It’s not yet 9:00 am on Tuesday morning and it’s sunny all over eastern New England, except for the elbow of the Cape where I am. Here, it’s foggy and I couldn’t be happier.
Fog surrounds my yard in Harwich
Going to college at Salve Regina in Newport, Rhode Island, fog was a near daily occurrence. It was so common on the ocean I forgot there was any other kind of morning, anywhere. Only in the winter was it too cold for fog. What a marvel to see rays of sun in my room when I first opened my eyes.
Except for early autumn when the first evidence of real cold air occasionally presses down and creates fog in the valleys, there is little fog to be found around Syracuse. I miss looking out the window and seeing fog.
Which is why my time on Cape Cod is such a gift. In addition to the obvious; the beach, the ocean, the steamed clams and lobsters, I get to have fog in my life again. With a nod to the vacationing families who take one week per year here and who count on being at the beach from after breakfast until before dinner as I did with my children when they were very little, I don’t require good weather to enjoy myself on the Cape.
My delicious 22 year old Natalie arrived in the pouring rain yesterday morning from San Diego. She flew to Boston then hopped the bus to Hyannis, where I picked her up at the Transportation Center. On the Cape everything looks like a gray shingled cottage, even the Bus Station. You can’t escape the charm anywhere.
We ran some errands around Hyannis, drove to the house fifteen miles to the east in Harwich and I cooked a lunch of pasta with broiled scallops and asparagus in cream sauce. One thing about sending your children away to grow up, they come back loving your cooking! Now that Natalie cooks for herself in San Diego, she thinks everything I make is scrumptious, pasta, salads, toast, a glass of water, it’s all wonderful to a girl who discovers every day that her mother is not at all as stupid as she seemed seven years ago when the expert was a fifteen year old.
Natalie is still asleep because it’s still only 6:00 am Pacific Time, and she had travelled all night the night before so I won’t see her for several hours I’m sure. Plus, she’s probably still digesting the fried clams we had at the Kream and Cone clam shack in Chatham, Natalie’s request for dinner. She can’t get fried clams in San Diego and started salivating for them about the same time she was flying over the Rockies.
You can’t burn off fog more quickly than nature intends for all the tea in china or all the coffee in Dunkin Donuts. Nor can you plant some of the other wonders I discover in my yard on a foggy morning.
A Lace-cap Hydrangea branch breaks away from the bush to peek and grow in the outdoor shower
New Dawn climbing roses reach toward the second floor of the house, and look!....
....there's a bird's nest in the rose bush and the mother bird scares the heck out of me as she flies off everytime I walk by
The roses are getting ready to explode. Every one of those green balls will be a flower.
The cast-iron mermaid towel hooks in the outdoor shower survived the winter without rusting
The first blush of blue on the hydrangea, comes amidst the fallen rose petals and the "silver mound"
Loading ...
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Hi Maureen. So glad you are at the Cape and your children are joining you. My oldest son lived out west for 12 years, L. A. and then Boulder, Col. He always appreciated my cooking when he came home. He lived at home and went to LeMoyne, not always appreciating the benefits. I love the Cape and don’t get there as much as I would like to. When my grandson was 5 and 6 we were at West Yarmouth on the beach. He would wake me every morning at 6 and we would go to the beach, so everyone could sleep in. Those were special mornings. He’s now a teenager and likes that sleepin. Enjoy your family time and the cool breezes. Carol