Butterflies and Zinnias

The butterflies have been fluttering around the zinnias for days now — I was finally able to sneak up on one and snap a few pics. It’s a pretty little thing — I’m not an expert on butterflies, but I think it’s an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail — that’s Sadie Doo Dah on the wall in the background, washing some part or other.

Our beach adventure

Our trip to the beach took a turn that we weren’t expecting. We have been frequenting Roy Carpenter’s Beach in Matunuck, RI for 5 or 6 years now, mostly because it was very family oriented, with no loud radios, and very clean sand. It had the usual snack stand, bathhouse to change in and clean bathrooms. But, nothing ever stays the same, especially beachfront property in Rhode Island.

This bit of bad news is from The Providence Journal

Coastal storms lead to parking ban at Roy Carpenter’s Beach01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, June 5, 2007

SOUTH KINGSTOWN — This spring’s punishing coastal storms claimed a Rhode Island tradition dating to the 1930s: people will no longer be able to park at Roy Carpenter’s Beach for the day.

A nasty April storm ate another 10 feet into the shoreline, leading the owners of the popular beach colony in Matunuck to do away with the public parking lot altogether.

“We decided to leave the sand where nature put it and just have a bigger beach for the people who live here,” said Nancy Thoresen, whose family owns Roy Carpenter’s.

Since the 1930s, people could pay to park in the lot and enjoy a day at the beach that on clear days looks out to Block Island. The practice reached a height a few decades ago, when 400 to 500 cars would park there and some beachgoers would flock to nearby Moonstone Beach for nude sunbathing, Thoresen said.

Once a generous beach, the sand has crept inland over the past decade and is now approaching the first row of cottages. “The whole coast around here seems to be moving inland,” she said.

People are welcome to park elsewhere and walk in, but there will be no public parking available, she said.

The “parking elsewhere” mentioned in the last paragraph probably won’t happen very often unless you are a persistent soul, because the beach is surrounded by corn fields and private homes (no parking in either of course), plus it’s a hike in from the main road if you are able to find a place to park. So, we backtracked to the North Kingstown town beach, but then SB wanted to give the Breachway a try, where he had gone many times as a youngster, and that’s where we stayed for the day. Although not as nice as Roy Carpenter’s, and there were no stones there, except for the gigantic ones that make up the Breachway (I have buckets of “pretties” that I bring home from the beach every time I go) and there was no sun (very cloudy and hazy, and I still got a bit of pink on my face, even under the umbrella) it was still a nice time. The fog and haze drifted in and out all day, as you can see from the Breachway photo below. We did find out that they do not charge for parking before 7:00 AM or after 4:00 PM, so that is a thought. The parking for the day cost $12.00 and the bathrooms left a bit to be desired.

The houses sorry, cottages close to the water are built up on stilts to protect them from a storm surge if a hurricane should get close enough or come ashore. I’m not sure how high they are, probably 15 to 20 feet. It feels a bit alien driving down the road and seeing all of these cottages with their legs showing, so to speak. I feel like I’m looking at their underwear. BTW the cottage below is a rental that goes for $2750 per week with a 2 week minimum. YIKES!

This rental below ($4000 per week, 2 week minimum) is farther away from the water and for some reason is more than the other one that is just about at the edge of the ocean. Go figure.

Even with the haze, the glare was relentless. I knitted for awhile, but because I knit with my glasses off, I had to finally give up. SB read his book for awhile and then gave up because he brought the wrong sunglasses with him. We were very content to just sit and eat and doze.

I should also mention that Sweet Baboo won $3.00 at the casino, where we had gone to have breakfast before going to the beach. He was very excited. That’s $3.00, 3 singles, not a typo. See how happy he is?

We’re off to Matunuck tomorrow!!

We haven’t had a chance to go to Matunuck beach this year, so I’ve taken a couple of days and we will be going tomorrow. We have this ritual. We get up early in the morning (we’ve gotten up as early as 3:30) then we drive down to Foxwoods (Casino in Uncasville, CT) for breakfast. We each bring $10 to $20 and if we lose all of that money, we leave. If we happen to win money, we also leave. Then we go to the beach, spend the rest of the day there, maybe leave sometime around 7:00 and stop to get ice cream on the way home. The weather is supposed to be very hot and humid — a great day to be at the beach! I should have some pics to post on Wednesday, although we are taking another trip that day. We are going to go to Mystic, CT, first of all to visit this fabulous sterling silver store called A K Dasher, then go to a lighthouse museum and then wind up the day at the Seaport. It’s going to be a great couple of days~!!~

Sunday Scribblings #71 Decision

I consider myself lucky in that I do not waffle when making decisions. It’s been my experience that most decisions, if they turn out to be the wrong one, can usually be reversed. My personal decision making criteria is to do what makes me happiest, without harming or inconveniencing other people. If I am faced with too many choices, I make none until the easiest comes to my mind. (Buying breakfast cereal usually falls under that heading.) However, I have been told that because I do not examine a problem from all sides that I am a shallow person, that I need to become deeper in my thinking. I’m not so sure.

I equate pain and misery with deepness of thought. When I was 30, I was diagnosed with malignant melanoma on my stomach. It was removed, along with alot of tissue, and I had no recurrence. Although there was no pain associated with it and no further treatment was needed, I spent many, many sleepless nights playing the what if game and planning my funeral. When I was 40, I had a suspicious lump removed from my left breast that was diagnosed as Lobular Carcinoma in Situ, a precancerous condition. Again, I had no recurrence after surgery and again there was no further treatment required, but I still lay awake at night worrying until my five year anniversary.

So, I’ve had my share of making decisions that I did not want to make. I believe that if I want to look on the sunbeamy side of life, to look for the bliss instead of the wretched, I have earned that right. For me, life is too short to spend it seesawing back and forth about decisions that are not necessarily written in stone. It’s likely that I am deluded, thinking that everything can be rainbows and kittens and puppies, but I prefer it that way.

However, when it comes to making decisions about fabrics for my quilts, I am one of the deepest, most miserable and wretched decision makers that you would ever want to meet.

Jennie Wren, part II

Our wren is back in the little bird house, raising another brood of young’uns. She usually raises two broods a year, although last year she left after having the first one and didn’t return. Sweet Baboo made sure that the house was ready for her this year — he cleaned it out thoroughly in the spring and then again after she had left with her first group of chickies. She spends her days hunting for little bugs, caterpillars, snails, grasshoppers, anything that she can catch that her babies will eat. It’s so much fun watching her dash from pillar to post, picking at the ground, then flying up into the cedar to look around before she streaks into the bird house, babies chirping up a storm. Then quick as a wink, she’s back out the hole and flitting across the street to flip up our neighbor’s mulch for more goodies — the babies chirping slows down, and then she’s back into the cedar, quick peek around, back into the bird house. I’ll bet she does this hundreds of times every day. She also keeps track of and dispatches any and all predators in the area, our dopey cat included. Brave little birdie, she’s a teeny little thing but she sings and chirps and chatters BIG. Sparrows keep trying to take over her home, but she will have none of that — they soon give up after being divebombed by this little chirping dervish.

Frozen fluffy peanut butter pie

Another great recipe from a gal I work with.

1/2 Cup peanut butter

8 ounce of cream cheese softened (I used the lite version and it came out fine)

1 Cup confectioner’s sugar (I used about 3/4 cup)

1/2 Cup milk

8 ounces Cool Whip

Graham cracker crust, ready made or homemade

Whip the cream cheese until fluffy

Beat in the peanut butter and confectioner’s sugar

Slowly add milk while still beating

Fold the cream cheese/peanut butter/confectioner’s sugar mixture into the Cool Whip

Pour into crust

Cover with foil and pop into the freezer until firm

Before serving, let sit on the counter for 20 minutes or so to soften just a tad.

A list of happies

Today, these are some things that I grateful for……

1) My partner in crime, BJ (whom I was filling in for while she vacationed) came back to work a day early. WHEEEEE!!!!

2) Having a swimming pool. It’s been hotter than blue blazes in CT this week.

3) Prednisone. Two courses of it. Without it, I would probably have no skin left on my body due to the dratted poison ivy, the name of which is probably supposed to be capitalized, but I hate it so much that I won’t.

4) Catching Genius by Kristy Kiernan. It was a great book (2 nights!!) and I was way overdue for a good story.

5) Being able to knit socks. My newest passion, my hands work as fast as my mind whirls — for me, it’s a natural tranquilizer.