Greetings from Brookside Gardens

We had chores to do on Saturday, like food shopping and dropping off boxes of books at the library book sale, so in the middle we went to Brookside Gardens, where it was pretty warm but also just pretty -- lots of black eyed susans and butterfly bush plants, turtles sticking their heads up out of the ponds -- and not a lot of people despite at least two weddings being set up (we got to see brides in their dresses and decorative flamingos). 

 

We did not win the billion dollar Mega Millions, in large part because we forgot to buy tickets, again. In the evening after dinner, we watched a recording of the National Theatre Live's production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead starring Daniel Radcliffe and Joshua McGuire, which is excellent -- very funny, great pacing, really effective Hamlet and Ophelia, wonderful players especially David Haig and Matthew Durkan. 

 

Poem for Saturday and Fenwick Island Seashore

My Garden—like the Beach
By Emily Dickinson

My Garden—like the Beach—
Denotes there be—a Sea—
That's Summer—
Such as These—the Pearls
She fetches—such as Me

-------- 

Friday was one of those days where it looked like it would rain a lot of the time and actually rained a bit of the time, but we had no real storm right over us and not a lot of water on the ground. I did a bunch of chores and some reading. We had plans to have dinner with my parents, but Paul is still testing positive for covid even though it has been nearly two weeks since he got it, so we postponed just in case. 

Instead we ate leftover pizza and watched a bunch of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (we have to binge while we have a Paramount+ trial). I enjoyed it a lot -- I finally agree with people who say the show really feels like Star Trek, which Picard and Discovery did not for me (I'm fine with YMMV but I'll take The Orville over both). Here are some photos of people and critters from Fenwick Island Beach: 

Poem for Friday and Assateague Horses

From 'Mazeppa's Ride'
By George Gordon, Lord Byron

The steeds rush on in plunging pride;    
But where are they the reins to guide?    
A thousand horse—and none to ride!    
With flowing tail, and flying mane,
Wide nostrils, never stretched by pain,    
Mouths bloodless to the bit or rein,    
And feet that iron never shod,
And flanks unscarred by spur or rod,    
A thousand horse, the wild, the free,
Like waves that follow o’er the sea,    
Came thickly thundering on.

-------- 

On Thursday I finally managed to get the last trip laundry folded and put away -- it might have been sooner, but Effie spent a lot of time sleeping in the basket. And I'm mostly caught up on email and uploading photos, though there are a bunch of other post-trip chores I still haven't gotten to. I'm still taking it easy, so apart from taking a walk before the brief afternoon rainstorm, it wasn't a very exciting day. 

We watched a couple of episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds around my usual Thursday night fangirl zoom call, and it's definitely my favorite of the modern-era Trek shows but at the same time it's not grabbing me the way The Orville does; the plots haven't been the greatest but I love T'Pring and at least it's not violating characters I love the way I felt like Picard did. Some of the ponies we saw on Assateague Island: 

Poem for Thursday and Viking Golf

From 'History of Vikings'
By Paul Perro

Odin was the king of the gods
Worshipped by the Norse.
He had a long beard
But what's really weird,
Is he rode an 8-legged horse.

There were lots of other gods and goddesses,
Like Freya - pretty and sweet,
And mighty Thor,
God of thunder and war,
And Loki, with his lies and deceit.

-------- 

Adam arrived home after midnight Eastern time, so I was up late. I am slowly getting organized, but my energy is still a little low and there is so much unpacking and laundry yet to be done! I talked to my high school friends who aren't at the beach themselves at lunchtime, though one had a malfunctioning camera so talking was all we could do, and I tried to fix a bead bracelet I bought at the beach that somehow managed to break in my jewelry bag, but I think Amazon lied when it sold me 1mm elastic because this feels more like .6mm elastic, so that was a failure. 

We took a walk just as the rain started, but it didn't last very long and I wound up going out again for a Dialga raid. We had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, but I also ate half a sesame seed bagel because I realized it's the last night for a week I'm allowed to have any kind of seeds before a colonoscopy. We watched last week's Wellington Paranormal to catch up before tonight's new one, and now I'm watching some first season Buffy the Vampire Slayer because you know what, I don't need to justify it! Some more Viking Golf photos because this is the sport of the gods: 

Poem for Wednesday and Burton Island Wildlife

Fiddler Crabs
By Margaret Kay

All day he's
been standing by
his burrow, rubbing

his legs together
and ogling her
with stalked eyes.

But the amorous
female who followed
him in love

is now anxiously
maternal, her body
heavy with eggs.

So he scuds
off, rustling the
beach grass stems

and tunnels downward
through the sand
to sleep alone.

-------- 

Tuesday was mostly about post-trip chores for me. I folded laundry while Adam washed his, we had lunch together, we took covid tests (negative, yay!), Adam went to see my parents. When he came home, he folded his laundry and we went through some of his old books and things in the ongoing process of figuring out what he wanted to take with him, what he wants shipped later, and what he wants us to get rid of. In the late afternoon, we drove him and Pepper to the airport to send them back to Seattle, to our cats' relief. 

We had sandwiches for dinner since we ate a lot over the trip. I watched "Waking Moments" with my Voyager group -- not one of the great episodes, but it was great to see everyone. Then Paul and I caught up on this week's Westworld, which was like a return to the first season thematically and so well done. Now we're catching up on What We Do in the Shadows from the past week, also having a good season though I'm worried about Guillermo and Nandor's epic love story I mean arrangement! Animals on Burton Island: 

Greetings from Sea Shell City

We are home from the beach, which I am slightly sad about but mostly happy that we got to go at all, given how things looked last week at this time. We took a last walk along the shore in the morning, saw lots of sandpipers for the first time this trip -- they must avoid hours when more people are around -- plus a confused ghost crab, then we packed up and headed out. I had one more stop I wanted to make in Fenwick Island, at Sea Shell City and the DiscoverSea Shipwreck Museum, in both cases looking for Blackbeard souvenirs. There were mostly plastic pirate toys and painted shells in the shop, but the museum has a boarding sword that the Smithsonian said is probably connected to Blackbeard based on the leaves on the handle design, and the guide told us Izzy Hands had family in New Jersey so Blackbeard would raid around Delaware knowing that they had friends to hide them nearby if necessary. 

The Denton park where we had intended to picnic at lunchtime had its main public area closed for repairs to the boat ramp, so instead we stopped at a Burger King for Impossible Burgers and a quick dog walk before heading over the not-too-traffic-laden Chesapeake Bay Bridge. We got home to a big thunderstorm, but we managed to unpack the van and get the laundries started, so that when the rain stopped, we could walk Pepper around the neighborhood -- there were deer and bunnies in evidence too. We ate Adam's leftover birthday Ethiopian food for dinner plus some cake my mother provided -- she took care of our cats while we were away, though the cats tried to convince us they had not been fed and were not pleased we brought the dog back in the house. Now we're watching The Gray Man, which is more enjoyably acted than logically scripted but it's fine for high body count action I guess. A few photos of our day: 

Greetings from Delaware Seashore State Park

Sunday was a very warm day, though we spent most of it near the water so it wasn't overwhelming. Daniel and Cahaya were flying back to Seattle in the evening (a day delayed because of covid), so we walked a bit on the beach early, then we all went to brunch at High Tide Coffee and Bowls. Daniel drove our car the three or so hours back to our house, where an airport shuttle picked them up and took them to Dulles. Meanwhile, looking for a dog-friendly beach for Pepper, we went with Adam to Delaware Seashore State Park, where we walked some more around the Burton Island Trail and Indian River Inlet, then parked at the state beach just below the Charles W. Cullen Bridge to do some swimming, wading, and walking. 

We came back to shower before going out to pick up Grotto Pizza, which we ate back in Adam's hotel room -- again as the pet-friendliest option, since the restaurant had no outdoor tables and Pepper was definitely in favor of lounging in air conditioning. We dragged her out again to have Kohr Bros, which I was too full to finish though they finally had mint! Then we played a few hands of Pokemon Uno -- Adam was the family champion -- before starting to pack, since we want to have time to walk to the beach in the morning before we need to check out. So, not the beach vacation we planned, but I am very happy we managed to have a beach vacation with 5/6 of us overlapping and not too many restrictions finding places for the dog!