Staying the Course: Art on the Cape.....
The Strange Moon Like Landscape of the Golf Course
A sweet little bungalow on the Course
I am on vacation on Cape Cod.
Over the years I have come to know and love the Cape, with its oceans, bays, salt marshes, restaurants. The only thing I DON'T like about the Cape is the 4.5 hour ride which usually turns to a 6 hour ride due to traffic.
Over the past several years we have been finding places of our own to stay, rather than staying with friends. We can come and go, and not worry that we are cluttering up their house with our photography and art equipment, or estate/junking finds.
Renting sight unseen on the Cape is sometimes risky, especially if you wait till the last minute. One year we shared a house which was large and grand and on the edge of the Marsh in So. Wellfleet. Then the following year we got a deal; it was too small to share and very cluttered and messy. I have enough of clutter in my life, so when I go somewhere, I like it to be NEAT. It was on an Island, which was cool, but our lives were completely ruled by the tides getting on and off the Island.
Last year we went alone, booked on short notice, and got lucky to stay at the Crook Jaw Inn in So. Yarmouth, a Sea Captain's house built in the 1600-1700's. Brian, the Inn Keeper, is a gem and great breakfast cook.
This year we rented a condo that a friend owns, in a gated community in Brewster. It is lovely, quiet, and on 400 acres of golf course, replete with beautiful rolling hills, organically shaped sand traps, and paths, lots of them.
I don't play golf, and I have not used any of the facilities here, as I am very happy with all of the other activities that the Cape has to offer. But I am entranced by some of the scenery, the textures, shapes and landscaping here on the course. I bought my watercolors, as oils are too much of a pain to haul. Besides, I have lots of painting to do to get ready for a solo show in October, so little sketches in watercolor are a relaxed loose way to document my days here.
A few things, however, I have learned while living on a golf course. You are not supposed to be taking your morning walk on the course, even if it is paved paths for the carts, and no matter how beautiful the sights are and how moon like the sand traps appear. And, when someone is hitting a ball, you are not supposed to be jabbering on about how beautiful the course is, and how the last time you played golf, you hit the ball into a fence, where it got stuck.
Some of my favorite places on the Cape...Great Island, Lieutenant Island, Rock Harbor, Grey's Beach, which are all freebies if you know where they are and are willing to do a bit of hiking to get to some of them. The Eastham Nature Center/Salt Marsh, The Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, The Cape Cod Museum of Art, the Edward Gorey House/Musuem, the Provincetown Art Association/Museum, Mac's Shack (food), The Yarmouth Inn (food) ,Moby Dick's (food) (as of this afternoon, Moby Dick has been removed from the list) , The Chocolate Sparrow, any of the ocean beaches after 3, Atlantic Spice Company. The bike trails, salt march trails....
And then there are the Estate sales, which get their own new paragraph. Here on the Cape is a mix of salt of the Earth, and wealth. The estate sales for the wealthy are handled by companies that run the sales in the house of the deceased or those who are moving/selling. They are often entire contents, ranging from Belleek china, to art, tools...etc. This round of junking netted me hundreds of dollars worth of frames, for a mere 20.00. If you go on the last day of the sale, deals are to be had! Oh, and did I mention the free shop that is by the Waste Management center? I got some really nice stuff there!
Well, off to today's adventures. Only one day of rain out of 8, and the temps in the mid 70's. Perfect for hiking and maybe a swim.
Oh and BTW. I've been told seals/sharks are not on the sound side. Wrong. In the sound when the tide was coming in were a bunch of seals. Where there are seals, there are sharks. Needless to say, I don't go in very far, and I watch the behavior of the seals. I go where others are swimming, I don't wear black, I don't splash around like a wounded seal, I don't bleed or pee in the water. The only bite marks I bear are from the sand flies.
Till the next report.....
Patti O Sand....
Comments