Down Cape

In summers past, Daniel and I have always ended up staying in Orleans when we've visited Cape Cod. This year, after my oh-so-pleasant experience last month in Wellfleet, we drove a little further along Route 6 and stayed there instead. I think the siren call of the National Seashore is part of what lured me.

The path to Marconi Beach.


Surfers paddling together like seals, hoping to catch a rogue wave in the placid sea.


Steep cliffs behind us, and the sun about to slip behind them.


Downtown Wellfleet was awfully cute, too, rife with little galleries, but not overly artsy-touristy feeling. We were most impressed by the Wellfleet Marketplace, a small grocery/bakery/general store/post office. It seemed like everyone in town was stopping by for something.


In our case, it was the fantastic self-serve coffee bar and exquisite selection of buttery muffins, with a $2 coffee + muffin special.


They also stock some shelves of puzzles and games to remedy the rainy-day vacation blues, as illustrated here in a painted window display.


Our motel had a tomato patch out back. This little chipmunk was snacking on a cherry tomato on the back steps until I scared him away with the click of my camera.


Low tide, folks foraging for shellfish at Mayo Beach.


My seafood tally over two days consisted of one lobster roll, six oysters on the half shell, one cup of clam chowder, lobster and shrimp on garlic linguine, and lobster and scallops in lobster cream sauce, again on linguine. For once, I had more than my fill of shellfish on a Cape Cod vacation - for this week at least, I am sticking solely to foodstuffs from above sea level.

Recraft

Today was a beautiful, crisp, almost fall-like (say it ain't so!) day, so we headed over to Union Square's Reduce, Reuse, Recycle ... Recraft craft fair, hosted by the good folks of Magpie and the Somerville Arts Council.


These guys were playing when we arrived - I think perhaps they were The Blind King? Apologies if I'm wrong. Whoever you are, you provided us with some good tunes for browsing recrafted items.


This little guy came running up mid-set, wrestling with a shirt or something. I'm not sure quite what was going on, but he was feeling it.


I wasn't in much of a shopping mood, but it was nice to be out amidst a throng of the young and indie-minded. Things that caught my eye were letterpress notecards from Albertine Press, cute little bags by Applecart, surprisingly polished-looking glasses made out of old SOL cerveza bottles from Greenward, and the wise sphinx creatures of Fern Animals. I think those transfixed me the most - little embroidered birds and lions - the things I yearned for most and needed least.

I love the idea of crafting from recycled materials, and find myself leaning towards such work myself (vintage clothespins, painting on grocery bag paper), but I think you have to work extra hard to make a finished product that's polished and professional. Just being recycled isn't enough - we can all figure out how to make bottle cap refrigerator magnets. That's the complaint I've heard most often about this kind of craft fair - "I see all the stuff and think I could buy it, or just make it myself." The trick is reusing these materials to create something with an original spark of its own, constructed with enough skill to set it apart from the creations of your average kindergartener.

Mmm, Beer

I guess it's already old news, but last night I discovered for myself that the already awesome Somerville Theatre in Davis Square now sells beer and wine to go along with your popcorn and movie.

That's enough to now put the Somerville Theatre experience on par with our beloved Parkway Theater in Oakland. The Somerville may not have pizza and couches like the Parkway, but they do use real butter on their popcorn, and the screening rooms smell a lot better than the Parkway, too.

Appropriately enough, I learned of this development while attending a screening of "The Simpsons Movie." Man, some people sure were excited about this movie. I mean, I enjoyed it a lot, but a guy behind us was clapping and barking like a trained seal at even the dumbest of the jokes. Maybe that was Homer himself back there.

The Secret Language of Cats

Cat hieroglyphics interpreted:

Sign of the woolly caterpillar.


Please stop bothering me.


Oops, I swallowed a Slinky.

Roman Holiday

The Olivia doll has been sent off to her rightful owner in California, but before she went in the mailbox I couldn't resist taking a few more photos. I think it's those curls - they are so scrumptious. These scenes were inspired by the real-life Olivia's Italian tour a few years back.

Here she awaits her date (Skip, naturally), passing the time with a glass of Prosecco (a signature Olivia refreshment).

That little blob on the dress is a cluster of beads and sequins meant to be a corsage or brooch. I love this yellow silk dress - like lemon custard.

Here she is with the other man in her life, Gary, whiling away the afternoon at a Tuscan villa.


Ah, la dolce vita.