Ship Shape Day

_DSC0760a-rs, originally uploaded by Ali Crehan.

Yes, it's a picture of bags full of trash. But what those bags represent is something much bigger - a community coming together to put Scituate into a Ship Shape state.

All over town, people fanned out with their green bags and pulled trash out of weeds and bushes. Folks picked up cigarette butts and beer bottles (and lots of other things I'd rather not discuss, thank you very much, especially with the eight year old that was helping me this morning - but that's a whole other post on an entirely different blog).

And now as you drive through town their handiwork is waiting patiently by the side of the road for collection by the DPW. And the sides of roads, the beaches and the playgrounds are a whole lot cleaner.

Another sign of spring!

April showers...

_DSC0469a-rs, originally uploaded by Ali Crehan.

... bring late April flowers.

Train to nowhere

_DSC0696-rs, originally uploaded by Ali Crehan.

I hope no one's planning to take the commuter rail into town on the weekend for the next year or so! But hey, look on the bright side - at least these weekend trains will adhere to a predictable schedule, which is more than can be said for most other trips on the MBTA!

Recently the Boston Globe asked its readers for slogan suggestions for the MBTA - and, well, read them and I think you'll get the general idea.

Shop Hours

_DSC0497a-rs, originally uploaded by Ali Crehan.

The Quarterdeck
Hours: Thurs-Mon 10-5.
Hours may be reduced during Storms
Flood Tides or Ice on the Marsh


We're still in the off-season in Scituate. Soon enough there will be the bright sun of summer, the baking heat of the sidewalks and the the merry clinking of the wind cartwheeling through the rigging of every pleasure boat in the harbor. Shops will eke every hour from the day, ice cream cones will melt in every grubby kid's clenched fist and someone will get their first kiss under the whirling lights of the carnival rides on Cole Parkway.

But for now, we are still wary of storms and flood tides and ice on the marsh, and stand ready to adjust our schedules accordingly.

This is New England, after all.

Bridge

Bridge, originally uploaded by Ali Crehan.

This morning was blanketed in grey fog, rendering everything with soft brush strokes and hazy half-imagined background scenes. The bridge to the cliffs seemed to falter as it crossed the water, as if it were imagining the land with its cheerful houses on the other side.

Hide and seek

DSC_0485-rs, originally uploaded by Ali Crehan.

This treasure chest lies hidden somewhere in Scituate, waiting for a geocacher to find it.

Geocaching and letterboxing are like treasure hunts, a game shared by people all over the world. Geocachers use GPS devices in their quest, while letterboxers use written clues to find their quarry. Generally speaking, the treasure is a little plastic box like the one you see hidden here; the box protects a notebook and/or a stamp from the elements. Seekers will leave a little note for those who come next and sometimes other little treasures.

I stumbled across this box a year ago; some twitterpated critter had knocked it out of its hiding place and half onto the nearby path. I put it back where it belonged and have looked in on it periodically ever since, making sure it's well hidden and still dry and safe.

I'd tell you where it is but that'd spoil the fun!

Happy Easter

_DSC0458-rs, originally uploaded by Ali Crehan.

Mmmmm, lunch.

DSC_0412a-rs, originally uploaded by Ali Crehan.

Mushisquashicut Pond provides a tasty lunchtime buffet for this egret.

Don't look now, deer.

Driving onto my street tonight, we startled these deer.



I am having technical difficulties tonight - none of my web services are on speaking terms - so I'll popping this on here for right now and will try again to make it all pretty in the morning. 

Twitterpated, discombulated and otherwise riled up beyond reason.

DSC_0348a-rs, originally uploaded by Ali Crehan.

Ah, spring. Bees are buzzing, blossoms are blooming and babies are showing up all over the place. Everyone's twitterpated in one way or another.

This raccoon and its compatriot launched into a very loud and lengthy discussion at 5:00 AM in the very top branches of a tree outside my in-laws' house. Their relationship from a genealogical perspective was unclear - were they siblings, parent and child, rivals or lovers? But regardless of the kinship, the state of their affair was very clear - it was loud, ugly and undignified, with lots of teeth.

Oh, little raccoon, we've all been there - and like you (hopefully!) we've realized that the best solution is to stop hanging out in trees shrieking, because it gets you nowhere. Find solid ground and run for cover - and better luck next time!

Flight brings elegance...

DSC_0075-rs, originally uploaded by Ali Crehan.

... to even the ugly turkey vulture. I know they are carrion eaters and not the most attractive birds... but I think all winged things are granted some small measure of grace when they soar through a clear blue sky, even if it's just for a moment.

Egrets take wing

DSC_0263-a-rs, originally uploaded by Ali Crehan.

Standing on the bridge at Edward Foster Road we watched three egrets fishing for their breakfast in the marshes. Suddenly they took flight, heading towards Peggotty Beach.

ShipShape Day!

_DSC0242a-rs, originally uploaded by Ali Crehan.

ShipShape Day is in only a couple of weeks! Volunteers around town will clean up, spiffy up and otherwise put a springtime shine on the community.

If you are local, are you participating? And where will you be cleaning up? :)

Minot Beach at the end of day

DSC_0136, originally uploaded by Ali Crehan.

Sometimes, at the end of a very long day, there isn't space for any more words. There's only room in your heart and your head for the setting sun, the smell of the sea, the sound of the waves and the whip of the wind as the daylight fades out to make way for night.

Another sure sign of spring in New England...

Another sure sign of spring in New England..., originally uploaded by Ali Crehan.

... a street sweeper!

Of flowers and really big birds.

It was such a beautiful day that on my way to the dump I decided to swing by the Mann House and peek in on the wildflower garden. I thought there'd be some lovely flowers starting to appear, more signs of spring, something I simply can't seem to get enough of these days.



And the wildflower garden at Mann House didn't disappoint. That which was not already in bloom was just on the verge of bursting forth.

I crouched down low to focus on a little patch of flowers, completely oblivious to the world around me...



... and the footsteps behind me barely registered. Someone heavy footed was approaching. I didn't have the garden to myself anymore. I turned to offer a smile to the newcomer -



That turkey was bigger than me as I crouched there. I mean, those birds are BIG and freaky-looking. And those feet, with those huge claws, and that beak - yikes!

But I'll confess - my very first thought as I met the eyes of the turkey within arm's reach was,

"Crap. I totally have the wrong lens loaded. I'm never going to get his picture."

Private versus public

Hunter's Pond , originally uploaded by Ali Crehan.

Today was such a beautiful day - a gift after the deluge yesterday. That rain led to all kinds of blooming and greening all over the place, and I thought I would go to one of my favorite little spots in North Scituate, Hunter's Pond... but, alas, the place where I have always parked - and the place where the volunteers from the North and South Rivers Watershed Association have parked while conducting their annual herring run counts - is now firmly and sternly marked as PRIVATE PROPERTY.

But it's always better to look for silver linings to every cloud, however petulant the clouds might make you, so here's the bright spot -



had I not been turned away from Hunter's Pond, I might not have ended up underneath the old train canopy by Wilbur's. I definitely would have missed the way the setting sun skipped haphazardly across the old tiles. I certainly would have missed the skittering, flittering crowd of sparrows that have taken up residence on top of the old canopy.

Being stalked by small little birds intent on protecting their turf will coax a smile from even the most irritated curmudgeon - like, say, me.

Rainy day drop off

Rainy day drop off, originally uploaded by Ali Crehan.

Rain, rain, thunder, rain, lightning, rain and more rain. That's what today held.

Parents dropping their children off this morning sent rain-slickered little people into a deluge as they raced from car door to school door.

April showers bring May flowers... right?

Gotcha!

Gotcha!, originally uploaded by Ali Crehan.

This hawk is one of a pair in the Scituate Forest and is very busy looking for food for its young. I spotted one with what looked like a snake in its talons but it swooped into the trees before I could capture a clear image.

Annual Town Meeting

Annual Town Meeting, originally uploaded by Ali Crehan.

652 people turned out for Scituate's Annual Town Meeting and packed the high school gym.

About 140 people stayed until the final crack of the gavel.

Including me... and I think we should all get t-shirts or something.

But that's probably the 'I'm so tired I need to go to bed right now but here I am posting a daily photo" part of me talking.

Good night, all!

Another sign of spring

DSC_0021a-rs, originally uploaded by Ali Crehan.

The pussywillows are starting to bloom... another sure sign of spring.

Interesting fact about the pussywillow... the soft catkins begin to bloom with the topmost catkin, working their way down, but the catkin itself blooms from the bottom up.

We had two gorgeous spring days in a row here... hooray!

Windowbox Glory

Windowbox Glory , originally uploaded by Ali Crehan.

Windowboxes welcome spring wholeheartedly at the Morning Glories Bakery!

Smallpox victims

Smallpox victims, originally uploaded by Ali Crehan.

Look again at yesterday's photo of the James-Clapp burial ground. Notice anything? Like those three headstones outside the cemetery walls?

Here lies Thomas Holmes, who died of the smallpox in 1792. The other graves are harder to read, but a little digging through Samuel Deane's book History of Scituate finds mention of them:

"There died of the small pox in Scituite, in 1792 and 3 — David Nash, Charles Clap, Paul Otis' child, widow Daman, Thomas Holmes, Mary Nash, widow Chittenden, Thomas Webb, Stephen Wade, John Daman, John Stetson, and Reuben, a man of colour."

Not far from this site is the Maritime and Irish Mossing Museum, which once served as a smallpox hospital. Thomas Holmes was from Marshfield, but was buried outside the walls of this burying ground after he died; the fear of that disease was so strong that even in death the bodies were feared and were often buried far from home.

UPDATE, 4/12/11 - Today I spoke with John Galluzzo, a local historian, author and naturalist who previously served as the director if the Scituate Historical Society and thus knows the town fairly well. John tells me that the gravestones were moved from across the street, and that the bodies were actually buried at what is now the town's landfill. It is unclear what happened to those poor souls' remains, as the state took possession of them.

James-Clapp Cemetery

James-Clapp Cemetery, originally uploaded by Ali Crehan.

Many thanks to SDP reader Let for pointing me towards this location!

The James-Clapp Cemetery was established in 1797 and holds members of the James and Clapp families. This little burial ground is hiding in plain sight off the Driftway, surrounded by offices, townhouses and schoolbuses. It was strange to stand there among all those old graves and hear the bustle of a world going about its business...

This morning as I walked around and read the stones, the most interesting thing about this cemetery wasn't who's in it - but who is not.

But that's a post for another day. ;-)

I spotted a yellow spotted salamander

DSC_0011.0406-rs, originally uploaded by Ali Crehan.

I spot, you spot, we all spot - a spotted salamander!

This fellow was hiding out in a drainage ditch near a pond this afternoon. The framing's a little odd because I was trying to get him at a distance of about five feet, through a metal grate. Not bad, my new lens!

Spring is really here. The peepers have been practically shrieking, they're so loud, there are kestrels swooping around my neighborhood, the swans are scoping out ponds all over town - and my cat is doing her level best to get out the door any time it opens. All the signs are there, people - we've just got to hang on a little longer...!

Not that kind of trailer

Not that kind of trailer , originally uploaded by Ali Crehan.

Hay bales sit beside the construction area for the Jericho Road boat launch. The ramp is in need of work before the boating season begins in earnest.

Instead of rain, a rainbow

Instead of rain, a rainbow, originally uploaded by Ali Crehan.

It was a gloomy, rainy day here today. I thought we'd all rather see a rainbow.

This photo was grabbed hastily on Saturday afternoon as a sunshower raced away and left a rainbow in its wake.

Life!

Life, originally uploaded by Ali Crehan.

I have heard the frogs singing, each to each.
I think that they will sing to me.

Sorry, J. Alfred. Spring makes you silly.

But yes, I have heard the frogs singing and today in Scituate Forest I found prolific results of those love songs - frog eggs. After that foolish snow on April 1st, we seem to be working our way back into the springtime groove... so here's to spring and the life it brings!


Oh, and side note - I got a new camera for my birthday this weekend. Ultimately that will mean better photographs here but things may be a little uneven for the next couple of weeks while I get myself settled in. ;-)

You can never say thank you enough...

All day long, teams have been racing around town looking for clues in the Great Scituate Scavenger Hunt. This fabulous fundraiser for the Scituate Fire Department is the brainchild of Twelve Women Care, a local charitable group.



Teams were given clues and tasks; they have been asked to photograph their accomplishments with a digital camera as proof. One of the instructions - to meet at Seventh Avenue at 3:00 pm with a thank you sign for the Scituate Fire Department.



Why this particular location? Because no one in Scituate will ever forget the absolute heroism of the Scituate Fire Department on December 26th, when they waded into the ocean that had been a beachside neighborhood on Christmas Day to try to save two houses that were on fire. They rescued two families from the flood and the flames, but despite their best efforts the houses were destroyed.



How can you ever say thank you enough for actions like these?



You can't.







But that shouldn't stop you from saying it, again and again.




Many thanks to the ladies of Twelve Women Care for putting together such an inspired fundraiser... may the best team win!

Theme Day: Edges

Teak Sherman Community Garden , originally uploaded by Ali Crehan.

Today being the first day of the month, it is Theme Day for City Daily Photo community members. "Edges" was voted as the theme for April 1st, and I give you my contribution - the Teak Sherman Community Garden.

Established in 2010 by Sustainable Scituate, this garden contributes fresh produce to the Scituate Food Pantry. The deer fence you see keeps crops safe as they grow on the edge of the woods in Teak Sherman Park.

All around the world, Theme Day participants are posting their interpretation of this month's theme - click here to view the thumbnails!