Day 40, 26 June

0 visitors

Two Seagull Chicks on South Trail (Remember click on image to enlarge)

Our 40^th day!  Whow, it goes fast.  Did not get off the island today again due to the high sea states in the morning. I made some raspberry squares for breakfast, which turned out good. Fred pruned the South trail while I pruned the Cove and Cobblestone trails. Fred saw numerous seagull chicks and had several close encounters with protective parents.  Two actual hit him in the head. Good thing they have webbed feet and not talons! After coming back from the trails I started to get together my ingredients for almond, cheese, asparagus chicken casserole.  I used the recipe that I used a few weeks ago and combined it with another similar one that used almonds. This time had had some very fine asparagus that would be nice and tender. I had whole almonds and had to chop up a 1/3 cup and

Poison Ivy, note shinny leaves in groups of three

also used our fresh chives from the garden as well as chopped up some white cheddar garlic cheese. I set this stuff aside and went to dust the lens (Beauty) with just the microfiber cloths. If there was a bird poop spot up high that I missed last time I did spray the Swiffer a tiny bit and wipe with it and finish polishing with a cloth wrapped around the Swiffer. I learned what to do last time and got some areas this time that I had not done quite right at the beginning last time. I got about halfway around the outside of the great lens before sunset and my right wrist started aching. She really looked nice though with just the clean polishing to remove the light dust and smudges. I felt really connected to her this time as I touched her with the cloths around my hands since cleaning her thoroughly weeks ago -  like visiting with an old friend. I actually polished each lens with the clean cloths and somehow strained my delicate little wrist – geeze what a princess!  Fred popped up with my phone to let me know that my friend Kim from Denver area was planning on coming out for a visit and hoped to arrive Sunday. I quickly called her back and we chatted a little bit. How nice it would be to have her come for a visit.  We worked in the same office about 40 years ago and have kept in touch through all the years. We finally got to visit with her and her family in December when we drove out to the east coast for Christmas and stopped in the Denver area overnight. I talked to her while sitting next to Beauty and gazing out at the spectacular 360 degree panoramic sunset. The ocean was a deep azure blue with the dark black, silhouetted  land masses and islands. The deepening sky was many shades of dark muted colors that were an artist’s dream – my dream to capture and paint. I said good night to Beauty and got back to the kitchen to finish up the casserole and put it in the oven. Made a salad while it was cooking. The casserole turned out scrumptious, cheesy with a bit of that nutty texture and flavor from the almonds that added nicely to the chicken and asparagus. Hope I can remember what I did for next time – will have to write it down.

Seguin Lighthouse at Sunset

Worked on sewing my knitted dress together and got ¼ done before getting too sleepy and hitting bedtime – needed to get up early to catch the ferry. I did step out to see the night sky and it was spectacular looking up at the tower with the Milky Way blazing across overhead and starry constellations all about. Drifted off to sleep with visions of the starry heavens swirling about.

Day 39, 25 June

2 visitors

Cynthia Blocking her sweater dress

We did not get off the island today due to small craft warnings. We did have 2 morning visitors from two brothers that had spent the night in their boat in our little cove. They had quite a time getting to our cove from Booth Bay. They purchased a ladies T-shirt and I noticed one of them was wearing a Seguin T-shirt. The day was quiet without any more visitors and the day brightened up a bit and was quite humid. Fred went down the North trail to spray for poison ivy. He also repaired some signs, checked/added all the oil in the gas engines and trimmed the low branches in the cove and cobblestone trails.  While upstairs in the bedroom I looked out the window to see two tiny brown birds hopscotching each other and then both jumped in the air with their little legs kicking each other. I watched this activity for a few minutes wondering if it was courtship or fighting or playing. It was fun to watch them. After bird watching I opted to block the knitted pieces of my dress. I decided to pin the pieces to the correct sizing by pinning them onto the braided oval rug in the living room. Then I laid a thin cotton cloth over the pieces and sprayed lightly with water and steam pressed them with an iron that is here. The dress pieces were large and the large rug worked perfectly. I could pin into the carpet with out going through to the floor with pushpins that I found here. The whole process took all afternoon. The other way to block is to soak the pieces in water then pin them to shape and size and allow them to dry. I prefer the steaming method and usually use that way.  After steaming the pieces and letting them dry a bit I removed them and they are lying on the twin beds in our guest room, ready to be hand sewn together with the yarn. Then I can take circular needles and pick up stitches to finish knitting the collar. Hopefully I can do that tomorrow.

Tiny little flowers

The weather does not look good for getting off the island tomorrow either. The weather got increasingly more cloudy throughout the day with the impending storm approaching. Fred mentioned that he saw some teenager gulls that were about half the size of the adults. We still have eggs in nests with some of them. We have seen seagull egg nests for over a month now.  Fred has started taking a log of the birds he has identified.  So far the list includes:  American Goldfinch, American Robin, Bald Eagle, Baltimore Oriole, Barrow’s Goldeneye, Canada Goose, Double-Crested Cormorant, Great Black-Backed Gull, Herring Gull, House Wren, Osprey, Purple Martin, Red Winged Blackbird and Spotted Sandpiper.  He using an app on is iPhone/iPad called iBird.  Fred highly recommends it.

Flower with water beading up on it

At around 6 pm I decided to take a little hike down to the cove even though it was raining very lightly. I got down to the steps of the cove to see the osprey hauling off a fish directly in front of me and flying straight ahead of me. I didn’t find any beach glass on our tiny beach and went back up to hike down the Cove and Cobblestone trails. While on the Cove trail I got a nice shot of some tiny purple and yellow flowers that are just weeds but are pretty. Took a look around at the end of Cove trail and went back up to do Cobblestone. At the end of Cobblestone there is a seagull sitting on a nest off to the left a ways. I watched as she called out and then her mate appeared at his usual place closer to the trail to guard her and keep an eye on me. I told them not to worry and turned and went back up to the house with the rain coming down a bit. I didn’t have any outerwear on since it was warm but did have my waterproof Boggs boots on. It was refreshing to take a walk in the light rain and get a little exercise in.

For dinner I cooked up spinach cheese tortolinis and threw in some apple/chicken sausage in Ragu mine and Fred had Hebrew National hotdogs with pesto in his. We also had a nice salad. Quickly after eating we got very tired and didn’t last long before bedtime. The rain was coming down harder now and that droned us off to sleep.

Day 38, 24 June

4 visitors

The sleeping seal pup Cynthia found near Cobblestone Beach

A sunny morning to start off with and then a breeze picked up and it got partly cloudy. The temperature was mild though and Sac enjoyed being outside all day in the grass and near the picnic table in the shade. We had breakfast outside on the picnic table and I poked around my garden pulling out little weeds and moving a few seedlings around. Later I went down to the cove and hiked the Cove trail to the end taking a few pictures of a mermaid amphitheater and the ducks. I then went down the Cobblestone trail and went to the right onto the rock cliff areas. I circled back going low for a change and on a low ledge area I came upon a small sleeping seal. The little guy was sound asleep and totally dry. His silvery fuzzy coat looked so snug and warm. At first I thought he was dead since he was so still and snapped a picture from

Close-up of his cute little face (not zoomed in)

behind him. I circled around and saw that he was breathing and snapped another picture including a close up of his face. I started to back up and he suddenly awoke with a sleepy, startled look in his huge black eyes. I tried to back up quickly so I wouldn’t scare him but he started wriggling to the ocean and slipped into the sea. I saw him surface and he was a deep grey color now that he was wet. My gift from the sea returned to his domain. So I was very glad I ventured down there to have a look. Like I said before, you never know what you may find around a bend around here. 

We had a nice big lunch of French bread pizzas, chicken noodle soup and grapefruit. After lunch Fred tackled the weed whacking of the old oil tank concrete footings.

Concrete oil tank footings after Fred cleared them of very tall vegetation 

I gathered the sales sheet and visitor log -in page and the cash and credit card slip from sales together to give to Catherine in the office.  Later I opted to go up in the tower to play my violin for 2 hours. I’d pop up to the lens level occasionally to look around and check on Sac and Fred weed whacking the tank area and about the island. With the 360-degree view you can see most everything from up there. After our respective activities we both took a hike down South Trail to see what was going on, on the south end of the island.  We passed the seagull sitting on her nest with three eggs. She flew off and we noticed the chicks were beginning to peck through. We quickly reached the south end and sat down to enjoy the views and

Flag blowing in stiff wind

waves. We went back again disturbing our mother gull but she went back immediately to the nest as we passed. She knew her little ones were arriving. We did see a powerboat moored in the cove from the vista point off the South trail not far from the tram. It was now about 7 pm and wondered if they would spend the night (they did). We got a message from Ethan that we would not be going ashore tomorrow since the sea states would be high.  We went back to the house to feed Sac and relax a bit. I finished the other half of my dress. Now I have to block it, sew it together and knit the collar on it. I decided to do some ballet since it had been two weeks since I worked out in ballet. Fred relaxed and worked on the computer. It was about 10:30 pm by then and Fred laid down to take a nap. I was rather tired and just had some chips and

Nice powerboat moored in cove that spent the night there

guacamole. We were too tired to fix anything more and eventually went to bed, dreams of fuzzy little seals dozing on rocky ledges.

Day 37, 23 June

5 visitors

Another nice, warm sunny morning to begin the day. After raising the flag and taking Sac out for the morning I made some berry bran muffins for breakfast. I made some guacamole for lunch and snacking – this time with a spicy moist mix I found in the little market in Bath. It does taste a lot better than the bland powder mix at Shaw’s, though it could use a bit more spice. I did buy some Mexican spice blend, which I have to try. Fred cut the grass on the upper areas and I tended to my garden for the afternoon. I removed some weeds from the big garden and moved some extra pumpkin seedlings to an area near the annex where I cleared weeds there to make room.  I brought Sac out and she enjoyed lying on the grass and snoozing near me as I worked in the dirt. She still has trouble walking and squatting but her tenseness and agitation from pain seems to be virtually gone. We take it day by day. In the afternoon we had just 5 visitors come up to the lighthouse for a visit, a young mother with her 4 beautiful daughters. They were locals and love coming here. Her husband and son were just off the island fishing in a boat. The mom and girls did take a nice little hike down to Cobblestone beach.

Old iron stairway leading up to the lighthouse

We had a photographer today taking pictures of the lighthouse for Downeast magazine, http://www.downeast.com, which sounded like the New England equivalent of Arizona Highways.  He was here from 1600 till 2030.  Fred rowed him out to a boat waiting to take him back at dusk.  Nice guy, really expensive camera equipment.  Like a 18mm fisheye looking lens that adjusts for the parallax of wide angle lens by automatically moving up and down on a small track at the lens mount.  He always took three pictures, sometimes on a tripod, automatically taking 3 different exposures which he could blend together later to get optimal exposure. Fred allowed him in the Fresnel lens telling him to take special care with his equipment.  He was very careful and professional.  Fred is in some of the pictures.  The article is supposed to be published in September. I laid down to take a nap at around 5:30 pm and didn’t wake up till about 9:30 pm. I was exhausted from not getting much sleep the past couple of days. So around 10 pm we had salads and Fred fixed hamburgers for a late dinner and watched the news. I got more knitting done and am almost finished the other half of my dress. It will be nice to complete it and start on my other dress. I did get the yarn I ordered from Halycon and it will make a gorgeous sweater that I have a pattern for from South Africa. It is tempting to start one of the sweaters from the yarn I got at Halcyon. I have 4 bundles of yarn waiting for me in the car. I got some nice handspun local yarn in Lake Placid when we came through there.

Luna Moth (Photo downloaded from internet)

I found out some info on the Luna moth I saw a few weeks ago. The rare creatures only live a week and they have no mouths and do not eat. They exist for a week to lay their eggs. So it was a very rare sighting indeed! I’m so glad I got to see one.

Fred got a nice email from his cousin Jim that we got to visit with at Christmas time in Michigan. Jim and his wife Carol have been reading our blog and he wrote a wonderful, hilarious ditty related to our Seguin lighthouse keeping in his unique folk style of music. Please have a listen and enjoy. http://youtu.be/Fm-c6dUobT4

Now I’ll be looking around for that mischievous mermaid!