3:00 snapshot #1309: Cape Cod

[urbpan]

As luck would have it, I had a trip to Cape Cod planned for the Sunday after the Friday of the laptop mishap. I had vague plans to bring the laptop--perhaps with my microphone, and get some writing/podcasting done. With that scuttled, I used the time away from Boston to process my grief over my stupid computer, using the traditional method involving loud friends and strong drink.


When I arrived I set about the perimeter of the property, as I do when I'm left to my own devices, and looked for noteworthy natural features. This performs the service of locating all the patches of poison ivy as well as likely areas to pick up ticks, and makes me feel more secure and useful. This gorgeous lichen was growing in fist sized lumps at eye-level, on trees and the backyard's ham radio tower (!) This kind of robust lichen growth is an indicator that you are NOT in an urban ecosystem. We've spent 150 years or more putting poison into the air over the Northeast, and weather patterns ensure that coal burned in Gary Indiana sends lichen-killing compounds to Boston. The west coast has so much lichen that it looks like a different planet fromt the east. Our annual freezing slows lichen growth, but air pollution prevents it altogether. The Cape is clearly a bit better, air-quality wise, than Greater Boston.


A planned excursion up a small tree turned into an encounter with an orchard orbweaver. I didn't want to mangle her web, so after a quick photo I descended.


Soon we walked down to the beach. This is the surreal Bay side--flawlessly smooth and still. I forget that there are places like this in New England. I think of a New England beach as a cold rocky place with boulder breakwaters coated with blue mussels, with turbulent little waves full of jellyfish and seaweed.


I walked out a ridiculous distance--100 feet? 500 feet?--and the water was just at the bottom of my shorts (should have worn a bathing suit, you dope). We resolved to come back later better prepared.


Our gracious host (whose name is close enough to "Tom Bombadil" that I kind of wanted this to be the theme song to this post/this trip), with no spade or fork, dug up several razor clams. I'm familiar with their shells--they're a common component of Massachusetts beaches, but I've rarely seen the living animal. The intention was to eat them--I never saw it happen, and mollusks are right off my list of animals I'll eat, but I like the idea of being able to forage such things by hand.


Our host Tom B. deftly cuts firewood with a chainsaw, while my friend Scott delivers a monologue on the same.


A crab carapace found in the yard rests in human moss.


We made it back to the ocean! Some of us went back first thing the next morning as well. I left 23 hours after arriving, but others stayed all week.

EDITED TO ADD:
The following morning I watched birds at the feeder. Mostly chickadees came, but I was thrilled to see this red-breasted nuthatch! I almost never see this species in the city or my suburb.