My View of Life on the Dock
Ways to beat the traffic and work around MBTA closures– Bob Ryan (General Manager Cape Ann Transportation Authority) and Heidi Dallin (Gloucester Stage and so much more) are such incredible Gloucester–and greater Cape Ann– ambassadors.
Enjoyable read-
Boston Globe article by Hattie Bernstein “Heading to the Beach this Weekend? Here’s Some Parking Tips”
CATA Stage Fort Park trolley shuttle Park N Ride
Gloucester Harbor Water Shuttle and lighthouse tours
“Going to be a busy day,” says Ruth who just left a piping plover watch. Are you going to Good Harbor Beach? Let us know if you see the piping plovers. Feel free to clap off some gulls or crows getting too close, and share what you saw and the time. Add #Glostaplover and we can find it.
When Ruth left, they were by the creek. They could be anywhere–they move around throughout the day and night. For the most part they range a big area roughly by entrance 3 and wrapping way back around the creek end of Good Harbor Beach (rather than the Salt Island side)
Don’t miss Kim Smith’s photographs from yesterday PLOVER PATROL UPDATE FROM DAY TWENTY SIX!
https://twitter.com/glostaplover
July 19 ::: Disney Moana
July 26 ::: Rogue One Star Wars Movie
August 2 ::: Lego Batman Movie
August 9 ::: The Princess Bride
August 16 ::: Sing!
Mayor Romeo Theken hopes everyone is marking their calendars with Gloucester’s summer events! The outdoor movie series is curated and presented by Rob Newton Cape Ann Community Cinema and Stage. North Shore Radio 104.9 provides pre-show activities. Arrive at dusk. Bring your own picnic dinner, take out, or buy from vendors on site.
Thanks to the sponsors: “This year’s HarborWalk Summer Cinema is supported by many businesses in our community. Thank you Cape Ann Savings Bank, our Green Carpet Sponsor, and Doyon’s Appliance, Foster’s Grill Store and North Shore Navigators, our series sponsors. Also thanks to our nightly partners: National Grid, First Ipswich Bank (Moana), Building Center Stores, 7 Seas Whale Watch, Toodeloos! and Atlantic Vacation Homes | AVH Realty, Inc.”
Down to one lane, slight back up to exit 13 inbound Gloucester at 9am
Gloucester Department of Public Works (DPW) is clearing out and revamping a little overgrown corner by the scenic footbridge. Pretty much everything that was there is returning: the bench, bike racks, sign, and 1 trash barrel. Weeds will be cleared out. The rotting sign is being replaced and relocated by the tree and perpendicular to the road so as to be readable and preserve view shed. DPW is installing a foot wash which has been a request for a number of years, a tiny water tap off the water main and regulated with a meter. The recent “paving was just an overlay to address a series of potholes.” They’re repairing some broken sidewalk panels, too.
TRASH BARRELS ON THE WEEKENDS – Now you’ll see them
TRASH BARRELS DURING THE WEEK – Now you won’t
There will be pairs of barrels at the beach paths on Gloucester’s two biggest beaches– Good Harbor and Wingaersheek– on weekends as a trial experiment. The barrels will be emptied including a late evening sweep to ensure they’re not left overflowing through the night. It’s a combo option of carry in / carry out with carry in / carry off, because the former works well for most people, not all.
What did DPW find this past weekend?
The barrels were full both days. It was less messy than some of the previous busy weekends. There was lots of dog waste. By morning, they found that there was still trash left in the parking lot which means…
Some beach goers disregard all options: carry in /carry out policy, new blue plastic bags, new barrel pairs at the paths, even a dumpster they walked by behind the concession stand. Oh, and there’s the dog waste despite the No Dog May-October ordinance.
Of course, the litter is not just at beaches. Yes, it detracts from other priorities. DPW is finding trash pretty much everywhere people park (like the boat ramps.) Some people feel that it’s ok to leave behind bags of trash outside where they parked, or next to a full barrel. Gentle reminder from DPW: Pizza to go boxes atop the barrels can block bins that may hold more. Pizza boxes need to be compacted.
prior post Both/And : Carry In Carry Out and new trash barrels at Good Harbor Beach paths
GHB parking lot clean as a whistle after busy weekend
pedestrian bridge? clean as a whistle? not so much and yet so –keeping it positive–the beach was jam packed yesterday!
other: Creek opened Monday (board of health, not DPW)
new testing methods on the horizon
The count I heard passing the Gloucester High School athletes going strong at summer conditioning… How many jumping push ups do they go up to?
Beautiful effort and gym
I was photographing the coast at the Gloucester edge of Long Beach. That in sync duo caught my eye.
Here are scenes from last night’s Downtown Gloucester, MA, Main Street Block Party, the first of 3. Congratulations to the organizers, volunteers, and City for hosting a great party downtown. We ate at Short and Main — busy, fresh and fantastic. We met friends who went to Topside–heard wonderful reports, there and from other eateries. Downtown was bustling and joyous thanks to stores with open doors, live bands (who was that super band outside Short and Main?), Gloucester Stage’s youth actors, and buskers. Our last stop was frozen yogurt at Cafe Bishco because why not? It had outdoor seating, too.
You have two more chances to get down to a block party: Saturday August 12 and Friday September 1.
Adam Curcuru writes: “Very excited to have received our first batch of Cape Ann Veterans Services Challenge Coins! Thank you Paul Krueger for your help in design and ordering –they came out great!”
The Cape Ann Veterans Services original ‘we left the light on for you‘ logo was designed by Pauline Bresnahan
Lovely mom and daughter readying yard sale which will be open today 8:30-noon, 7 Long Beach Road. The family has been working together for a couple of months. Whether big (piano– already gone!) or small items (specialty craft) it’s hoped everything must go! Besides the papers and Craig’s List where do you look for yard sale notices?
As with Manchester Singing and other North Shore beaches, the white or “dry” sand of Long Beach sings a musical sound as you scuff ahead. Lately though it’s whistling a shorter tune because there’s an astonishing loss of the dry grains.
Over the last 10 years, so much sand has been washed away from Long Beach most every high tide hits the seawall. Boogie boarders need to truncate their wave rides else risk landing on the rip-rap. It’s become a competitive sport to lay claim to some beach chair and towel real estate if you want a dry seat. On the plus side, low tide is great for beach soccer and tennis, long walks and runs. Bocce ball has replaced can jam and spikeball as the beach games of summer 2017.
Seasoned locals recall having to ‘trudge a mile’ across dry sand before hitting wet sand and water. In my research I’ve seen historic visuals that support their claims.
Historic photos and contemporary images –from 10 years ago– show a stretch of white sand like this one looking out from the Gloucester side of Long Beach to the Rockport side.
photocard showing the pedestrian walkway prior to the concrete boardwalk. Historic prints from ©Fredrik D. Bodin (1950-2015) show the damage after storm, 1931. See his GMG post and rodeo (ca. 1950)
After the Storm, Long Beach, 1931 Alice M. Curtis/©Fredrik D. Bodin (1950-2015) “Printed from the original 5×7 inch film negative in my darkroom. Image #88657-134 (Long Beach looking toward Rockport)”
This next vintage postcard flips the view: facing the Gloucester side of Long Beach –looking back to glacial rocks we can match out today, a tide line that shows wet and dry sands, and the monumental Edgecliffe Hotel which welcomed thousands of summer visitors thanks to a hopping casino. The white sand evident in front of the Edgecliffe bath houses (what is now Cape Ann Motor Inn) has plummeted since a 2012 February storm and vanished it seems, perhaps temporarily, perhaps not. It’s most evident where several feet of sand was cleaved off from the approach to the boardwalk.
I find the annual sand migration on Long Beach a fascinating natural mystery. It’s dramatic every year. Here are photos from this last year: fall (late Sept 2016), winter (December- sand covers rip-rap), spring (April -after winter storms with alarming loss), and summer (today)
FALL
WINTER
SPRING April rip-rap uncovered, exposed. Climbing to the boardwalk is an exciting challenge for two boys I know (when the sand is filled in like the December photo it’s a short drop)
SUMMER July 14 sand is coming back though all boulders are not entirely submerged
Storms (namely February) strip the silky soft top sand away and expose the boulders strengthening the seawall. It’s easy to feel alarmed that the beach is disappearing. By summer, the sand fills back, though not always in the same spot or same quantity. Some rip-rap expanses remain exposed. Most is re-buried beneath feet of returning sand. New summer landmarks are revealed. One year it was a ribbon of nuisance pebbles the entire length of beach. The past two years we’ve loved “the August Shelf”. (Will it come again?)
This year there’s a wishbone river.
In case you missed the Gloucester Daily Times article “Rockport Looks to Fix Long Beach Sea Wall” by Mary Markos, I’ve added the link here. They hope to finish by 2025. I look forward to learning more and reading about it. If extra sand is brought back will high tide continue to hit the seawall? (In the past it could hit the wall or blast over in storms, but dry sand remained lining the wall.) Will the new wall occupy the same general footprint? Will it be higher? Thicker?
From Gloucester Lyceum & Sawyer Free Public Library
Date: July 13, 2017
Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library Wait-listed for Library Construction Grant
NEEDHAM – July 13, 2017 – The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) voted to place the Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library on a wait-list for a Provisional Construction Grant. The grant is part of the state-funded Massachusetts Public Library Construction Program (MPLCP) which helps libraries across the state meet the growing demand for library services with expanded and improved library facilities. Attendance at public library programs has increased 49% since 2006 and every 5.5 seconds a Massachusetts resident accesses the Internet through a public library.
Thirty-three libraries completed the grant round process. Through a rigorous review, nine libraries were identified to receive grants and twenty-four were placed on a wait-list. Wait-listed libraries will receive construction grants as the funding becomes available either through the existing bond bill or a future bond authorization.
“This is a very good result for us,” said Katherine Prum, Vice-President of the Board of Trustees. “It gives us the gift of time, a number of years in which to build community support, raise funds, conduct a strategic planning process, answer the questions regarding renovation vs new construction, and address concerns about the historic buildings, amphitheater, and gardens.”
“Our residents support the library and are using it more than ever. Obviously we would have preferred to be one of the nine initial recipients, but it was a highly competitive grant round. We’re proud to have completed the process and we’ll be ready when the funding becomes available for our library,” said John Brennan, President of the Board of Trustees.
The proposed project would centralize all the library facilities in a single building, and reassert the library’s role at the center of the city’s culture and learning.
Funding for the MPLCP is authorized by the governor and the legislature. Funding for this grant round is part of the general governmental needs bond bill filed in March, 2013 which included $150 million for the Massachusetts Public Library Construction Program. This funding was also used to award construction grants to 11 communities that had been on a wait-list for several years and will be used to support a future Planning and Design grant round.
The MPLCP was first funded in 1987. Since then, the program has assisted hundreds of communities in building new libraries or in renovating and expanding existing libraries. For more information about the program, please visit the MBLC’s website.http://mblc.state.ma.us/
Classic housemade strawberry, chocolate and vanilla ice cream milkshakes at Happy Belly 3 Duncan Street, Gloucester, MA. Whip cream is homemade, too!
Fresh baked bread and bakery treats are excellent. Large loaves ciabata coming out of the oven in just about an hour…
**Update: the bread is ready and added some more photos from inside**
more photos inside Happy Belly and menus
Yesterday’s captivating visibility at noon.
The chick made it through the night. From today’s Gloucester Daily Times
One Surviving Piping Plover Chick Remains
Also Local firefighters Make Way for Ducklings and six Fire Fighters retire
Updates from the piping plover volunteer watch are shared LIVE (or close to it) throughout the day on twitter https://twitter.com/Glostaplover
Volunteer any time –extra eyes help!– There are some times with no coverage. Email Ken Whittaker kwhittaker@gloucester-ma.gov
Hazel’s flyer reflects status of the summer 2017 brood as of July 10, 2017
What a lovely surprise gift from my friend, Pauline, and an even more surprising matrix I had to share! Pauline painted a tender piping plover mom with 2 chicks and an iconic Cape Ann vista directly on a vintage bag with bamboo – rattan handles. I’m gobsmacked. Twin chicks. Twin Lights. Love it!
Pauline’s Gift Shop, 512 Essex Avenue, Gloucester, MA. Check out Pauline’s work and her creative solutions for a range of commissions!
From Caffe to Cafe
Cafe Brew & Spirits “Opening Soon” and “New Owner” signs have been displayed (for a while) at the former Caffe Dolce space on the corner of Main and Washington Streets, across from Tonno.
Laura Harrington’s New Novel, A Catalog of Birds, will be released on July 11 by Europa Editions. Two back to back special book launches in Gloucester:
“Harrington’s ‘Alice Bliss’ was a big hit, and you won’t want to miss out on this one either!”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Laura Harrington is an award-winning playwright, lyricist, librettist and author. She teaches at MIT and lives in Gloucester, MA. And she sings! Alice Bliss, her first novel, grew out of Harrington’s one-woman musical Alice Unwrapped, which ran off-Broadway in New York and in the Minneapolis Fringe Festival in 2009. Her novel Alice Bliss (Viking/Penguin) won the 2012 Massachusetts Book Award in Fiction. Playwrights Horizons has commissioned her to create Alice Bliss the musical which is in production 2017.
Read the great press release issued by MIT
