Cape Pond Ice

Posted on by Donna Ardizzoni

For those of you who live at the Fort neighborhood of Gloucester or just have an interest in what is going on at the Cape Pond Ice building, please consider attending this informational meeting. I hope to see you there.

Little Buoy Thief

Posted on by Nichole S.

Thatcher’s birthday was last Thursday, but he had a super busy day that day…so when baseball was cancelled on Wednesday we took advantage of a free night and went to the Studio for dinner to celebrate a little early….before celebrating a bit late later in the week.  #weeklongbirthdays

After dinner we stopped by Cape Hedge Beach for the annual and obligatory birthday-photo-on-the-beach that I subject my children to. The horror.

While driving down to the lot we inadvertently found ourselves driving through some movie filming that was taking place in the neighborhood.

They waved us through, walkie-talkied ahead, and kindly tolerated the interruption.  We went down to the beach long enough for the boys to scale the massive wall of rocks, oblige me with a few photos, and steal a lobster buoy.

That’s right.  Finn had spied a lobster buoy pretty far down the beach and took off to grab it.  As you all know, lobster buoys wash up on our beaches often….so I didn’t think much of it when Finn tossed it into the backseat of the car before we left.

We had to wait a bit for crew members to exit the home where the filming was taking place and I scanned the group for a face I might recognize….but had no luck.  Once the group had moved on towards the beach and the coast was clear, someone waved us along again.  I drove up the road slowly and paused to ask what the name of the movie was….but, I never found out.  Instead, as the nice movie crew peep walked up to my window, I started to apologize for interrupting their work and was about to explain why we had driven down the the beach…..birthday boy and all.   But, mid-sentence the movie crew guy interrupted and said, “Yuh…ummm….so did you by chance pick up a lobster buoy while you were down there?”

Oops.

Turns out the lobster buoy that Finn saw and ran 50 yards to pluck from the beach was actually a movie prop….and was kind of essential to the scenes that were about to be filmed. Bygones.

In thinking back on it….there was a girl in the parking lot with a walkie-talkie watching the boys and I on the beach.  She must have seen Finn take the buoy because she radioed my license plate # to the buy up the road.  I thought she was simply telling him that we were on our way up so they could pause filming for a minute.  Evidently not.  I can’t help but wonder why she didn’t simply tell us that the buoy was theirs…. Finn would have happily put it back….especially if to avoid the embarrassment of having to cough it up and hand it over up the street.

I wish we had thought to snap a photo of Finn with his buoy!  It will be funny to see the buoy make its appearance in the film once it’s released.  Whatever the movie is.

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Traditional Memorial Day

Posted on by Pat D

Today, May 30, is the original and traditional date for Memorial Day.  An interesting history of the holiday is available on History.com and I encourage you to check it out if you aren’t familiar with how the three day weekend to mark the beginning of summer came about.  Originally it was set aside for marking the graves of fallen Civil War soldiers with flowers and flags.  The meaning and significance of the day has evolved as time has gone by, and sometimes May 30 is forgotten in the shuffle of the parades, picnics and family gatherings.  Today, let’s take a moment to remember.

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Pastaio Via Corta Will Be Opening At 123 Main St. #GloucesterMA

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Katelyn's avatarcapeanneats

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Come see us at the 5th Annual Strawberry Festival at Mile Marker One on Saturday. We’ll be passing out HCD shopping totes.

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

HarborCoveDental's avatarCape Ann Wellness

Come see us at the 5th Annual Strawberry Festival at Mile Marker One on Saturday. We’ll be passing out HCD shopping totes.

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Calling All Students!

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

sargentstreetsocialclub's avatarCape Ann Wellness

Did you know that Crossfit Cape Ann offers a discount for all current students? If you are home for the summer or a local student, come check us out!

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The primary goal at CFCA is to help our members increase their capability, durability (both mental and physical) and most importantly longevity through consistent quality movement in a fun and supportive environment. We have evolved over the years into what we’d consider more of a “lifestyle” crossfit gym. We focus on exercises that we feel have the best carryover to the demands of our member’s lives outside of the gym and less on competition or Crossfit as “sport”.

For more about joining – check out our webpage! 

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SO SORRY TO WRITE OUR LITTLE SWAN PASSED AWAY THIS MORNING

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

Sending heartfelt condolences to Lyn Fonzo, and to all of the Young Swan’s and friends and caretakers. The little Swan’s leg injury became deeply infected, all the way into the bone.

If you see Lyn Fonzo, please thank her for all that she has done over the past year in caring for our Young Swan and in trying to rehabilitate him to Niles Pond. Please thank and support Dr. Cahill, too, who generously donated his services.

BEAUTIFUL SHOREBIRDS PASSING THROUGH

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

May is a magical month to see migrating species throughout Massachusetts. Over the weekend on an early morning Piping Plover check up I was delighted and surprised to encounter a small flock of Dowitchers and Black-bellied Plovers hungrily feeding at the shoreline. Two Semipalmated Plovers joined the scene, too, and for a brief moment our Papa Plover was feeding with the migrating flock.

Unlike Piping Plovers, which nest in our region, we will never see nesting Black-bellied Plovers, Dowitchers, and Semipalmated Plovers on our shores. They are migrating to their northern breeding grounds in the Arctic.

RAW SEWAGE SPILL INTO THE GREAT SALT MARSH

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

A sewer pipe in Essex broke over the weekend, spewing raw sewage into the Essex River Salt Marsh. I am so very sorry for our local clam diggers–just as the season was getting underway–devastating. The clam flats will be monitored, at a minimum, over the next 21 days before any determination about reopening will be made.

Essex River Clammers

About the Great Marsh

“In Massachusetts, the North Shore’s Great Marsh is the largest continuous stretch of Salt Marsh in New England, extending from Cape Ann to New Hampshire. The Great Marsh includes over 20,000 acres of marsh, barrier beach, tidal river, estuary, mudflat, and upland islands extending across the Massachusetts North Shore from Gloucester to Salisbury. In recognition of these extraordinary resources, a portion of this area was designated by the state in 1979 as the Parker River/Essex Bay Area of Critical Environmental Concern. The Great Marsh is an internationally recognized Important Bird Area (IBA) as it contributes to the preservation of many breeding and migratory birds. This unique complex of natural systems add ecological, economic, recreational, and cultural value to our daily lives both on the coast and inland where land is connected by river and stream networks.” Read more about the Great Marsh Coalition here.

Beautiful Fish: Sargassum Fish

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns
 

Sargassum Fish, Mousefish

Color— Creamy white, the fins as well as the head and body mottled with pale and dark brown. The fleshy tags are yellowish.

General range— Tropical and subtropical, living at the surface among floating seaweed; sometimes drifting far northward with the Gulf Stream.

Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine— A specimen about 4¾ inches (12 cm.) long, that was picked up in a purse seine near the surface over the west central part of Georges Bank, by the Schooner OLD GLORY on September 15, 1930, and a second of 2¼ inches, taken off the southeast slope of Georges Bank, by the sword fisherman LEONORA C, on June 15, 1937, are the only records of this fish in the Gulf of Maine; the most northerly records, in fact, for it for continental waters in this side of the Atlantic. But it has been picked up from time to time near Woods Hole. Living, as they usually do, among floating gulf weed (Sargassum), it is not astonishing that sargassum fish should drift in over the offshore banks, occasionally.

From Fishes of the Gulf of Maine by Bigelow and Schroeder (1953) online courtesy of MBL/WHOI http://www.gma.org/fogm/Histrio_pictus.htm

                  Photo – Hauling the seine, Schooner Old Glory

It was the Gloucester Schooner Old Glory that seined up the first reported tiny sargassum fish specimen. (Howard Liberman photo, 1942, aboard Old Glory, courtesy of the Library of Congress Online Catalog)

Al Bezanson

Look who is participating with the Philadelphia Tall Ships Event

Posted on by Donna Ardizzoni

The beautiful Lannon is participating in the Philadelphia Tall Ships.  My daughter’s sister-in-law live in Philadelphia she and sent me this photo of The Lannon.