventually I will have to sit down and have some quality time with the manual, to make sure I'm making full use of everything.

But I'm happy to say that its also pretty intuitive, and I've been having fun exploring some of the different settings.

As you might guess, my favorite, and one of the most appropriate to the Midnight Garden, is the macro-focus...and this camera also has a super-macro focus, and to celebrate I managed to stalk a few bees who were visiting the border this morning for your entertainment.


As you can see, sunshine made a full return to the Cape today and it really felt like summer. Looks like that'll be staying with us a for a few days, which is a comfort, since it's clear now the summer season is in decline.

In a moment typical of the sort of Charlie Brown-y moments which punctuate my life, last night I finally discovered my official cocktail for the 2008 Summer Season.


It's light and refreshing and mellow enough to enjoy more than one without falling down on my face. Being a frozen drink, the only real danger is a brain freeze from speedy consumption.

And no sooner did I victoriously hoist that Midori Colada in the air than leaves began falling from nearby trees, signalling the end of the season.

; )



Howdy, pardners! Life brought a straw cowboy hat my way this afternoon at work, when we hosted the annual un-birthday celebration of a local family.

This year's theme was cowboys and they were all appropriately attired, a wonderful Cape Cod mix of cowboy boots and flip-flops...and there were hats for all the staff who worked the party, too!

And just in time for Carnival Parade.

As I tried out the zoom feature, I caught this sunset-illuminated jet plane high overhead. It was flying east, out over the ocean, so I assume it was an international flight, though it occurs to me it might just have been circling around to approach Logan Airport in Boston from that direction.

In between pictures, I managed some serious dead-heading of the garden tonight. As always, lots of spent marigolds to remove, some more allyssum to trim back...a few faded bachelor's buttons here and there.

More of the daisies had gone past, so they were taken out and some of the coneflower rudbeckia was thinned a little, to encourage some late season reblooming.

I also took shears in hand and addressed the business of the now- tower ing spikes of evening primrose, pruning them back to something lower growing.

We'll see how well they respond to this sort of treatment; my suspicion is they will get bushy and stay a little shorter--I wish I'd thought to cut them back earlier in the season.

Once again, I unwound a great many morning glory vines around the re-captured flags on the fence, so for at least the next few hours, they should be able to flap with abandon on the occasional sea-breeze.


With nightfall coming just a little sooner, the deadheading turned into lighting candle lanterns in the garden and before long it was dark, leaving me free to head inside to sample that first Early Girl tomato.

There were two, actually, but I discovered that the second one had a nasty patch of mold growing on the bottom of it, so that one was jettisoned, but this one sliced nicely and was very tasty.

It would've made a nice tomato sandwich - the kind I've been craving all summer - if I had remembered that we had no bread in the house. But it was yummy just as it was...and tomorrow I'll make sure I'm stocked up to make a proper sandwich with the next couple in the harvest schedule.

It's not quite a full moon anymore--that was last night, but that just means I have a whole month to figure out how to take a great moon photo (no wisecracks, you lot...oh, ha ha...cracks...yah, whatever...) with the camera.

This one's not bad, but you can't see Jackie Gleason's face.