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Thursday, August 7, 2014

A Wellfleet Day

It was a Wellfleet Day. My iPhone ran out of juice so I couldn't take any photos.Words will have to suffice.
  1. First we had a table for 11 at about 11 a.m. at The Wicked Oyster* on Main Street, where we have breakfasted many times. But H. and I swore today's was the best ever...short stacks of plate-sized, fluffy blueberry pancakes; crisped, salty bacon; excellent lox [you can order a side plate]. Beautiful garden outside, with butterfly bush, zinnias, dahlias and more. On the mantel in the restaurant: a fat bunch of blue hydrangea and other blooms in a clear vase of water. On the walls: paintings of oysters, always a comfort.
  2. Uncle Tim's Bridge. We walked over it, sat or stood on it, looked down at the crabs in the mucky mud. Four girls in our party--two entering college in the fall, two much younger and hanging on their every word--walked to the other side and saw horseshoe crabs. So pretty to look off in the distance at the clutches of green grass standing tall at low tide, holding their own. I want to be like those grasses.
  3. Salty Duck Pottery. I've seen that sign for a million years but think this is the first time we've ventured in. Pretty speckled blue bowls, edged platters, decorative tiles. We just looked, but it was a nice long drink.
  4. The Audubon! I was there yesterday morning and H. and Punch went yesterday afternoon but today we went together. Inside, in a tank, we saw Bubbles, a pretty blue lobster donated by Arnold's seafood restaurant. The sign says blue lobsters are extremely rare, about 1 in 2 million. Cool. Bubbles is a male and the Wellfleet Wildlife Sanctuary volunteer said the mutation would not be passed down if he had baby lobsters. Outside, we saw a flock of turkeys, a little turtle, two slimy frogs and the old whale bones that never cease to stop me in my tracks. We also heard a large toad croak in a sludgy green pond. Then we walked the Goose Pond Trail all the way out to the water, but lightning was rippling in the sky a bit....in a panic, Punch and I got off the boardwalk trail on the way back somehow, and ended up in muck sprung with a big meadow of tall, tough grass. Punch was very scared but very brave, just soldiered on. Oh my Jesus, she said, though we encourage her not to speak that way. We have to walk over crabs. I reminded her as we trudged over the fiddler crab holes that They don't want us, they're afraid of us. I heard They don't want us, they don't want us as I swashbuckled ahead. We emerged with her sneakers/my bare feet covered in thick mud--made me think of a salon mud treatment; must see if my feet feel softer and look younger.
After that, we went home, ravished and thirsty, and let Punch watch a DVD ["Home Alone"] while we read and dozed. Then a long walk with Sug and neighbors under a pink sky and a trip to the Red Barn for pizza and mini golf.

Around hole 15, H. called Figgy, who hadn't responded to his texts today, and said she was really tired. It wasn't 10 p.m. yet. Being addicted to anxiety/fear and prone to depression, I spun into a bit of a panic, wondering about her alone in her NYC apartment, which she wanted to settle into before school starts later this month. Her roommates arrive soon. Then I got cranky that I couldn't get over to the Hot Chocolate Sparrow in Orleans to blog and get a coffee, since it was closed already. I'm sorry to report I wasn't very gracious to H. and Punch. I was trying to guard my writing time, not forfeit it. So here I am in the parking lot by Ben & Jerry's, laptop leaning on steering wheel to get Dunkin' Donuts wifi.

Punchy has been a hectic handful when she's not out doing---hiking, walking the dog, playing mini golf. We have to go, go, go at an age when we want to rest, rest, rest. She tends to bother Sugar and poke me and my furball [literally, not figuratively].

Speaking of which, I should head back home, so I can revel in some quiet time until our little traveler wakes again. Good night. On my raft of anxiety but hope to drift into calmer waters. It's very strange to not have Figgy here, I have to say.

*As opposed to the Impudent Oyster on Chatham Bars Avenue in Chatham--a nice restaurant that my brother Will and his Kelly like. 

TCOY
  1. Breathing in on Uncle Tim's Bridge.
  2. Long walk at Audubon, long walk with Sug.
  3. A little read and snooze.
  4. I plan to go out for ice cream just once on this 10-day vacation. Today is day 6 and I just got a waffle-bowl sundae at Ben & Jerry's, so that's it. I have to say the waffle bowl, made on premises, was freshly baked and dipped in good-quality dark chocolate. Not so with Cold Stone Creamery in Times Square or Montclair, I fear.

3 comments:

  1. It seems that your current location inspires your picturesque writing skills to really come out (not that all your posts aren't excellent). It's just that your love of nature is so strong, it comes shining through. Love, Linda P.S. I am keeping Fig in my prayers that she is safe and happily adjusts to this next step.

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  2. ditto. on the writing and on the prayers.

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  3. Hi Lin and Kim. Thank you for reading, caring, checking in. Nature does fill my soul. Have to find it more at home. Sending love, Alice. And thanks for prayers for fig's launch. Love Alice

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