Day 57, 13 July

27 visitors

Night shot of the Lighthouse with Full Moon

Got up this morning about 8am to raise the flag on a sunny breezy morning. Took Sac for her walk and business and even got a shower in early. We knew the ferry was to arrive about 11:30 am with visitors but didn’t know if we would have private boats before then. We didn’t and could enjoy a nice breakfast of leftover blueberry muffins, popover and bagel with grapefruit and strawberries. The ferry arrived and the visitors started coming up the trail. I hosted all the groups and gave them tours while Fred held the grounds down below and the museum and gift shop. We had an adorable retrieve-doodle who was the doggie of Ethan’s sister-in-law’s boyfriend. Got that? – HA! Anyway he was cute and nice. Sac slept outside the entire afternoon. She didn’t even know that her Auntie Cyndy had come on the ferry for a short visit and a bit of work.  She told me that Beauty looked magnificent and that meant a lot to me to keep her so clean and shiny. I still need to resume cleaning and see if I can get those upper lenses really sparkling.

Eider Ducks with Single Chick in the Cove

After everyone left with the impending storm approaching with even stronger winds and clouds, Fred continued to paint the Donkey House that Cyndy had started earlier and I did a bit of gardening and prepared some sandwiches of tuna salad and chicken salad with potato chips, coleslaw and macaroni salad for lunch. I hauled everything down to the boat dock at around 3 pm where it wasn’t too windy like the top of the island. We had a nice lunch and Fred resumed painting while I looked for beach glass in the lower tide in the cove. I decided to hike the Cove trail and poke around the beach at the point and head back partly on the rock

Boat House, Tram and Tram House from Cove Trail at Low Tide

cliffs. I went back to the cove to look for more glass at the lower tide and found quite a bit. The gentle waves were quite teasing as I fetched treasured pieces of diamonds, emeralds and sapphires and a few aquamarines on the Cove beach. I finally relented and ventured back up the trail to the house. I did take a slight detour to check the Arthur nest area. There was no sign of him or his mother, which I hope was a good sign. I hope they moved on to a more prosperous place. I will always feel sad at the big rock and nest in the trail where his siblings didn’t survive.  The wild roses have been blooming for a while and the entire island is awash in a pink cast from these delicately scented blossoms. The storm was building and I wanted to lay the seaweed in my garden before the storm hit. Fred kindly gathered me a large bucket of

Inside Beauty Looking at the light and Inner Fresnel Lens

seaweed in the morning. I laid it all down as Fred relaxed up in the tower with Beauty and read on his iPad. After laying the seaweed down I fixed a few drinks and brought the computer up to the lighthouse and we relaxed and I worked on the blog as the impending storm materialized and got stronger by the minute as we watched high in the tower. The best part of the day is at dusk with the light and seeing dusk turn elegantly into evening with the rain drops and wind getting stronger by the minute and see Beauty come into her brilliant glow. I went down to check on Sac and got her inside right before the heavier rain started. I brought down the flag and finally saw Fred returning from his little hike on South trail.

I did more blog writing in the late afternoon in the living room. Fred got Sac’s dinner ready and grilled some lovely cod fillets with a lemon, dill butter sauce that was divine.  Fred spent the evening updated the recent blog entries with photos.  We were so tired from our busy day and didn’t last long.