Our Catherine Ryan has curated and designed a wonderfully fun and beautiful exhibit, “Once Upon a Contest: Selections from Cape Ann Reads,” currently on view at the Cape Ann Museum. The exhibit highlights local writers and artists of children’s picture books from the Cape Ann Reads initiative. Cape Ann Reads, hosted by the area’s four public libraries (Sawyer Free, Rockport, Manchester, and Essex), was created to encourage literacy in young people through community and creative collaborations.
The exhibit is thoughtfully designed for little folks. The paintings are hung at just the right height for pint-sized readers and soon-to-be readers. Mock-ups of the books are placed on shelves within easy reach and petite chairs for little ones make for a cozy storytime feeling.
I took Charlotte to the Museum on Friday and she had a fantastic experience. We’re planning to return again this Friday!
Come join us at the opening celebration from 3:00pm to 5:00pm, this Saturday, January 5th, at the Cape Ann Museum, 2nd floor.
“Once Upon A Contest” runs from December 20th through February 24th.
Thank you to Charlotte and her Mom and Dad for the photos! The watercolor illustration Charlotte is sitting in front of is from my book, “Beauty on the Wing: Life Story of the Monarch Butterfly,” which was the original inspiration for the documentary film of the same name. The illustration shows a pair of Monarchs ascending into a maple tree, as they are mating.
The Cape Ann Museum is free to Cape Ann residents during the entire month of January!
Author/illustrators included in the exhibition:
Leslie Galacar, Martha Shaw Geraghty, Marion Hall, Steven Kennedy, Charles King, George King, Michael LaPenna, James McKenna, Barbara McLaughlin, Alexia Parker, Victoria Petway, Jim Plunkett, Diane Polley, Mary Rhinelander, James Seavey, Gail Seavey, Kim Smith, Christina Ean Spangler, Bonnie L. Sylvester, Juni VanDyke, Maura Wadlinger, Betty Allenbrook Wiberg, Kirsten Allenbrook Wiberg, Jean Woodbury and Claire Wyzenbeek
Exhibit Curated and Directed by Catherine Ryan, with support from the Bruce J. Anderson Foundation.
Deborah Kelsey, director of Gloucester’s Sawyer Free Library
Cindy Grove, director of the Rockport Public Library
Sara Collins, director of Manchester’s Public Library
Deborah French, director of Essex’s TOHP Burnham Public Library
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January is Buddy Month at Crossfit Cape Ann! Not sure CFCA is right for you? Buddy month has officially started and we would love to see you in the gym. Don’t know a current member? Reach out to us and we will find you a buddy! Buddies get two FREE classes in January. If you join in the month of January you’ll get $50 off their 1st month’s membership. What a deal!
Dave Sag’s Blues Party -Thursday at the Rumpline, let’s welcome Acton’s answer to to the Blooze: Mr. Chris Fitz. Yes, he’s taking a night off from his usual gig to entertain you…the viewer. He tore the place up last time he was here, forcing Fred™ to repaint the whole bar. Let’s do it again!
Dave
40 Railroad Avenue
Gloucester, MA 01930
(978) 283-9732
Celebrate the film Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald and revel in a holiday season bursting with the magic of J. K. Rowling’s world by embarking on your very own search for magical creatures! Climb a 150-year-old staircase, explore a maze of hallways and hidden rooms, peek around corners and into shadows to discover the real creatures and stories behind these fantastic beasts. Where CAN you find them? Look no further than the hallowed halls of the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology and the Harvard Semitic Museum. Witches, wizards, muggles, and magizoologists of all ages are invited to pick up the Fantastic Beasts Scavenger Hunt clue sheets at any of these Harvard museums and begin a quest to uncover the hiding places for a host of amazing creatures. Find them all, and you win a small prize! The spell is cast and the adventure begins November 18, but time is limited, so plan your visit now. The magic ends on January 6.
Regular admission rates apply.
The museum is located at 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, just past Harvard Yard.
Adults: $15.00
Non-Harvard students with I.D.: $10.00
Seniors (65+): $13.00
Children ages 3–18: $10.00
Children under 3: Free Free for members
Pick #2: New England Reptile Expo
This is not a place that you’ll catch me, but if your little ones have been clamoring for a new pet and you’re not into fur balls, litter boxes, or taking dogs for long walks….you may want to check out the Reptile Expo up in Manchester, NH. It is billed as the Largest Reptile Show in New England, for whatever that’s worth.
Thousands of reptiles on display and for sale as pets! Vendors will also be selling cages, supplies, frozen feeder rodents, feeder bugs, and many other reptile-related items at discounted prices.
Admission: $10/adults, $5/kids 7-12, under 7 free. Kids 12 and under MUST be accompanied by an admission paying adult!
Pick #3: Rye Airfield Indoor Skate Park
Rye, New Hampshire
My boys have both been here a few times and love it! It is HUGE. It’s also a great option to break away from the normal indoor activities that your children may need a little vacation from. You can bring your own bikes, scooters, skate boards, etc. or simply rent something up there.
Before we get to the ramps, we have a ton of viewing areas, retail, concessions, bathrooms, showers (camp use only), multi-purpose rooms and usually a good joke or two.
Rye Airfield is New England’s premiere skate & bike park. Our indoor skatepark was originally designed and built by Jack Murphy Productions (designers of The Gravity Games, Vans Skateparks and the Dew Tour) with the consultation of former Pro Skaters, Dave Duncan, Andy MacDonald and Chris Senn. Over the past decade we have remodeled a handful of times with the most recent phases of design and construction being completed by Brad Jameson and John Saxton of Skidmark Skateparks along with a covert crew of volunteers.
We are not just a skate & bike park though, we also offer a full service pro shop that carries a solid selection of bike, skateboard and scooter products from completes that are ready to go, or all the parts you need for a custom built ride. Our mechanics can build and repair just about anything that is used in the park.
Our year round indoor facility has 50,000 square feet and features everything you’ve dreamed about riding or skating all under one roof. Our outdoor area is more than 100,000 square feet and is a work in progress with wood and dirt features. The ultimate goal is to create an outdoor bike park that offers something for the cross-country mtb rider and the dirt jumping bmx rider.
As always, for a comprehensive list of family activities, please visit our friends at North Shore Kid.
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Happy New Year! I hope you all had a festive and wonderful holiday season. As January 2nd is upon us, it’s time to start planning for the year ahead. With that, I want to touch on a few financial and real estate topics that may be beneficial to everyone.
In the beginning of December, all the talk was about increasing interest rates, home prices declining and inventories rising. Now in the beginning of January, things are looking a little different. How is that possible? The Fed increased the benchmark interest rate .25% in December, it’s the holiday season where there tends to be less home buyers and even less sellers and we are going into winter when it’s typically slow. The easiest way to explain this is to look outside.
While the decent winter weather can account for more people buying and selling homes, that has nothing to do with…
We’re teaming up with our friends at Pigeon Cove Ferments again this winter to offer a Fermentation Workshop! Join us at PCF’s downtown Gloucester Fermentorium to learn about the benefits of fermentation and how to make your own sauerkraut.
We will begin with a short overview of the fermentation process, fermented foods and the health benefits of fermentation. Then we will chop, grate, mix, and begin fermenting our own sauerkraut for participants to take home!
When: Thursday, January 17, 2018, 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Where: Pigeon Cove Ferments, 44 Whittemore Street Unit #10, Gloucester, MA
This workshop often sells out, so get your tickets today! Tickets are $20 per person, with a 50% discount for Backyard Growers program participants.
Questions? Please contact Backyard Growers at 978-281-0480, community@backyardgrowers.org, or visit us at 271 Main St.
DANVERS — Retired Wenham police reserve officer William J. Foley Jr. happened to be at the right place at the right time to be able to use CPR to revive a spectator at Danvers Indoor Sports on Andover Street on Saturday afternoon.
The victim collapsed and wound up unresponsive about 10 feet behind Foley as he was watching a soccer game, he said.
From his training, Foley said it appeared the man had suffered cardiac arrest. He had no pulse and he was not breathing.
At the time of the incident, Foley was on the second level of the indoor sports complex at 150 Andover St., catching his 8-year-old grandson Connor Hill’s 5 p.m. soccer game.
During the match, he heard commotion nearby.
“Next thing I know, someone was screaming for a doctor or a nurse,” Foley said. At first, Foley did not grasp what was happening, but his daughter told him: “Dad, move it.”
“You do what you gotta do,” said Foley, 67, of Hamilton, who retired two years ago at the mandatory retirement age of 65 as a reserve patrolman in Wenham after 34 years. He continues to serve as a special police officer for Crane Beach in Ipswich.
Another man was attempting to do CPR on the victim who was on the ground, but Foley said this man was not trained to do so. Foley told the other bystander he was a police officer and took over performing CPR on the victim, and started doing chest compressions. After about a minute and a half, the man started to breath and talk. There was a language barrier, Foley said, but the victim’s family kept talking to him.
Foley does know who the victim is. He credits his training over the years for kicking in at the right time.
“You’ve been trained in that your whole life, and it’s one of the things that stick with you,” Foley said.
He also said he recently finished in-service training in November, which included CPR training.
“It’s a credit to the academy, these guys teach it so well,” Foley said of the Massachusetts Law Enforcement Training Alliance, LLC, MLETA, which is based in Topsfield.
Foley is known in Beverly as the retired principal of the Centerville Elementary School on Hull Street, a post from which he retired in 2008.
Danvers Police and Fire departments responded to the call, along with Atlantic Ambulance, Foley said. He described the man as conscious and alert when he was taken away by ambulance.
Danvers fire Capt. Brian Barry was on duty Saturday at the time of the call, but he did not respond to it. He said the call came in at 5:30 p.m. for a person who was possibly not breathing and who was later transported to the hospital conscious and alert. He did not have any further details.
Foley comes from a family where knowing CPR comes in handy. He’s the uncle of Topsfield fire Chief Jen Collins-Brown. He is also the uncle of her brother, Beverly Commissioner of Public Services Michael Collins.
In September, Collins happened to be at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Beverly Middle School when former Beverly Mayor Bill Scanlon became unsteady on his feet during a speech. Collins, who is trained in CPR, was able to reach him before he collapsed and started doing chest compressions on Scanlon, who was 78 at the time. These actions saved Scanlon’s life.
Fire Chief Collins-Brown said she was proud of her uncle.
“It’s the bystanders, it’s the lay people who are going to save people,” said Collins-Brown, who also teaches CPR. That’s the message she brings when teaching other first responders about CPR, that time is of the essence when it comes to saving lives using its techniques.
‘It’s all the more reason why people should learn CPR,” Collins-Brown said.
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I wasn’t expecting to see a Snowy Owl overhead in a pine tree, although its not entirely uncommon. Because Snowy Owlets hatch in the summertime in the treeless Arctic tundra, they may never even see a tree until they migrate southward.
Generally, Snowies prefer wide open spaces such as dunes, sandy beaches, fields, and airports, because this habitat looks most similar to the tundra.
For the same reason (their home territory is above the Arctic Circle), Snowy Owls hunt during the day in their summer range. Their eyes have evolved to hunt in the continuous daylight of the far north. When migrating to the lower 48 states, Snowies adapt to the shifting light. Unlike other species of owls, the Snowy Owl hunts during the day (this behavior is called diurnal), and the night (nocturnal), and at twilight (crepuscular).
From observing Snowy Owls in our region, they mostly feed very early in the morning, before daybreak, rest during the day in dunes and fields, then at day’s end, fly up and perch on an open rooftop or phone pole (less occasionally to treetops), to begin hunting again. The elevated perches provide better visibility for triangulating prey.
At day’s end, perching on a phone pole and scanning the neighborhood.
Beach structures make great perches.
Hedwig in the moonlight, perched on a phone pole.
Even a flag pole makes for a terrific hunting perch for a Snowy!
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Happy New Year! I hope you all had a festive and wonderful holiday season. As January 2nd is upon us, it’s time to start planning for the year ahead. With that, I want to touch on a few financial and real estate topics that may be beneficial to everyone.
Good Morning Gloucester 
40 Railroad Avenue
Gloucester, MA 01930
(978) 283-9732