Arlene’s old college suitemate Jeannette and her husband invited us and Judy, another of the suitemates, to spend the weekend at the cottage they were renting in Brewster on Cape Cod. We had been there the same way just about a year ago, on a chilly late May or early June weekend. The weather was about the same this year. In fact, there were spots on the drive down there when it was raining so hard I wondered if I wanted to stop the car and wait it out. On the cape the rain slowed to a slight drizzle and then stopped enough that we had a fine time walking on the beach.
Last year we had seen a piping plover on the stretch of beach within walking distance of the cottage. We weren’t so lucky this year, but there were a horned lark, lots of black-bellied plover, and a couple of ruddy turnstones.
We spent a lot of time discussing where to have supper and settled on Oliver’s in Dennis. It’s a nice restaurant (I mean, not casual dining but not really fine dining) with a big menu. I had roast duck that was a little dried out. Other people said their meals were good.
We passed up on dessert at the restaurant, but there was ice cream back at the cottage, and Arlene had brought along a batch of brownies I had made the night before.
In the evening we started working a jigsaw puzzle that Arlene had brought, a Springbok puzzle of chocolate in all the forms the photographer could get together — chocolate pudding, big chunks of chocolate melting in a saucepan, chocolate-dipped strawberries, whipped-cream and cinnamon topped hot chocolate, little bonbons, and so on. It was an old puzzle, and the box said there were missing pieces. It went well with the mocha almond ice cream and the brownies, even if the pieces were a little hard to see on the dark pine table. We got it more than halfway together by the time we stopped.
Meanwhile I started knitting a mistake-rib scarf from some gray sportweight alpaca-merino blend that I had got at the Denmark Sheepfest. The yarn is rather splitty and the scarf has several more mistakes than just the mistake rib, but it still looks pretty good, smells nice and lanolin-y, and feels wonderfully soft. I only have 195 yards of that yarn so it’s going to be a mighty short scarf. But it’s an excuse to use up the yarn before it gets lost in the stash.
Sunday morning we drove up to South Wellfleet for breakfast at Van Rensalears. Arlene and I had eaten there a couple of times when we were staying at the Southfleet Motor Inn next door. It’s the same basic level of place as Olivers. When we were there before it must have been Patriot’s Day weekend and the restaurant was just opening for the season. That time it was packed with local people who had been eager for the seasonal places to open, as well as with holiday travelers. This weekend there were lots of other restaurants open and the crummy weather had kept the day trippers to a minimum, and VRs was less than 2/3 full. The breakfast buffet selection was good, though, and we all pigged out.
We wouldn’t have gone all the way to Wellfleet except that we wanted to walk around the Audubon place. The people in the office asked if we had been there before. Arlene said, “A million times.” I said, “Closer to fifty.” Arlene is correct that it’s more than fifty; we went there first in 1969, when we were the houseparents of the Eastham youth hostel, and have probably averaged more than two visits per year ever since. We did the Goose Pond trail. Arlene found a great horned owl in some pines on the way back near the pond, thanks to a bunch of crows that were giving the owl a hard time.
From there we went to the Fort Hill area and walked near the shore to Hemenway Landing, then back through the Red Maple Swamp trail. I love boardwalks, even if we never see much wildlife along that trail.
We all got lunch at the sald bar at the Orleans Stop & Shop (except Jeannette’s husband, who got some sushi), went back to the cottage, ate, removed ticks from people’s clothing (Jeannette seems to be a magnet for them), and finished the puzzle.
Arlene looked out the window to the backyard and spotted a fox trotting along. I just got a glimpse of it. The people who owned the cottage had left a note about the place which said that they often see foxes there.