Last night I went out for a motorcycle ride just before sunset and ended up at the beach (as usual). It was realllly low tide and 'dead calm' in the Bay.The water was like glass. I even saw a porpoise swim by because it was so calm!



me, with crazy helmet head

Of course, with the beautiful calmness comes the bugs. They were even getting up inside my helmet!  

This is Sesuit Harbor. Can you see the Blue Heron?

At Corporation Beach I heard music- like someone was playing the violin. So I zoomed my camera to where I thought it was coming from- right by the water and......Sure enough! There was a man serenading his wife (?). Interesting. 

Clean Up Irene

It's the day after tropical storm Irene and all was calm. We didn't have much debris to clean up in our yard- mostly just twigs and leaves, so Brielle and I decided to go to the beach at 9am for about an hour. Needless to say, it was very quiet down there. It seems like most of the tourist left the Cape and weren't back yet. Ahhhhh We even saw a seal pop it's head up right in the Bay at Cold Storage Beach!

It was so nice just relaxing in the sun after such a tense week. I had to get up at 5am and work just so I could take this time off to be with my daughter. (well worth it!) But just as the day was starting out so nice and peaceful, we went over to my sisters house which is only about 2 miles away and WOW- what a mess the storm made there!



Before



This is Quince standing on top of a pile of cut limbs from a huge branch that fell against the house and took out half of this lattice work.



After



So my girls and I - and my mom all decided to help with the clean up. We brought our rakes over and my blower, but I forgot;  they still didn't have electricity! So, no blower. This photo is AFTER we cleaned up this side of the back yard.  



Before


As my mother always says: Many hands make light work. It seems that sometimes things like storms can bring out the best in people. We all felt good for helping and even the neighbors came by to help. Tonight they still don't have power so they ate here because we have all of their food in my fridge. (Good thing it's always empty!) I wonder how long it will take to get the electricity back on?? 

Irene on Cape Cod

Today was the day of the big storm. I awoke to huge scary wind gusts (between 50 and 60mph) and even now, at 8:16pm the wind is still blowing like crazy. My power keeps flickering as I write this, but so far we've had it all day- unlike my sis  and many others who lost it at 11am and it's still out.

Against my best judgement I went out today to take someone home and ended up here at Nauset Light Beach in Eastham. The waves didn't seem all that much out of the ordinary for the Atlantic Ocean, but then again the wind was blowing from the South- not the east.

I had to take a photo of Nauset Lighthouse since I was right there.  It was still standing in perfect condition and not an inch closer to the sea.

But let me tell you about our adventure to get to Eastham from Dennis (a 30 minute drive)....first we had to dodge downed trees and branches, then we got re-routed because of one that fell across rt. 6A. Then... as we were driving miles out of our way, we encountered a wildly sparking electric pole that looked like it was on fire, and just was we were getting up to it in our car, the wire snapped off and landed about 10 feet from us sparking all over the place. So, not only was the ride scary, it was very dangerous and I don't recommend that anyone go out if they don't have to!

Check out the trees. This is how it's been all day long (and still is tonight). This was just a mild gust.

Holding our Breath

It's a countdown until Hurricane Irene arrives here on the Cape. People are flooding the stores, buying out water and batteries already. I've gotten what I need already and am as prepared as I can be, I think. One can never be really sure. I remember Hurricane Bob and the amount of trees that it took down, on top of houses, cars and roads, and how we were out of power for a week, so we may see similar results. I hate the -being out of power part. No computer! My battery only lasts for about 2 hours so that doesn't help. But thank God it's summer and warm out. Oh well, it may make us all slow down a little and spend more time doing things we don't usually do. Reading anyone? If you don't hear from me, you'll know why. I can't believe Obama is staying on Martha's Vineyard! That's like the worst place to be in a hurricane.

Who knows what is going to happen. There is an expectancy- part excitement, and part fear, but I also feel that we will be ok.

Cape Cod felt the Earthquake too!

I went to Country Gardens (a landscaping shop) the other day. They have a Koi pond in the back and I snapped off a lot of reference photos of the fish, but I also caught this one of a lone frog. He looked so cute sitting under the rock. Then that same day I was at Hyannis Harbor having a snack, watching the boats sail by. (I was eating a chocolate chip cookie from a deli on Main Street) Yum!

Last night Sienna and I went to Corporation Beach for a walk but the tide was high so we couldn't walk out on the flats and walking on the soft sand would have been too hard. (I know, we are wimps) so we drove across town to West Dennis beach and walked the parking lot there.

At the very end of the 1 mile parking lot that runs between Nantucket Sound and a marsh,  is Bass River. It was here that I took this photo as the sun was about to set. It looks like everyone was having a wonderful Cape Cod day. By the way, that is someones house in the background -not mine, unfortunately.

After our walk Sienna and I went to McDonalds and got a hot fudge sunday. It was a perfect evening.

Today we had an earthquake- well it was really in Virginia, but Brielle said she felt it while she sat in her beach chair. She said she thought the wind was shaking her chair but then heard the news and knew that it was the earthquake. I think I was driving at the time.
Now we are gearing up for a possible hurricane on Sunday. Hmmmmm.

Today I had a yard sale so I didn't get any painting in. In case you've never had one, yard sales are hard work! I've been preparing for it for weeks, then last night I spent several hours hauling furniture up from the basement to my front lawn. Today I got up at 5am and started setting up and people arrived as early as 7am. 

I'm tired.  

So here are some pretty photo's I took at Sesuit Harbor the other night. The clouds reminded me of a giant shark. I'm going to sleep.... good tonight!

Ptown

I took a motorcycle ride to Provincetown last weekend and look who was there! Yes, Shirley Temple. Actually these are men (older men too) dressed in drag. It's the Ptown thing to do you know. Everyone was enjoying watching them flaunt their stuff through the colorful town. (or maybe they were just stunned if they had never been there before).

I'm not sure of the occasion...the Gay Pride parade isn't until Thursday, but it was entertaining anyway. Thursday will be CRAZY in town. I'm staying as far away as possible, mostly because I hate to be stuck in traffic, but I hear it's a lot of fun.

Highland Light (aka Cape Cod Lighthouse) was on the way so I shot off a few pics here. I found out you can go to the top of the tower for $4.00, not that you really need to- the view there is incredible even on the ground. It's very high up on the Atlantic side of the Cape.



http://stores.ebay.com/Cape-Cod-Artist



All the lighthouses I saw today inspired me to paint this one. I think this is Long Point Light in Ptown. (It's a miniature 2.5"x3.5")

My ride home was probably the highlight of my trip. I took the back roads that wind through Truro and Welfleet. They are my favorite! It's so peaceful riding on them, you forget the Cape is loaded with tourists. What a wonderful weekend I had!

I had a wonderful day playing hookie from work. I needed to be inspired, so....

I rode my motorcycle along rt. 6A all the way up to the canal and stopped by the railroad bridge, which I noticed was down. I was hoping to see the train go over it but, either it had already gone, or they were just doing a drill of some sort. Anyway, I snapped of a photo of it down and one of it up.

Usually it's up like this so that the tall boats/ships can go underneath and through the Cape Cod Canal, otherwise they have to go all the way around the canal.

I had such a great day riding.

On another note, the movie filming was done all in one day. The next day all the trailers and equipment trucks were gone.



Movie Filming on Cape Cod

Today they started filming the movie- that used to be known as "I Hate You Dad" in Dennis. The inside scoop is that they are changing the name but I'm not sure to what yet. Today they were at the Wixon Middle School baseball field which they made look like a mini Fenway Park field. The girls and I decided to go check it out. It had just started raining and I think they were packing it up for the night. We couldn't get anywhere near the field- they had it taped off and cops everywhere. Good thing I have a zoom on my camera.  

Here's where all the trailers were set up. There probably were movie stars in them right now! Of course, I didn't see any. My daughters boyfriend is working security on the set and he said he saw Adam Sandler for the first time today. He had a spot right behind the directors chair, (and Adam is the director! )

Well, that's the most exciting news from Cape Cod right now.

More Beautiful Angels

I painted more angels the other night. I use the term 'I' loosely- because I am being Divinely guided, so it's not really me at all.  The angel come through me and reveal themselves on the canvas.

http://stores.ebay.com/Cape-Cod-Artist

 Here are a few that I really love. This one was quite different and you may notice she has white hair. I think she may be the first one I've painted with white hair.

I'm thinking this one may be a male figure with a hooded robe on. What do you think? I love how he's reaching out as if to help someone in need.

There are more Angels on Ebay right now- or probably whenever you may be reading this. These paintings are all very small - baseball card sized works on sturdy mat board, called 'Art Cards' priced at around $10 each.  They are coated with a gloss top coat and can be sent easily in get well cards. Each one is infused with the healing energy directly from the angel that is coming through to the canvas.
I love to paint them. I feel so good after I do because of all that good energy flowing through me. I feel so lucky to be doing this.

Nautical Chart of Hyannis Harbor

I've been very busy hand coloring antique maps and nautical charts for several dealers from all over the United States. This is a chart of Hyannis Harbor shown uncolored, then colored (although the photo isn't that great).

I really love doing these charts. Sometimes I feel like it's a challenge to find out just how many shades of green I can come up with- and I always love a good challenge! I mix all my own colors so most of my maps can't be duplicated exactly, (which is probably a good selling point) but I do tend to stay in the same color palette and I can usually spot my coloring from other peoples.

Who knew I'd be painting on antique maps when I grew up?! The interesting thing is, my dad really liked old nautical charts when I was a kid and he had a few laying around, which I did eventually color.

Sandwich, Ma.

We went to Sandwich the other day hoping to pick some blue berries along side the road but they weren't quite ripe yet. We got about 12, and they were sour! 

So instead we visited the near by salt water river that crosses under Route 6A and meanders through a beautiful marsh.  There is a spot where you can park and even go swimming in the river. I don't think I would ever go in it because there were TONS of crabs .

Even though it was around dinner time there were still lots of people around. Brielle actually took off her flip flops and enjoyed squishing through the  3" deep mud! (I guess the real surprising thing is that- I didn't do it. Usually I'm the first one in!)

She found a few stray, little crabs that hadn't gone down with the tide and were buried high on the bank in a little patch of wet mud trying to stay alive and not dry out in the heat. A few already didn't make it so she decided to save the rest of them. (How could she NOT save them- she's my daughter!)

 

Luckily she didn't get bitten by any of them before she tossed them into the refreshing river below. (Hopefully the toss didn't kill them)!

ooooo gooooshy fun!

So, all of  the crabs survived (hopefully) and we had a nice day in Sandwich. It's probably one of my favorite towns on the Cape so if you visit, make sure you check it out.   

Provincetown

I went for a motorcycle ride to Provincetown this past weekend and shot off a few photo's. What a beautiful day! This was taken at the end of the pier. People can pay to go out on this ship and it takes you for a little ride around the harbor and back.



click to enlarge



Here's a photo of my yacht (on the right) passing Long Point Lighthouse. (I wish!) I wonder who's it was though. They are filming a movie here on the Cape ("I Hate You Dad") so it could be Adam Sandlers...? But there is a lot of money coming and going here on the Cape, so you never know who it might be.

From the visitors center I took this photo of one of the whale watch boats passing by.

And a plane taking off from the Provincetown airport. Sometimes I forget they even have an airport up there. It's just a little one. My dad actually helped build it way back when I was a kid growing up in Ptown!