Sleight fantastic

A day filled with gardening and quilting-related activity, topped off by a mighty thunder storm.

The Girl has been baffling us this evening with some of the magic tricks she is learning at camp - she's gaining some useful skills to keep up her sleeve (ho ho) and impress people with at parties.

The Boy has also been attempting to impress us with his own unique card tricks - baffling, too, but for different reasons.

Here's another photo from our week in Cape Cod. Who can tell me where it is?

Now that's magic!

The Girl has been at a Masterful Magicians Camp today, though she hasn't shared any tricks with us yet. The Boy meanwhile visited a shop called Hobby Town and used his own magic arts to persuade his Grandpa to buy him a set of points and some rolling stock for his model railway.

And we've all been in the pool, which today reached a magical 80F (well nearly) - still fresh, but not nearly as bracing as the ocean waves.

The Cape Escape

Cape Cod is a wonderful part of the world. Although the first few days of our stay there were rather grey and bleak, not to say cold and wet, they made for exciting conditions on the dramatic Atlantic beaches.

Then on Wednesday the weather began to clear and we could paddle and swim on the gentle bay side of the Cape:



Top experiences of the trip, in no particular order: a visit to a working lighthouse; fresh fish and chips from the Friendly Fishermen's Fish Market; building a sand boat with a moat, and collecting crabs to put in it; mini-golf; the excellent Mass Audubon nature sanctuary at Wellfleet; frequent servings of Ben and Jerry's ice-cream...




...creating a mermaid from sand and seaweed; TV (kids); no computer (me); crashing surf (Man).



It's a really beautiful place - the beaches are clean and stretch for miles, and the areas close to the sea are completely unspoilt. I imagine that at the height of the season the roads and restaurants must get uncomfortably overcrowded, but we were lucky to be there a week ahead of that time.

I would love to go there again. If you ever get the chance, you should too.

Cape crusaders

Back again, after a healthy week of seaside fun and no computers. The Cape was great, but as it's midnight now I'll tell you all about it tomorrow...

Self-service restaurant

I had some business to attend to at Five Rivers this afternoon, so the kids and their grandparents went on a little hike while they waited for me. They walked round the Beaver Pond - and saw beavers!

When I caught up with my family again they were back in the nature centre at the bird-watching window, but not just watching birds. This much bigger critter was also helping itself from the feeders. Can you recognise what it is, in spite of (or maybe because of) its dastardly mask?


There were also chipmunks, red squirrels, blue jays, woodpeckers, cardinals, red-winged blackbirds and others gathering to feed - it made for quite a show.

Tomorrow we are all off to Cape Cod for a week. We are renting a house that doesn't have internet access so if you don't see much new in this space for a few days, that'll be why.

Long to rain over us

It rained last night. By which I mean water fell in sheets from midnight until dawn, and this morning our backyard swimming pool was full nearly to the brim. And it carried on raining all day, with very little let-up.

The morning I spent out and about running errands and getting wet. This afternoon I went shopping with Mum. We visited various stores, and in between times got wet.

We also squeezed in a visit with the kids to somewhere called Judy's Tiny Shoppe, where we bought some tiny dolls house accessories. The Girl opted for furniture and miniature books. The Boy eagerly bought two teeny model train-set boxes (disappointingly they contained no actual teeny trains) and a dolls house-size computer. With its chunky old-fashioned monitor it strangely manages to look almost antique.

Hummer

The kids were happy to hang out at home and in the pool today, and my Dad was happy to keep an eye on them, so Mum and I made a little jaunt over to Altamont to visit the yarn shop.

We came back via Thompson's Lake and Thacher Park and called in on the nature centre up there. We were drawn to the bird-feeding area - not as colourful a range of birds as I've watched there in winter, but we were very excited to see a hummingbird visit the special feeder hanging right by the window. The hummingbird is a strange creature, being only about the size of your thumb and in flight looking almost more like an insect than a bird. It somehow seems too exotic to be found in these northerly parts, but nevertheless the ruby-throated kind is a summer regular.

Tonight I've been out at a Five Rivers meeting. I came home to find the Boy making a tape-and-cardboard crazy golf course for his cuddly whale. Earlier he had built it a mall. I fear we'll have a whole cereal-box city in the house before the week is out.