Day 98, 23 Aug

131 Visitors

Lighthouse Looking North with Beautiful Clouds

The morning was overcast with big puffy storm clouds with dark bottoms threatening a magnificent thunder storm that beckoned to be let loose. We could sleep in a bit since there was no ferry scheduled and no Ken bringing workers at early hours. Not too late since private boats show up whenever they want. I raised the flag and started some cranberry/cherry orange juice muffins while trying to write yesterday’s blog. I did look at email and sent a message to our Sunday arriving guests to bring us muffin cups and bananas. They had asked if we needed anything. We have had a few overnight guests kindly ask that. The magnificent clouds on display caused me to grab the camera and shoot some dramatic shots of the oil house and lighthouse with the ominous clouds lurking in the background. The morning and early afternoon

Oil House with Stunning Clouds

were more relaxed with the smaller groups of people trickling in. We had lunch around 2:30 pm and I had lobster bisque soup with leftover lobster and Fred scraped up something else for a lunch. We had just finished munching on some popcorn on the picnic table outside when we saw a lady appear and announce there were 50 from her church group that were going to show up very soon.

OMG, WTF – how many?  There goes any relaxation or other chores to be done with this crowd! They soon started arriving in droves and it turned out to be around 112 in their group. We started giving tours immediately and at one point when I was in the gift shop one of their leaders asked about conducting a prayer service and having a flautist play her flute in the tower. I said that all that was fine and opened my

Jackson (Our Lobster Supplier) Checking his Traps on West Side

big mouth and said that I play my violin in the tower. She then asked if I would play for the group. Like an idiot I said yes that would be fine. Last year two of their members had an impromptu wedding here. We told the group to have somebody on the lookout for our overnight guests who would be arriving at anytime and they needed a mooring. This group had shown up in 4 boats and had piled up on one mooring. Our frantic afternoon wore on with tour after tour and a few sales in the gift shop. They had their service and I escorted a few stragglers on tours. The last two were a young man I had taken up previously and he accompanied an adorable little boy who missed out earlier. So I took them up in the tower for a special tour for this little guy. I explained everything in simpler terms so he would understand and find it interesting.

Flowers Cyn Planted Back in June

His big blue eyes were wide with attention. Outside on the catwalk again I talked with some humor and the big smile that appeared was my reward. They needed to get down but his mentor asked so caringly if he wanted another minute and the boy said in a tiny serious voice, one more minute as he gazed out on the stunning view with such an intense effort to take it all in before he was ready in half a minute to relinquish his gaze. At the tower bottom the flautist played two pieces that were very pretty and I sat in one of the kerosene can alcoves to listen and enjoy. After her performance I quickly snuck out of the tower from the annex door unseen by them. I got back into our side of the duplex and heard Fred calling my name. They were looking for me to play my violin and I couldn’t escape. So I quickly used our bathroom and came down

Gardin where are Lettuce, Carrots, Cilantro, Peas and a few Green Beans come from for Dinner

to fetch my violin and give them a few songs. I played Ashoken Farewell and New World Symphony with the bottom and top doors open so they could hear. I just missed a few notes and they kindly applauded after each piece. As I finished and was putting my violin away, another lone lady showed up with Fred and we gave her a tour.

When we went down the tower the overnight guests had arrived and introduced themselves. Fred was luckily in the cove when they arrived and greeted them.  They had been here earlier in the season to check out the island and quarters.

They immediately went onto hike the North trail, leaving us finally to ourselves on the island at about 6 pm. We were beat after that huge group and could finally relax a bit.  There went my slow afternoon to start my painting and I opted to finish the blog I started in the morning.  I first took Sac for her afternoon walk and we settled at a west facing bench in the late sun. I managed to get most of the blog done before another beautiful sunset and the chill of evening took over.  I finished the blog and started another in the living room.  I took a brief excursion into the night with a headlamp to get lettuce, chives and cilantro for our salads. Our overnight guests stopped in to give us pieces of homemade blackberry pie that we saved for dessert. We had a simple late dinner of chicken basil ravioli with the salad. I struggled to write the last of the blog with sleep and exhaustion taking over. Once completed at last I could really go to sleep with strains of Tchaikovsky’s, Serenade for Strings echoing in my head. I heard it twice on the radio today and it has such sweet haunting refrains that seem to fit this stunning island, adding to the poignancy of immanent departure.