Nichole’s Picks 1/19 + 1/20
Pick #1: Living the Island Life, A Musical Comedy
January 19 @ 7:00 pm
January 20 @ 2:00 pm
$15 – $25
Rotary Club of Rockport Presents: Living the Island Life, A Musical Comedy
Saturday, January 19, 2018 | 7 PM
Sunday, January 20, 2018 | 2 PM
Rockport Middle/High School AuditoriumRockport Rotary is presenting the first-ever original musical comedy about living here — on this side of the bridge! Don’t miss LIVING THE ISLAND LIFE — a new musical comedy that follows a family of six (including a large dog named Kitty) from Buffalo on vacation in—they think—Rockport, Maine. They land, instead, on Cape Ann and learn about life on our side of the bridge through eleven locals’ colorful interpretations of “island” life and its people.
In between uproarious laughs, the players sing very familiar musical tunes—with all-new lyrics. A grand showcase of community talent and local heroes will add to the audience’s delight.
TWO SHOWS: Saturday, January 19 at 7:00pm and Sunday, January 20 at 2:00pm. Come laugh off the January cold with LIVING THE ISLAND LIFE!
Featuring the talents of Jeff McKeen, Wendy Betts, Guy Parsons, Emily Marques, Kathleen Morgan, Bob Ellis, Sue Bonior, Andy Heinze, Jack Reed, Chas Kreis, Gordon Baird, Evelyn Reed, Carolyn Howard, Derek van Gulden, Anne Hyde, and Frances Fleming.
Musicians:
Laura Fillmore Evans, Piano
David Benjamin, Sax, Clarinet, Flute
Art Adamson, Trumpet
Gary Wolseiffer, Bass
Rick Geraghty, DrumsBook and lyrics by Linda Sanders with humorous input from Ian Crown.
Proceeds benefit Rockport Rotary’s community and international service projects.
Pick #2: New England International Auto Show
January 17-21 at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center
This is one of my boys’ favorite events of the year. We weren’t able to squeeze it in this year, but it gives me the excuse to share the video of them tearing up the car show a couple of years ago.
It’s the Biggest Auto Show in New England… and the perfect place to browse hundreds of the newest vehicles! Located at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in the Seaport District, the New England International Auto Show is the premier showcase of the newest model year imported and domestic vehicles — cars, vans, crossovers, hybrids, light trucks and sport utilities – cars to suit every budget and lifestyle. Factory and dealer representatives are on hand to answer your questions in a no pressure environment, and with your favorite car lines all under one roof, it’s easy to compare prices and features, saving both time and money.
So come sit in the cars, pop the hoods, inspect the trunks, kick the tires. The New England International Auto Show is great entertainment for serious shoppers, car buffs and the entire family!
LOCATION:
Boston Convention & Exhibition Center
415 Summer Street
Boston, MA 02210
SHOW HOURS:
Thursday, January 17, 4:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Friday, January 18, 12:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Saturday, January 19, 10:00 am – 9:00 pm
Sunday, January 20, 10:00 am – 7:00 pm
Monday, January 21, 10:00 am- 6:00 pm
*Box Office closes 1 hour prior to the end of the Show each day.
*No refunds
Pick #3: The Boston Globe Travel Show
January 18-20 at Seaport World Trade Center, Boston
LEARN MORE AND BUY TICKETS HERE
“Not just a show, a total travel experience”
Open to Public
Friday, Jan. 18: 5:30 – 8pm
Saturday, Jan. 19: 10am – 6pm
Sunday, Jan. 20: 10am – 4pm
Tickets
$10 online / $15 onsite
Get Tickets
Friday Trade Day, Jan. 18
(8:30am – 5:30pm)
Click here for more info
Directions, parking & other attendee info click here.
As always, for a comprehensive list of family activities, please visit our friends at North Shore Kid.
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Two Lighthouses on a Pretty Day
How lucky are we to have such a unique collection of lighthouses right here on Cape Ann? Here are a couple of photos taken on a sunny day recently. They seemed to be standing taller in the sun, showing off. I captured both of these within a short distance of each other.
Straitsmouth Island Lighthouse–I like the effect of the horizon running along the paint line of the lighthouse, creating a kind of underwater effect.
Thacher Island just gorgeous against the blue sky and ocean.
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In Case You Didn’t Know- Herring Use Farts To Communicate
Fish Farts: Herring Use Flatulence To Communicate
Can you imagine if humans used flatulence as a form of communication? Yikes. We don’t want to picture it, either.
But apparently some types of herring do pass gas to “speak” to each other without alerting other fish.
A 2003 study revealed the findings, but we’re just “herring” about it now, and we just had to share.
When the fish pass gas, the bubbles that emanate make a high-frequency sound only audible to herring. The fish use the noise to form “protective shoals” at night to help them stay safe, National Geographic explains.
The men named the phenomenon Fast Repetitive Tick (or, um, FRT). The noise sounds “like someone blowing a high-pitched raspberry,” Robert Batty, senior research scientist at the Scottish Association for Marine Science in Oban, told National Geographic.
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Adventureman Statement On Why Gloucester…
Foloowing Up On @patdalpiaz post about Adventureman–
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SeniorCare & AARP Provide Free Tax Preparation
SeniorCare Inc.’s RSVP Volunteers of the North Shore are proud to partner with AARP and coordinate the AARP Tax-Aide Program, a vital service for elders, enabling them much needed assistance with their taxes. It is the nation’s largest free, volunteer-run tax assistance and preparation service. Across the nation, there are over 34,000 AARP Tax-Aide volunteers who help more than 2.6 million taxpayers file their federal, state and local tax returns each year. SeniorCare’s group of RSVP Volunteer Tax Aides consists of over 40 certified volunteers who contributed more than 3,000 hours of service assisting over 2,500 elders in 2018!
In 2019, from February through April, AARP and volunteers from SeniorCare RSVP will assist taxpayers 60 & older with middle to low income with their tax preparation and filing, providing free tax assistance at over 30 locations throughout the North Shore.
For information on this program, please contact RSVP Program Assistant…
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A Clip From Yesterday’s GloucesterCast Podcast Taped At Wheelhouse Cowork Space
To listen to the entire podcast-
Click here-
THE LATEST GLOUCESTERCAST PODCAST
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CAPE ANN WILDLIFE 2018: A YEAR IN PICTURES AND STORIES Part Three: Summer
Go here to read Part One: Winter
Go here to read Part Two: Spring
PART THREE: SUMMER
The most joyous story about Cape Ann wildlife during the summer months of 2018 is the story of the high number of Monarch butterflies and caterpillars in gardens and meadows, seen not only in strong numbers along the Massachusetts coastline, but throughout the butterfly’s breeding range–all around New England, the Great Lakes region, Midwest, and Southern Canada.
Three days after celebrating the two week milestone of our one remaining Piping Plover chick, Little Pip, he disappeared from Good Harbor Beach. It was clear there had been a bonfire in the Plover’s nesting area, and the area was overrun with dog and human tracks. The chick’s death was heartbreaking to all who had cared so tenderly, and so vigilantly, for all those many weeks.
Our Mama and Papa were driven off the beach and forced to build a nest in the parking lot because of dogs running through the nesting area. Despite these terrible odds, the Good Harbor Beach Piping Plover pair hatched four adorable, healthy chicks, in the parking lot. Without the help of Gloucester’s DPW, the Piping Plover volunteer monitors, Ken Whittaker, Greenbelt’s Dave Rimmer, and the AAC, the parking lot nest would have been destroyed.
These brave little birds are incredibly resilient, but as we have learned over the past three years, they need our help to survive. It has been shown time and time again throughout the Commonwealth (and wherever chicks are fledging), that when communities come together to monitor the Piping Plovers, educate beach goers, put in place common sense pet ordinances, and reduce trash, the PiPl have at least a fighting chance to survive.
Little Pip at twelve- through seventeen-days-old
All four chicks were killed either by crows, gulls, dogs, or uneducated beach goers, and in each instance, these human-created issues can be remedied. Ignoring, disregarding, dismissing, or diminishing the following Piping Plover volunteer monitor recommendations for the upcoming 2019 shorebird season at Good Harbor Beach will most assuredly result in the deaths of more Piping Plover chicks.
Piping Plover chick testing its wings.
Not one, but at least two, healthy and very hungry North American River Otters families are dwelling at local ponds, with a total of seven kits spotted. We can thank the fact that our waterways are much cleaner, which has led to the re-establishment of Beavers, and they in turn have created ideal habitat in which these beautiful, social mammals can thrive.
Several species of herons are breeding on our fresh water ponds and the smaller islands off the Cape Ann coastline. By midsummer, the adults and juveniles are seen wading and feeding heartily at nearly every body of water of the main island.
In order to better understand and learn how and why other Massachusetts coastal communities are so much more successful at fledging chicks than is Gloucester, I spent many hours studying and following Piping Plover families with chicks at several north of Boston beaches.
In my travels, I watched Least Terns (also a threatened species) mating and courting, then a week later, discovered a singular nest with two Least Tern eggs and began following this little family, too.
Least Tern Family Life Cycle
Maine had a banner year fledging chicks, as did Cranes Beach, locally. Most exciting of all, we learned at the Massachusetts Coastal Waterbird meeting that Massachusetts is at the fore of Piping Plover recovery, and our state has had the greatest success of all in fledging chicks! This is a wonderful testament to Massachusetts Piping Plover conservation programs and the partnerships between volunteers, DCR, Mass Wildlife, the Trustees, Greenbelt, Audubon, and US Fish and Wildlife.
Fledged chick
Cape Ann Museum
Monarch Madness
Friends Jan Crandall and Patti Papows allowed me to raid their gardens for caterpillars for our Cape Ann Museum Kids Saturday. The Museum staff was tremendously helpful and we had a wonderfully interested audience of both kids and adults!
In August I was contacted by the BBC and asked to help write the story about Monarchs in New England for the TV show “Autumnwatch: New England,. Through the course of writing, the producers asked if I would like to be interviewed and if footage from my forthcoming film, Beauty on the Wing, could be borrowed for the show. We filmed the episode at my friend Patti’s beautiful habitat garden in East Gloucester on the drizzliest of days, which was also the last day of summer.
Happy Two-week Birthday to Our Little Pip
Common Eider Ducklings at Captain Joes
Little Pip Zing Zanging Around the Beach
Piping Plover Update – Where Are They Now?
42 Pairs of Piping Plovers Nesting at Cranes Beach!
Welcome to Good Harbor Beach Mama Hummingbird!
Least Tern One Day Old Chicks!
Welcome to the Mary Prentiss Inn Pollinator Paradise
Piping Plover Symbolic Fencing Recomendations
Good Morning! Brought to You By Great Blue Herons Strolling on the Beach
OUTSTANDING COASTAL WATERBIRD CONSERVATION COOPERATORS MEETING!
Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Grow Native Buttonbush for the Pollinators
A Fine Froggy Lunch for a Little Blue Heron
Snowy Owls in Massachusetts in August!?!
Monarch Butterfly Eggs and Caterpillars Alert
Snapshots from Patti Papows Magical Butterfly Garden
Keep Those Monarch Babies Coming!
A Chittering, Chattering, Chetamnon Chipmunk Good Morning to You, Too!
Butterflies and Bird Pooh, Say What?
Thank You To Courtney Richardson and the Cape Ann Museum Kids
A Banner Year for Maine’s Piping Plovers
Snowy Egret Synchronized Bathing
Good Harbor Beach Super High Tide
Otter Kit Steals Frog From Mom
Monarch Butterfly Ovipositing Egg on Marsh Milkweed: NINETEEN SIBLINGS READYING TO EMERGE
FILMING WITH THE BBC FOR THE MONARCHS!
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Niles Pond Solo
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Talking a walk on Magnolia Beach from Coolidge Reservation
Another beauty of a late afternoon walk. After sitting too long working I decided to go to Coolidge Reservation. What a treat it is up there and then took a walk toward Magnolia Beach. The waves were loud and soothing and the sun again amazing. So grateful.
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Cape Ann Fresh Foods Update
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525 Tavern serving brunch
New Sunday Hours!
The bar will not close and small bar menu will be available 2:00-4:00
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Ellen Ford joins Fly Amero this evening 7pm @ The Rhumb Line 1.16.2019
Dinner Specials Each Week!
Wednesday, January 16 – 7pm
My Musical Guest: ELLEN FORD!
courtesy photo
One of my favorite things about watching Ellen Ford perform
is the way adoring listeners seem to wrap her in a warm, fuzzy
blanket with their cheers and applause. It just so obviously
makes her feel loved, which she most certainly is… by us all.
Last time in, Ellen turned the entire evening into an utter joyfest.
Accompanied once again by the great Chick Marston, she’ll be
doing it all over again come Wednesday. Don’t miss this! ~ Fly
Dinner with great music!
*Each week features a special, invited musical guest
The Rhumb Line Kitchen……features Morgan Forsythe! Dishes are better than ever before!
Plus a fine, affordable wine menu!
Next week…
1/23 – Allen Estes
1/30 – Lynne Taylor
Visit: http://www.therhumbline.com/
Looking forward……to seeing you there 🙂
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The Fat Lady Sang At Sears North Shore Shopping Center
Eric Schwartz –
https://www.instagram.com/p/BsskQudHqt5/
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Implications of government shutdown on members/families of the U.S. Coast Guard
January 15, 2019
Re: Implications of government shutdown on members/families of the U.S. Coast Guard
Dear Citizens of Cape Ann,
As you know, the now 24-day government shutdown is taking its toll on U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) members and their families. The Coast Guard, operating under the Department of Homeland Security, is the only branch of the military not being paid for their ongoing operations.
This morning, I met with Adam Curcuru, Director of Veterans’ Services; Chad Johnson, Assistant Harbormaster; Brian O’Connor, Commander, VFW Post 1624; Mark Nestor, Commander, American Legion Post 3; Julie LaFontaine, Executive Director, The Open Door, USGC Commander Sector Gloucester Kevin Morgan; State Representative Ann-Margaret Ferrante; State Senator Bruce Tarr; and a representative from Congressman Seth Moulton’s Office to discuss the issue and how we as a community can best help our local USCG members and their families.
Together we have identified several donation options for those wishing to help. Please be sure to reference USCG when donating. That reference is needed to ensure donations be allocated to USCG members and their families.
Food Donations: At this time, we kindly ask that you do not bring any food donations to the Gloucester Coast Guard Station. All food donations should be directed to Open Door, located at 28 Emerson Avenue, Gloucester, MA.
Gift Card Donations: Gift cards to specific stores such as grocery stores, gas stations, general merchandise (Target or Walmart) and monetary gift cards (Visa, American Express or Mastercard) in any denomination are needed. These can be dropped off in Gloucester or sent to American Legion Post 3, P.O. Box 122. Gloucester, MA 01931-0122, VFW Post 1624 or The Open Door, 28 Emerson Avenue, Gloucester, MA 01930..
Monetary Donations: Monetary donations (check or cash) will be collected at the VFW, American Legion Post 3, P.O. Box 122, Gloucester, MA 01931-0122, Cape Ann Veterans’ Services, The Open Door, 28 Emerson Avenue, Gloucester, MA 01930 or at the Gloucester Fund (45 Middle Street, Gloucester MA). As a reminder, any monetary donations must include a reference USCG.
Clothing Donations: Clothes donations are not requested at this time. Once needs are determined we will provide additional guidance. Please use the other sources of giving recommended.
Thank you for all the outreach regarding this situation. The community’s desire to help is overwhelming. Together let’s help our local USCG community families during this difficult time.
Sincerely,
Sefatia Romeo Theken
Mayor
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Headlands is Back at Feather & Wedge! Thursday, Jan 17
Headlands, featuring John Rockwell, Amy Rich and Eric Wilson, all of Rockport, return to Feather & Wedge this Thursday for an evening of entertainment and great food. Their set list includes selections from Roots and Americana to a little bit of Country. Reservations highly suggested! 978.999.5917
Thursday, January 17, 2019
7:30 PM 10:00 PM
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Lucky To Live Here. We’ve Got Incredible Places Like Virgilios
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Gloucester Smiles with Elaine Somers
Also see some of Elaine’s photos on Cape Ann Photographers Club, two of my favorites below
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Lots of Talk About this Gillette Ad
On January 13th Gillette asked, “Is this the best a man can get?” as a spin on their long standing slogan “The best a man can get.”
Lots of talk last night and this morning about this Gillette Ad. As is typical……it seems people are divided. Some are applauding and some are boycotting. Some are feeling vindicated some are feeling insulted. Your thoughts?
Bullying. Harassment. Is this the best a man can get? It’s only by challenging ourselves to do more, that we can get closer to our best. To say the right thing, to act the right way. We are taking action at http://www.thebestmencanbe.org. Join us.
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Pretty Plum Cove Beach
It’s very pretty at Plum Cove Beach even on a blustery January day. I see it has been designated for the perpetual use of the people of Gloucester….how fortunate!
Good Morning Gloucester 