Cape World

The weather has been decent here....any clouds burning off by 11 am, and any clouds that have rolled in have done so by late afternoon.

I have not done much, trying to live a low key life. Read. Primed 6+ canvases, doing a combo of cooking and eating out, visiting friends, walking. Small adventures. I am still fighting my colitis, so I am making a point of nurturing myself and moving slowly.

Where I am staying is across the street from the bike/walking trail, it passes an old graveyard, and leads to a set of stores that have everything I need; food, clothing, booze, and homemade ice cream. All at a mere half mile walk, lined with phlox in bloom, some plants that I don't recognize that look like blueberry plants but with red berries, native Cape grasses, and poison ivy-lots of poison ivy.

Because we are trying to keep expenses low, we have not bought a week long town or National Seashore permit, and are staying away from beaches that charge a 15.00 sticker fee. Yesterday we gave in and ended up at North Crest Beach, a beach accessible from a long sliding walk down the dunes onto a flat, clean beach, devoid of shells, and scattered with stones.

The air temp was hovering around a warm 85 degrees, and the water was a chilly 67, but felt refreshing and delightful in the humid sun. I was surprised to see so few in the water, save for a handful of children. Wimps I mused, the entire lot of mostly young people who hovered under umbrellas or lay upon blankets, never moving. Sure there was mung in the water, an algae known also as "monkey hair", but it was not globbed on the shore or smelly, and though some pieces might stick to your body after you got out (loves bathing suit tops, ha ha) it did not deter me from swimming in the ocean. When you get out, you pull off the few pieces. Easy. Far preferable to thick seaweed wrapping around your arms and legs, or jelly fish that can sting.

The worst part was the hike back up the dunes. The sand was too hot to take of my shoes, and I am sure that it would have been an easier climb without them. It was three steps up an a slide or two back. And today my hips are hurting from the beach walks combined with the climb, but these days pain just serves as a reminder that I am still alive.

This morning, once I make sure I feel well enough, I will be heading to Great Island for a hike/swim/perhaps paint time. As morning is closing, I had better hope to it and get the day rolling.

Adventure adventure adventure.

Patti O Explorer