Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Tuesday, October 2, 2012 -- Mattie died 160 weeks ago today.

Tonight's picture was taken in May of 2008. That weekend we took Mattie to Calvert Cliffs in Maryland. This is an incredible state park with a one mile walking trail down to the Chesapeake Bay. Mattie walked a mile that day through the woods, passed marshes and wildlife, and landed up on the beach that you see in this photo. The beauty of this beach is you can find sharks teeth buried in the sand if you are a good digger and more importantly patient. I have many teeth still in my kitchen which Mattie found on his trips to Calvert Cliffs.


Quote of the day: Anger is a killing thing: it kills the man who angers, for each rage leaves him less than he had been before - it takes something from him. ~ Louis L'Amour

As today marks the 160th week that Mattie has been gone from our lives, we thought this photo was actually very meaningful. While we were outside on the deck last night looking at the sun setting over the marsh, a butterfly came by and sat down near me. I entitle this picture, "Angel butterfly." Look at the shadow that the butterfly creates on the deck. To us, it looked like an angel! Symbolic of Mattie.

This morning, I looked out our window because I heard a high pitched chirping. Here is our resident chipmunk. Mattie was in love with chipmunks, and I took a picture of this Cape Cod "Chippy" for him.

Peter and I had another active day. We walked about 5 miles! It is supposed to rain again tomorrow, so we are trying to make the most of outdoor time while we can. Peter loves to explore and literally he took me through a back road. It was bumpy and tree branches were flying everywhere. As we hit each bump in the dirt, I literally screamed out "oh dear!" I snapped a picture of this back road, not that I will forget it any time soon. 

As we came out of this back road, there was literally a hawk flying next to our car. The hawk landed on this tree and I felt he was staring at me.

The highlight of today's journey was finding Great Hollow Beach. This beach is on Cape Cod Bay. There was no one on the beach except for a family with their toddler. The toddler was a boy and he and his dad were building sand castles. This was a very bittersweet sight to see, especially since Mattie and Peter did not only build sand castles together, they created sand cities. Each time they built on a beach, we always had other children coming over and joining us. Notice this beautiful yellow wildflower in the photo. It grows all over the dune of the Cape. I learned today that this flower is called Sienna Sunset. A very fitting name for its sunny color. Peter and I sat on a bench overlooking the water today for quite some time, appreciating the sun, the water, and all the sights and sounds of the shore.

One of the trails we walked today was called Red Maple Swamp. This trail is in Eastham and was a charming walk through a forest of trees that also had a stunning boardwalk through the swamp. The notion of a swamp may sound unappealing to some, but swamps are actually quite picturesque and filled with incredible plant and bird life.

Along the boardwalk, we were surrounded by trees that were already turning for the season. I entitle this photo, "Fall into Fall!"

Right next to Red Maple Swamp is the Fort Hill Trail. This trail crosses open fields, connects with the Red Maple Swamp trail, and offers spectacular views of Nauset Marsh. I was unable to capture the bird life on the marsh because it was too far away, but through binoculars we saw egrets, cormorants, grey blues, and seagulls. Also in one of the fields, it happened to be filled with grasshoppers. As we approached, hundreds of grasshoppers were jumping everywhere! It was a surreal sight and one that I did not quite appreciate as much as Mattie.

Our next stop was visiting the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. This sanctuary is on 1200 acres and offers outstanding opportunities for exploration and discovery of the natural world, from forest and field to salt marsh, sandy beach, and tidal flats. More than 260 species of birds have been recorded at the sanctuary. As we entered the sanctuary, a bunch of actual whale bones were on display. We tried to pick up a rib bone, but we were unable to, it is that heavy.

At the sanctuary pond was this beautiful grouping of turtles, out capturing the warmth of the sun! 

The Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary Pond!!!

Along the trail, I literally stopped in my tracks because right in front of me was this wonderful female turkey!

We also came across a family of quail. This mother quail had several of her chicks with her, and she moved them into the grass as soon as she saw us.

Now a complete switch in content! As we were driving on Route 6, this is what we saw. I entitle this photo, "Freak Show!" This is a person who decorates for Halloween. This house was decorated like this last year, and what I am not sure of is whether this nightmare exists all year long, or just during the month of Halloween. Either case, I would truly despise this person as a neighbor. To me this is just frightening and macabre. In the right hand side of the picture is an actual coffin, with a body coming out of it, on the left hand side is a horse with a headless person on it. You get the picture!

Later in the day we went to visit Ryder Beach. We were introduced to this beach last year. It is right on Cape Cod Bay and it is quite peaceful and beautiful (also a great beach to do shell picking). Though it was a glorious weather day, by the late afternoon, it started raining again. We walked the beach in the rain and came across these wonderful piping plovers. I remember the professor I worked for at Boston College did research on Piping Plovers on the Cape, so I am very familiar with the identity and patterns of these creatures. What I love about these birds is their grace and how they run across the sand with their thin stick-like legs! My nickname for these birds is "sticks," and from this picture you can see why.

The final picture I am sharing with you today is of a seal we saw at Ryder Beach. I did not know the Bay had seals in it, I thought they were only on the ocean side. But we saw at least three seals this evening and for me they were a very special sighting in the rain.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Monday, October 1, 2012

Tonight's picture was taken in May of 2008. This was SO typical of Mattie. Mattie had a way of playing with ordinary things and transforming them into elaborate set ups. This photo illustrated just one of MANY examples. Mattie took two of my rectangular flower boxes, attached them to our tomato plant cages using tape, and created ramps. He filled the ramps with water and had boats, cars, and all sorts of things floating and flying by. Mattie had a special energy and curiosity about life, which we will forever miss!







Quote of the day: Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation. ~ Khalil Gibran

Today was an incredibly active day for us. Peter is typically up before me, so he had been to the beach and saw seals and turkeys before I was even up. I felt like I missed these opportunities, but to my surprise we saw seals and turkeys on demand today! This morning we went to Ballston Beach. We learned about this beach last year, and we both fell in love with it. Ballston Beach lies on the Atlantic Ocean side at the end of a winding residential road, backed by the golden hills that artist Edward Hopper made famous in his Truro paintings. This beach was also recently been in the news because of the first shark attack since 1936. In the distance of this photo you can see a fisherman on the shore. Where the fisherman was, so were the birds and the SEALS!

What I loved about Ballston Beach last year is that we saw seals frolicking in the wild. When I went back to it today, I was looking closely in the water, and low and behold.... there were seals everywhere! To me they are a very special sighting!

Another interesting aspect of Ballston Beach is what I call a shelf in the sand. Literally there is a four foot drop in the sand in order to get down to the water. This shelf or drop is called a Scarp. Basically a scarp is a line of cliffs caused by erosion. You can see the scarp right next to where I am bending down.

Peter slid down the scarp and walked along the Atlantic. Unlike yesterday, today's weather was crystal clear, and though fall like, was simply beautiful. 

Peter told me he saw turkeys on his drive this morning as he was on his way to  where else..... Dunkin Donuts. As we were driving to Wellfleet together, Peter was describing where he saw the turkeys earlier in the day to me. To my surprise the wild turkeys hadn't moved very far on Route 6. Peter drove passed the turkeys at quite a clip and I was unable to snap a picture of them. So literally I had him turn the car around and approach the turkeys slower. Peter says only I would be making such a request! Nonetheless, I think this makes a lovely fall picture and as you can see these turkeys had their eyes on us!

Our next stop was the Marconi Site, located along the National Seashore. Yesterday, I showed you Marconi's wireless station in Chatham, MA. However, Marconi's first US wireless site was here in Wellfleet, MA. The only thing remaining at this site now is this plaque commemmorating this historic place. Keep in mind that on this sight the first US transatlantic wireless telegram between King Edward VII of England and President Roosevelt took place in 1903.

As you can see from this sign, this is what the wireless station in Wellfleet used to look like. The sign reads.............Here stood one of the world's great pioneer radio stations, Marconi's South Wellfleet Wireless, or "Old CC." Unfortunately, the historic station was dismantled and abandoned in 1920, and the ocean has eroded away over half the land it occupied. A few remains are still visible, including concrete foundations of the transmitter house and northwest tower, and sand anchors that held guy wires.

The four towers built almost entirely of 3" by 12" lumber provided support for the antenna. Each stood 210 feet high. The towers stood on concrete bases, two of which are still in place. The wire antenna was shaped like an inverted pyramid. At the top was a square of heavy, stranded, copper wire. Attached to this were 200 smaller wires which converged in midair just above the transmitter house.

Here was another sign depicting the incredible wireless feat that occurred in 1903, between the US and England. Before Marconi's invention, transmissions occurred through wires and cables.

The Marconi Wellfleet Station was located right on the sands overlooking the beautiful Atlantic Ocean. Along these dunes were beautiful yellow wild flowers, and fluttering about was this incredible monarch butterfly. I felt as if Mattie was visiting and sharing this adventure with us. This butterfly remained with me for many, many minutes.

As I looked over the cliff, I could see one of the sand anchors that held one of the guy wires. This picture shows the incredible erosion that took place over time, since this sand anchor used to be where I was standing, at the top of the cliff. Marconi later set up the Chatham wireless station (where we visited yesterday) because it was more in-land and wouldn't be impacted by erosion like the Wellfleet station. What you can't see in this picture, were the seals swimming right by the shoreline. I saw at least ten of them! 

Right by the Marconi Site is the entrance to the Atlantic White Cedar Swamp Trail. This mostly shaded loop, explores one of the Cape’s few remaining stands of Atlantic white cedar, located on the former site of Camp Wellfleet, a U.S. Army base.

At one point along the trail, we walked along a boardwalk through the swamp. As you can see I was surrounded by incredibly tall and beautiful White Cedar trees. I have never seen a swamp like this before, and I can imagine during the summertime, it must be at least 10 degrees cooler under these trees.

We went to lunch today at a restaurant called, Bookstore and Restaurant in Wellfleet. I had read about this restaurant with a very interesting name! We sat on the second floor patio and overlooked the water. It was the perfect setting, in which I can sense both of us beginning to de-stress from our daily existence.

After lunch we went to Corn Hill beach and walked along the shore. This beach is not on the Atlantic but on Cape Cod Bay.

On Corn Hill beach is a Jetty (a breakwater constructed to protect a stretch of coast). I never walked on a jetty before, but we walked all the way to the edge and I snapped a picture of Peter! I entitle this picture, "Peter vs The Bay!"

On the jetty were several birds. This seagull was walking along side us, and therefore I entitled this one.... "Follow me!"

The beauty of Cape Cod during October is that it has few tourists. I am also aware that most children are in school, and therefore I won't be seeing families out and about with their children. I was talking to a store owner today in Wellfleet and he was telling me that in the summer the towns are packed with people and there are lines to get into everything. What he was trying to tell me is we are seeing the Cape how it was meant to be.......Peaceful, serene, and quiet. I end tonight's posting with a picture of the sun glimmer over Cape Cod Bay!

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Tonight's picture was taken on July 27th of 2008. Which was four days after Mattie was diagnosed with cancer. We did not know if we were coming or going back then. Peter and I were not sleeping at all and were in absolute shock for weeks. However we tried to keep things somewhat normal for Mattie. As such, Mattie was outside on our deck playing in his sandbox. You may notice in this case that Mattie was actually playing in the sandbox lid. This was typical for Mattie, he used both the box and the lid in very creative ways.


Quote of the day: To leave the world a bit better ... to know that one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson


Neither one of us slept well last night, which isn't unusual for me anymore. Prior to Mattie getting cancer, I could sleep anywhere and at any time of the day. Now sleep just doesn't come easily to me. Truro is very rural and has its own night sounds, very different from the city sounds I am accustomed to. At one point last night I swore I heard a crow cawing from the rooftop. I knew I had to be mistaken, since crows don't come out at night. This morning I was telling Peter about my night time experience and he enlightened me that I was hearing the call of a raccoon! The children's story, The City Mouse and The Country Mouse, comes to mind, and seems to depict my adjustment to Truro.

For the majority of today it was absolutely POURING, cold, and damp in Truro. I stayed inside in the morning, but Peter ventured outside and snapped a picture of the marsh. Notice the pathway under water, because later on in the blog I will show you the same pathway at low tide. We actually walked on this pathway this evening. 

Due to the rain, we did an indoor activity. We went to visit the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center (note-- I downloaded this picture, since it was pouring rain and therefore taking a photo of the operations building wasn't possible).
This is the site of Chatham Radio/WCC. Maritime wireless communication flourished here, one of the 20th century's premier wireless telegraphy stations. The Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America build the Chatham receiving station in 1914. This is one of the many stations built during the early part of the 20th Century by Guglielmo Marconi as he expanded his global communications network. It was part of an extensive network of transmitting and receiving wireless stations linking Japan, Hawaii, and the United States to Europe. This building is the operations building, the station's communications hub. Operators in this building forwarded messages to and from Norway. After RCA took over in 1920, it was re-commissioned and became the largest ship to shore wireless telegraphy station in the United States, known for much of the 20th century as Chatham Radio WCC and remained in operation until 1997.

The Museum is a small building, and yet in this small brick one level structure, it was packed with information and history. What intrigued me was many of the docents were sons of men who were Marconi operators. In fact, I noticed that the majority of the visitors were intimately connected to this wireless station in one way or another and it was like a reunion right in the middle of the Museum. Peter and I were clearly of a different generation, and yet I was fascinated to listen to their conversations, we asked them questions, and it was unlike any other museum experience I can say I have ever had. We snapped a picture of some of the displays, and I posted a few of these pictures for you to read if interested. In essence Marconi transformed life for people living and working at sea, and if it weren't for Marconi, there would have been NO survivors on the Titanic. Marconi made wireless communication from ship to shore possible, using the universal language of Morse Code.

In 1899 Guglielmo Marconi validated his theory that Wireless signals could extend across the Atlantic and offer competition to the Cable monopoly on communication. Marconi was also attracted to Cape Cod for its proximity to Europe and in 1903 astounded the world by completing two way communications between his 35,000 watt station in Wellfleet and Poldu England. Marconi was at the same time extending his enterprise by communicating with ships at sea outfitted with leased Marconi Spark Gap Transmitters and Marconi Magnetic Receivers.

Here was the first transatlantic wireless message from the United States to England.......

After the extensive loss of life on the Titanic, Congress mandated that ships carrying more than 50 people had to maintain continuous wireless watch. If this legislation was in place in 1912, when the Titanic hit an iceberg, all of its passengers would have likely been rescued. Why? Because there was a nearby ship, the California, who could have rescued the Titanic. However, the California shut off its wireless at 11pm, thereby never receiving the Titanic's disaster message.

The Chatham Wireless Station operated 24 hours a day. In fact, the operators were housed right on campus. Though this compound no longer exists today, it was very obvious from photos the importance of this wireless station for not only Chatham but the United States. During WWII, the Navy occupied this wireless station and were able to intercept many of the German communications.

This evening the rain subsided and we took a walk right on the marsh. Here is a picture of the pathway at low tide. Very different from the first picture I posted today.

Along our walk we saw a Great Blue!

As we walked, we got to meet other people living around us since they were out walking their dogs on the marsh.

Peter in the marsh grasses!

In the midst of walking quietly we then heard a bird making a racket and buzzing all around us. I introduce you to our resident Kingfisher!

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Tonight's picture was taken in June of 2008. We took Mattie to Roosevelt Island to walk around and explore. Mattie enjoyed climbing on the rocks, so I decided to take a picture of him that day. Whenever we walk the Island now I remember this moment with Mattie as if it were yesterday.


Quote of the day: Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. ~ Joseph Addison

I grew up in a suburb outside of New York City and at the age of 14, my family moved to Los Angeles. This relocation was challenging for us because we had to leave behind family and friends. During the first couple of years after we moved, we spent a great deal of time during school vacations flying back and forth to New York. We missed our "home" and everything and everyone we held dear. During our trips back to NY, we stayed at one of two different hotels. These two hotels hold fond memories for me, because they are symbolic of reconnecting and being "home." It is no surprise, when Peter and I got married years ago, I asked that this special occasion take place in New York. Our wedding guests and party stayed at one of the hotels and at the other hotel, we hosted our rehearsal dinner (the night before the wedding). Last night, Peter and I stayed at the hotel we had our rehearsal dinner. This morning we had breakfast at the hotel before getting back on the road to drive from New York to Cape Cod. The hotel is nestled on 30 acres of scenic countryside in Westchester County, and as you can see the Hotel's restaurant captures the lush terrain beautifully.

After we packed up the car, we walked to the Red Oak Mansion. This Mansion is on the Hotel's property and this is the exact location where our rehearsal dinner took place.  

This is what it looks like inside the Red Oak Mansion. The Mansion was built in 1905 and was once owned and designed by New York City architect John Carrere, designer of the New York City Public Library. This summer home has many of the beautiful features of the original building including a stunning patio with beautiful stonework, cozy fireplaces and abundant windows overlooking the scenic grounds.

I have to say driving through Massachusetts always gets me laughing. It gets me laughing because there are some classic identifiers that immediately tell me where I am. The first is seeing Red Sox stickers and merchandise hanging from cars and the second (and not necessarily in this order!!) are Dunkin Donuts stores. Picture Dunkin Donuts stores at EVERY rest stop on the highway and practically in every town you stop at. I literally should have taken a count of the number of stores we visibly passed from Westchester County, NY to Cape Cod. We are seriously talking double digits! Now if this wasn't funny enough, here is an absolute first for me. On Peter's GPS, it actually alerted us to each Dunkin Donuts store we were passing. Keep in mind that we did not ask for this information and the GPS did not flag other establishments we were passing like McDonald's or Starbucks for example. I was truly perplexed and asked Peter why this was happening for just Dunkin Donuts!

Last October we stayed on the Cape, and this year we decided to return. Peter spent many summers as a child on Truro (a part of the Cape that is close to Provincetown). Truro is very different from anything I have ever experienced before mainly because it is so preserved, natural, and untouched by modern progress. It is like taking a walk back in time. The loudest thing in Truro is the wildlife. This is the charming house we are staying at this week.

The house itself is cozy and charming, but one of the things that sold me on the house was the view from the house's deck. This is the Pamet Marsh, which is part of the Pamet River, which leads out to Cape Cod Bay.

Here is our resident Great Blue Heron. He hung out for most of the day in the marsh catching fish. The peace and tranquility of Truro in a way is very medicinal and Peter and I are both stressed out for different and the same reasons. Despite it being cool and rainy, being removed from traffic, our everyday environment, and at times internal chaos are very needed. It is my hope that these sights and sounds help me lose the violent headache I have had for about seven days straight.