Author: Pat D

Welcome home.

Best wishes for a Happy Easter and Passover from our Egg Friends around town

Here’s what Connemora Bay has to say “Saturdays are for the Boys”.  But, today, Saturday is for the buoys (which is what I originally thought the flag said!).

This one was out too late on Friday night:

Just another lonely buoy:

Party buoys:

A burger and sangria.  Don’t judge me.  And points on my Serenitee card!  Win-Win

What a welcome sight!

In case  you were wondering…..the day has arrived.

If you are seeking signs of spring, Russell’s Florist is a great place to start. What a treat for the eyes!

Taking another ride up the Essex Coastal Scenic Byway recently and found a real sight for sore eyes:

So I decided to have ice cream for lunch and Amy happily assisted:

Very happy to see this sign of spring! Now, this is what I call scenic.

This ad from the Gloucester Daily Times 100 years ago (March 21 1918) caught my eye recently.  Pardon the poor quality.

Mostly I thought it was an interesting comparison of prices but then I noticed “Corned Fish” and started a little research.  There is at least one site that claims no one that knew what they were doing would call it “corned fish” — instead it should be called “corn fish”.  I’ll leave that debate to greater minds.

Put simply, corning fish is a preservation method similar to salting meats such as pork and doesn’t require refrigeration.  According to Jamie Oliver, “The product is covered with large kernels of rock-salt, which is preferred to as “corns of salt”, hence corned fish.”   BAM! Learned something new today….maybe you did too.

Another item about this ad that caught my attention was the note at the bottom that seems to say “we have other, more expensive, items for you, but this is what’s on sale today”.  Available only from 7-9 AM one particular morning.  Now, there’s a deal for you.

Rough start to the morning made much easier to manage with a new bag of coffee! So grateful for local products on Cape Ann. How lucky are we?

Genetics.  A little bit magical.  A little bit scary.  What our ancestors gave to us and what we give to our descendants is a bit like a dish that gets passed down the family line.  It can get a little bit banged up on its journey down the family line but we think it’s beautiful regardless.  That dish belongs to us.  The stories of our ancestors belong to us too and we share them with many others who experienced similar struggles and joy along the way.

Ancestry recently released a new DNA tool that tracks our DNA to “genetic communities”— many people from an area that share similar DNA and had similar life experiences.  These life experiences often led to migration.  Migration like this became like a worn path you follow through the woods mostly because someone else had already done so ahead of you.  These patterns can give us clues as to how our ancestors ended up in Gloucester, for example.  It may not be as simple as the Potato Famine pushing the Irish across the sea.

Most of my  Irish seem to appear in the Boston/Gloucester area in the 1860s or so and this is what Ancestry has to say about their Irish migration during that time period:

The Great Famine Migration

During the Great Famine, potato blight ruined Ireland’s main source of food. Although the horrors of mass starvation were highest in the southwestern province of Munster, its people felt a deep connection to their native land and culture, and emigrated only as a last resort. If they did not die or enter the infamous workhouse, the poor opted for the short journey to England. Others with a little more money crossed the Atlantic to settle among the poor in urban areas in the United States, with New York the most common destination.

The Irish this might apply to include James Handran, Timothy Ryan, John Bentley, Martin Costello, Julia McDonough.  So far, we think our Irish hail from Galway, Meath, Sligo and Clare (all areas within this Munster region).  GMG Jimmy giggled when he saw that these regions of Ireland were suitable for hiding criminals and rebels.

Our Newfoundlanders include John Edward Handran and Mary Ann Squires.  These people often migrated to Nova Scotia (John Pierce, Phoebe Nickerson ) before settling in the Cape Ann area.  In general, the Canadians came to America a little later than our Irish and this is what Ancestry has to say about that time period for them:

Cod Decline Pushes Newfoundlanders to New England

Overfishing cod caused economic instability on the island. The promise of lucrative jobs meant some Newfoundlanders headed to New England coastal towns, particularly Boston. In America the transplants often found work as fishermen, factory workers, and servants.

And another BINGO!!! It feels darn great to have my research confirmed in this way with pretty maps and dotted lines!

My crystal ball has given me another outlet for my photography in that what you “see” through CB is a world turned upside down.  And sometimes, that’s quite beautiful in its own way.

Good Harbor Beach: you probably recognize this landscape even upside down

Kent Circle: the old red, white and blue looks great either way (not a distress call!)

One crystal ball, twin lighthouses

Goose Cove Reservoir

As beautiful as Gloucester is, it’s added value to put a new lens on to view it through different eyes.

A little walk around Rocky Neck recently showed the beauty of winter

Slim pickings for this month’s a-door-nment.  Frankly, it surprised me to find so few green shamrocks and leprechauns around town, but there’s been this matter of storm cleanup followed by storm cleanup followed by storm.  Happy St. Patrick’s Day to ye.

Parker River National Wildlife Refuge just before the recent blizzard. If you can even get in there today, I imagine it looks quite different.