
Ready, Set, Go
Thatch took this photo Saturday afternoon. Not bad for a 10 year old. Makes me happy.

Random Sights
I like to drive around town just to see the sights. These are some I saw on a recent day’s drive around the Cape and beyond.
A favorite stop to catch some boats at rest Harbor Cove

Also at rest, but on the Annisquam

Scary leftover winter damage and erosion at Salisbury Beach (yes, I leave the island now and again)

It does pay to look up once in a while. Perhaps a juvenile red tailed hawk.

Two of the three swans I spotted at Parker River Refuge

Ipswich lines and reflections that enchanted me that day

Congratulations Arwen Severance, It’s Official!
Sarah Chayes at City Hall | Cape Ann Forum featured speaker
On the agenda just before the headliner, Gloucester High School senior, Caroline Enos, was recognized by Cape Ann Forum!


Featured speaker Sarah Chayes underway on money and corruption. Cape Ann Forum is filming tonight’s event for Cape Ann TV. Chayes lived in Gloucester at the time of Perfect Storm.
Gondoliers

A sure sign that summer is coming
The Ardelle

Gourmet Gala at Acura of Peabody benefit for North Shore cancer walk
2018 Gourmet Gala North Shore Medical Center benefit for North Shore Cancer Walk held at Acura of Peabody. Great food, worthy cause, quite a crowd. Live auction featured Gloucester’s Beauport Hotel Getaway. Auctioneer was Kiss 108FM Billy Costa.

(scenes from the Gala – click to enlarge, and again for full size)
More Whales off Shore Road
There are no words to describe these beautiful animals. They were not as close but you could see them and also their fluke and spouting.



GHS Softball vs swampscott
GHS girls shutout Swampscott and win game scoring three in the 6th inning. Great game!
Gloucester Smiles-902
Gloucester in the news: Leon Doucette wins global art contest
Leon Doucette’s work was recognized in the American Portrait Society‘s 20th annual International Portrait Competition. A group show for the finalists was held April 2018.
Beautiful news! Gloucester Daily Times, May 4, 2018 “Local Artist Wins Global Contest: Portrait of Girlfriend Takes Drawing Category”

20th anniversary International Portrait Competition
2018 Finalists The Art of the Portrait Conference
April 19-22, 2018 – Washington, DC area
It has been a record setting year for the Portrait Society of America. February 1st marked the beginning of our 20th year sharing a passion for the portrait, as of today we have almost 1,000 people registered for the annual conference, and at midnight on February 22, we surpassed our previous number of entries by over 400 – with 2,733 entries submitted to the International Portrait Competition. Portraiture is alive and well! Thank you to all the artists that submitted work and were part of such a historic time in our organization. Congratulations to the 24 selected finalists
photos (click to enlarge): (1)2016 private commission stemming from 18 Up and Under 30 exhibition at the Hive (2)Nov 2015 portrait of Leon (3) 2015 artist page
Fun on the Breakwater
Enjoying the breakwater on a recent spring day:



Bikers on the breakwater:


Beautiful Fish: Basking Shark

This is a sluggish, inoffensive fish, helpless of attack so far as its minute teeth are concerned. It spends much time sunning itself at the surface of the water, often lying with its back awash and dorsal fin high out of water, or on its side, or even on its back sunning its belly; sometimes it loafs along with the snout out of water, the mouth open, gathering its provender of plankton.
The basking shark rivals, though it does not equal, the whale shark of tropical seas in size. We read, for example, of one of 35 to 38 feet harpooned by Capt. N. E. Atwood off Provincetown, Mass., about 1863, that towed the fishing smack all night, and broke loose finally. From Fishes of the Gulf of Maine by Bigelow and Schroeder (1953) online courtesy of MBL/WHOI http://www.gma.org/fogm/Cetorhinus_maximus.htm
The basking shark is the second largest fish, with reported specimens larger than the 33 foot schooner GREEN DRAGON.
#mindblown
MARTIN DEL VECCHIO VIDEO OF RIGHT WHALES FEEDING OFF OF LONG BEACH
Many thanks to Martin Del Vecchio for sharing his video and still images (see photos here) of the spectacularly beautiful pod of North American Right Whales feeding off of Cape Ann shores yesterday, May 4, 2018.
St Mark’s Piazza From The Belltower at San Giorgio Maggiore



maybe this was the old stair case to the hotel
Does anyone know if this could be the old stair case to the hotel’s salt water pool on Shore Road?
































































