My View of Life on the Dock
Please help spread the attached announcement with your networks.We look forward to seeing you on Thursday February 2nd!
Beautiful sea smoke along the back shore yesterday morning.
North Light
South Light
Filming all this week at daybreak. Typical New England winter weather–yesterday it was ten degrees; this morning twenty degrees; and now, this evening it’s forty degrees. Looking forward to what tomorrow brings 🙂
Please join Marilyn this Saturday, January 14th, from 1 to 4pm, for her painting reception at the Beverly Farms Library, located at 24 Vine Street, Beverly Farms.
Lots of fun in our East Gloucester neighborhood after the first decent snowstorm of the season. Happy Snow Days ❤
P.S. Sorry friends for the grainy photos, the sun had set beyond the hill.
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The class schedule has been posted at David Calvo’s Wood Carving School. To learn more, visit David’s website here.
Early morning from the east side of Gloucester, after the snowstom
Saint Anthony’s By the Sea
In the distance is the glimmer of the Eastern Point lighthouse, the last sight of home for many Gloucester fishermen before they sailed into the vastness of the ocean. Dotted around the harbour are small wooden houses from which fishermen’s wives would look anxiously into the bay.
Fishing has run thick in the blood of Gloucester since English settlers arrived in 1623. The city — the oldest seaport in America — is on Cape Ann, which juts into the Atlantic just north of Boston. Across the Cape, stretched over some of the most beautiful coastline in America, are working fishing towns, beaches of white sand, marshes, old colonial buildings and, of course, bucket loads of fresh seafood.
In the winter, with the fishermen at rest, the pace of life slows to match the region’s calm, understated beauty. This is perhaps the reason that Manchester by the Sea, the brooding drama starring Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams, was filmed here in the winter months. Although the movie (most of which was filmed in Gloucester) follows the lives of a working-class family, Manchester-by-the-Sea itself, which lies to the west of Gloucester, is unabashedly wealthy. Just off the main road are $14 million mansions with great sea views.
When we Brits think of the Massachusetts coastline, we think of the dreamy panoramas of Cape Cod. Indeed, most Bostonites head south to the sand dunes and salty air whenever they take a break from the city. If Cape Cod and its quaint little villages possess a special kind of serene beauty, so does the lesser-known Cape Ann. And with fewer tourists, Cape Ann — unlike Cape Cod — stays in character.
Barbecue closed today
Loving every minute of a snowbound afternoon ❤
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Snowy dawn in Rockport
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Watch Open Studio tonight at 8:30 on WGBH for a profile of Jeremy Adams and the Voicing the Woods exhibition. Jared spoke with curator Martha Oaks in the gallery and with Jeremy Adams in the gallery and at his workshop. Adams even plays a little harpsichord music!
Lovely daybreak over Rockport Harbor and Straitsmouth Island Lighthouse today, and very nippy too 🙂
Tractor as scratching post
Farmer Ken Lane’s beautiful cows are currently grazing at Waring Field. Seaview Farmstand is open on Saturdays through the winter (from December 26 through May 14).
About Seaview Farm from their website:
SINCE 1838
The farmland was purchased by Andrew Lane in the early 1800’s and at the time was known as the Davis Pasture. The exact acreage is unknown but it was believed to have been approximately 2000 acres, all around the south end of Rockport. The original barn was moved to the property from a farm on what is now known as Jerden’s Lane. By assessing the architecture of the barn, it appears to have been built around the late 1700’s. The original barn is still standing and is currently used as a tool shed. A new asphalt shingle roof was put on in 2012, replacing the older metal roof. Under the metal roof is believed to have been some of the original cedar shingles from when the barn was moved to the property and repaired. The house was built in 1838 and the large cow barn followed. A small farm store was added onto the house in 1914, in which the farm’s vegetables, homemade ice cream, milk, candy and a variety of other items were sold.
Early on in the farm’s existence, a milk route was established. In the old days, milk was transported in a large milk can on a horse-drawn wagon and a dipper was used to measure the amount of milk a customer purchased. The cows were here until Charlie Lane sold them in 1972 and converted the business to a horse boarding facility. At Charlie’s death in 2008, his grandson Ken and wife Regina (click here to view video) moved from their beloved home in Florida to run the farm and keep the family tradition alive.
After Ken assumed control, the farm continued exclusively as a boarding facility until 2011, when a beef cow and calf were purchased. This began Seaview Farm’s expansion into the grass-fed beef business. Vegetables were also re-introduced to the farm, and the farm store was re-opened–in its original space–for the first time since its closing in the 1930’s.
The farm has been a great fit for Ken as his background includes a high school education at Essex “Aggie” where he took animal nutrition and management, and became an FFA member. Ken also took post-graduate classes at the “Aggie” in farm management. He went on to college majoring in business at Columbia Greene College in Hudson NY.
For Ken and Regina, It has been a challenge and an honor to run the family farm these past years. They are excited to continue the family tradition of offering healthy, sustainable food for all to enjoy. The Lane family thanks all of its patrons for helping to keep the farm going from the 1800’s to now and ensuring that this wonderful family tradition is kept alive!
Read more about Seaview Farm Here
As one bank of clouds departed, another soon took its place. The waves were wild and wooly but the surfers were out in full force at GHB and Brace Cove.
Pretty Spindrift Wave
Not for the faint of heart–from where I was standing way across on the other side of the Cove you could hear the roar of the waves slamming Brace Rock–would you ever try this?
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Jim Dowd shares the following very excellent article about Lyme with important guidelines.
On a visit to Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, Dr. Nevena Zubcevik challenged conventional diagnosis and treatment of tick-borne diseases.
This past Friday, Dr. Nevena Zubcevik, attending physician at Harvard Medical School and co-director of Dean Center for Tick Borne Illness at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Charlestown (SRH) traveled to one of the nation’s front lines in the public health battle against Lyme disease to speak to a group of Martha’s Vineyard Hospital physicians. “I wanted to do this presentation by Skype because of all the ticks you have here,” she joked.
Dr. Zubcevik was at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital (MVH) to speak at grand rounds, a weekly meeting of clinicians, which on this day was open to the public, resulting in an overflow crowd at the Community Room just off the hospital lobby.
Over the course of the hour, she shared the most recent findings that she and her colleagues have made on the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease, in particular on the 10 to 15 percent of patients who suffer long-term symptoms, defined by Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS). She discussed the protean nature of tick-borne diseases, the importance of public awareness, and the urgent need for the medical community to step up its game.
“Graduating medical students and doctors really aren’t educated about the gravity of this epidemic,” she said. “There’s a gap there that needs to be filled. We’re all responsible to educate our young doctors about what this entails.”
Dr. Zubcevic said the recent revelation that actor, singer, and songwriter Kris Kristofferson was cured of dementia once he was properly diagnosed with Lyme disease should be a lesson for medical professionals on how pervasive the disease is, and how often it is overlooked.
“Sudden-onset dementia should really be a red flag for Lyme [disease], especially in people with compromised immune systems,” she said.
“Everyone over 50 has a compromised immune system.”
READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE HERE
The Annual Meeting of the Cape Ann Symphony Orchestra, Inc. will be held at the Gloucester House Restaurant, 63 Rogers Street, Gloucester, MA, on Wednesday, January 18, 2017, at 7:30pm. The purpose of this meeting is to hear reports of the past year’s activity by the Music Director, President, Treasurer, Manager and Board Officers. The meeting is also convened to elect Directors and Officers for the period from January 18, 2017 through January 19, 2018. The meeting will be preceded by a cocktail reception at 6:30pm. ($36. per person/ cash bar). It is not necessary to attend the reception in order to attend the Annual Meeting. For further information please contact David Benjamin, Business Manager, 978-281-0543.
Cape Ann Symphony Photos by Jeph Ellis
New Year’s stroll, Niles Pond causeway
My husband Tom suggested that I write a year-end post about the wildlife that I had photographed around Cape Ann. Super idea I thought, that will be fun and easy. Many hours later (not realizing how daunting) the following is a collection of some favorite images from this past year, beginning with the male Snowy Owl photographed at Captain Joe’s last winter, to December’s Red-tailed Hawk huntress.
Living along the great Atlantic Flyway, we have been graced with a bevy of birds. Perhaps the most exciting arrival of all occurred when early summer brought several pairs of nesting Piping Plovers to Gloucester’s most beloved (and most highly trafficked) of beaches, Good Harbor Beach. Their story is being documented on film.
Work on Mr. Swan’s film will also resume this January—the winters are simply not long enough for all I have planned!
While photographing and filming Red-winged Blackbirds this past spring, there was a face-to-face encounter with a hungry coyote, as well as several River Otter sightings.
Female Red-winged Blackbird
The summer’s drought brought Muskrats out from the reeds and into full view at a very dry Henry’s Pond, and a short film about a North American Beaver encounter at Langsford Pond. Numerous stories were heard from folks who have lived on Cape Ann far longer than I about the extraordinary number of egrets, both Snowy and Great, dwelling on our shores.
Three Muskrateers
There were few Monarch sightings, but the ones seen thankfully deposited eggs in our garden. Thank you to my new friend Christine who shared her Cecropia Silkmoth eggs with me and thank you to the countless readers who have extended an invitation to come by and photograph an exciting creature in their yard.
Pristine beaches, bodies of fresh water, and great swathes of protected marsh and woodland make for ideal wildlife habitat, and Cape Ann has it all. With global climate change pushing species further away from the Equator, I imagine we’ll be seeing even more creatures along our shores. Butterfly and bee populations are overall in decline, not only because of climate change and the use of pesticides, but also because of loss of habitat. As Massachusetts has become less agrarian and more greatly forested, fields of wildflowers are becoming increasingly rare. And too fields often make the best house lots. Farmers and property owners developing an awareness of the insects’ life cycle and planting and maintaining fields and gardens accordingly will truly help the butterflies and bees.
Thank you to all our readers for your kind comments of appreciation throughout the year for the beautiful wild creatures with which we share this gorgeous peninsula called Cape Ann.
The images are not arranged in any particular order. If you would like to read more about a particular animal, type the name of the animal in the search box and the original post should come up.
I wonder what 2017 will bring?
Good Morning Gloucester 