My View of Life on the Dock
We found a Snowy at Salisbury Beach State Reservation recently perched at the top of a tree at the edge of the property. A mockingbird joined briefly and it brought the lullaby to mind.
We also saw several turkeys that day, including one pretty high up in a tree. They looked (and sounded) a great deal like those lawmakers you see streaming out of a building looking all official and ready to burst with some kind of rhetoric.
Photo © Karen Pischke. A Reiki Session is thought to Promote Relaxation and Self-Healing.
Photo © 2017. Karen Pischke. Rainbow appeared during a Reiki Training in Gloucester MA
Photo © 2017. Karen Pischke. Sedona, Arizona.
Photo © Karen Pischke 2015. Buddhist Monastery. Catskills, New York.
The Reiki (Yogi) Principles –
Today Only …
Let Go of Anger,
Let go of…
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Please consider attending this free public forum on March 2nd (3 sessions) with a doctoral specialist, Dr. Ruth Potee, who will be leading the efforts; see the flyer below:
Here’s the link to purchase –
Brio Digital Air Fryer (6 qt. Air Fryer, Black)
As David Brooks and crew were dismantling the tree, the lobstermen who bid on them were loading the traps onto trucks. The men paid handsomely for the traps, with profits from the bidding going to help support next year’s one and only #GloucesterMA Lobster Trap Tree.
Mr. Swan is back to frequenting both Niles and Henry’s Pond. He’s reveling in the return of warmer temperatures, which with it bring access to his preferred freshwater nesting sites. As I was walking alongside the pond at twilight, he suddenly flew overhead. I wish I had a better photo, but here you can see he is flying well, and it was wonderful to see him looking so full of vigor in the fading rosy light.
The Young Swan is also faring well this winter. His kindhearted caregiver Lyn has taken to calling him Thomas, after Farmer Thomas Niles, who at one time owned all of Eastern Point, and for whom Niles Pond and Niles Beach are named.
On dark nights the schools are likely to be betrayed by the “firing” of the water, caused by the luminescence of the tiny organisms that they disturb in their progress. The trail of bluish light left behind by individual fish as they dart to one side or the other, while one rows or sails through a school on a moonless, overcast night when the water is firing, is the most beautiful spectacle that our coastal waters afford.
From Fishes of the Gulf of Maine by Bigelow and Schroeder, 1953
When bluefish invade mackerel schools at night the fireworks on display below are spectacular. The larger streaks tearing through a mackerel school tell the story.
Al Bezanson
Homiecast 22 With Jim Dalpiaz and Joey Ciaramitaro Taped 2/24/18
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Topics-
Olympics- Womens Cross-Country Skiing, Jessie Diggins dad looks younger than me, Curling, Women’s Hockey- Danvers Native Meghan Duggan
Canadian Woman taking off the silver medal- disgusted.
Leaked Baseball Proposed Changes-
On “The Rich Eisen Show” Tuesday, the host and namesake mentioned that there are “whispers” from some execs that there’s a discussion to let a trailing team in the ninth inning use any three hitters it wants to start the inning, regardless of where the batting order is.
Tim Teebo At Spring Training For The Mets, Russell Wilson At spring Training For The Yankees
Vacation with the boys in Mexico
I can drink 15 coors lights but two craft brews and I’m a mess.
On one of the beautiful days we had this week, GMG Jimmy and I headed over to the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary. Apparently we were not the only ones in the region to do the same thing and they turned us away because the lots was full. Not to be deterred in our hunt for wildlife and/or scenic pictures on a gorgeous day, GMG Jimmy set out to find us some beauty.
We found the Bradley Palmer State Park nearby and pulled in. Though we were delighted that the parking was free, we were a tad concerned about the number of people saddling up their horses for a ride. It felt as though we should have brought one along with us so we could fit in better.
Again, of course, we were not the only ones seeking to enjoy the temperatures and the sunshine. Kids on bikes, walkers, runners, and the aforementioned horses were all out to revel in the day. Wildlife took a hike themselves and we didn’t see any.
But we did see some pretty neat reflections and shadows. We were a little surprised to see ice still covering the water. Except for the texting teenagers, it felt a little primeval.
Nobody does crazy hats like Elizabeth King does crazy hats.
Because Gloucester… folks like Elizabeth pull off the crazy hat wearing thing at a Zagat Award winning joint like Duckworth’s Bistro
FV My Grace, Gloucester
MONKFISH; ANGLER; ALLMOUTH; MOLLIGUT; FISHING FROG … The first spine bears an irregular leaflike flap of skin at its tip, which plays an important role in the daily life of the goosefish as a lure for its prey … Weighing up to 50 pounds … The goosefish has often been cited for its remarkable appetite. We read, for instance, of one that had made a meal of 21 flounders and 1 dogfish, all of marketable size; of half a pailful of cunners, tomcod, and sea bass in another; of 75 herring in a third; and of one that had taken 7 wild ducks at one meal. In fact it is nothing unusual for one to contain at one time a mass of food half as heavy as the fish itself. And with its enormous mouth (one 3½ feet long gapes about 9 inches horizontally and 8 inches vertically) it is able to swallow fish of almost its own size. Fulton, for instance, found a codling 23 inches long in a British goosefish of only 26 inches, while Field took a winter flounder almost as big as its captor from an American specimen. One that we once gaffed at the surface, on Nantucket Shoals, contained a haddock 31 inches long, weighing 12 pounds, while Captain Atwood long ago described seeing one attempting to swallow another as large as itself.
Importance—
No regular commercial use has been made of the goosefish in America up to the present time. But it is an excellent food fish, white-meated, free of bones, and of pleasant flavor.
From Fishes of the Gulf of Maine by Bigelow and Schroeder, 1953. Available free online courtesy of MBL/WHOI http://www.gma.org/fogm/Lophius_americanus.htm
If you were a goosefish you would say the “importance” situation has taken a bad turn since 1953. The 2002, third edition, of Fishes of the Gulf of Maine notes: Total landings remained at a low level until the mid-1970s, increasing from a few hundred metric tons to around 6,000 mt in 1978. Landings remained stable at between 8,000 and 10,000 mt until the late 1980s and then increased to a peak level of 26,800 mt in 1996. Usually only the tails are landed. There is also a lucrative market for goosefish livers.
In the 1960s the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Technological Lab on Emerson Avenue in Gloucester was involved in marketing support for goosefish (monkfish), then considered an underutilized species. I worked there at that time and recall Julia Child and the Boston Globe’s food editor, Dorothy Crandall visiting the lab and providing enthusiastic support. Here’s a 1979 photo of Julia Child with a monkfish. https://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/read/popdy/monkfish/
Al Bezanson
Good Morning Gloucester 