Day 87, 12 Aug

30 Visitors

Waves Crashing along North-Eastern Shore

Our foggy night turned into a foggy morning with Tooter still tooting away. A phone call from Ken awakened us. He wasn’t coming today but was sending back most of the guest laundry via Ethan. We learned that we probably wouldn’t be getting off for shore leave till Friday and requested that he get us some more milk, raspberries and chicken and Ethan could bring it out with the laundry. We had a morning chat with our overnight guests who enjoyed the fog with the foghorn tooting away. I went down to greet the ferry visitors at the cove and got down there to see the very high tide. Fred helped get the people out of the dinghy along with Brooke – Ethan’s helper. As the first group came ashore, I introduced myself and said hello. I did go up ahead of everyone to get the lighthouse opened and gift store readied. They started

Volcanic Sill through the Metamorphic Very Old Rock

trickling in and I gave the first tour of the day. The fog was starting to lift with the warm sunshine filtering through. Our overnight guests were packing up and I sold some T-shirts to them before they packed up. I did manage to have a cup of Chai tea and a banana for breakfast and my lonely bagel was sat cold and toasted in the toaster. Fred surprised me with a lobster roll that came from Ethan’s dad who made some up and there was an extra one. That was a nice little lunch that I had with some potato chips and seltzer water. The crowds were a lot less than the weekend and we had a few private boaters. When the ferry was going to leave with all the visitors I decided to go back down to the cove to see them off. The tide was still high and it took a few dinghy loads to get everyone back to the ferry. There was one private dinghy and they left in between Ethan’s dinghy runs. So at two pm everyone was off the island – yea! We had it all to ourselves. I decided to go prune the Cove and Cobblestone trails and retrieved the shears I had stashed on the way down to the cove. I went down the Cove trail first snipping away and ate an occasional ripe raspberry. I found a few pieces of green sea glass on the pebbly cove beach and proceeded to hike around the peninsula on the sunny afternoon. I took my time

Small Tidal Pool

and even though it was high tide I walked more towards the water this time, exploring areas I had not yet visited before. I ventured out safely on the dry cliffs and tried to capture some incoming crashing waves in some spots, not easy to do with my simple, little, slow camera. I picked my way across, relishing my new areas of exploring and easy rock climbing. Already I can feel our summer and stay drawing to a close. I did notice some of the leaves changing already and fall just around the corner. It comes early to this northern clime. I remembered back when I first arrived here and how everything was first coming out and growing. The change of the flowers, as they bloomed and died so quickly, it happened in such a short timespan.  I got back around to Cobblestone and climbed down a nice little cliff area that had almost a nice set of steps in the cliffs to get down to the cobblestones at sea level. Here is where I saw a mother sea gull and it’s mature baby lingering on the cliff with the lighthouse in the background. I took some photos and walked on only to find a second baby, which eventually climbed up near the first baby and I had to retake the pictures with all 3 with the lighthouse. I have been watching these 3 for a while – since mama sat on her nest and the babies were fuzzy chicks. Yes the season was closing fast. I got back to Cobblestone trail and pruned it completely and arrived back at the kiosk.

Seagull with two Young Ones

I then headed up the main trail to the house snipping away at errant foliage. I called Fred on the radio and turns out he was at the boat dock deck relaxing. I opted to go up to the house to get munchies and drinks to bring back down for a happy hour.  I was quite tired from my early afternoon excursions and checked some emails and web browsed for a bit before packing up a happy hour tote bag. I joined Fred with our goodies and we relaxed and talked for a bit. It was approaching low tide and we went and looked for sea glass but it wasn’t very good today. Funny how different it can be day to day with the tides and waves as to how the conditions are to get the glass. Fred returned to the house and I lingered a bit looking for more glass before I got bored and returned to the Adirondack chair on the deck and curled up with the Icelandic horse book. I finished the chapter and enjoyed my calm and serene little cove with no one in it. It’s nice to have it all to our selves again. The impending storms chased everyone away. I ventured back up to the house around 7 pm and cooked up some chicken for Sac with her kibbles. I then started to cook the meat for our beef stroganoff dinner. I got that all started and it simmered on the stove while I fixed up a nice salad. Fred was out mowing the lawn to get it done before the storm arrives tomorrow. He was still mowing long after sunset.  We had a nice late dinner and relaxed in the living room getting very tired very quickly after eating. Off we went to bed with dreams of changing colors and a tinge of anticipation at actually leaving our summer island home.