Greetings from Salem Heritage Days

I thought about going into Boston with Paul on Friday, but there was rain in the forecast and I wasn't in the mood for being damp and chilly on the train ride home. So instead I did chores around here, including some work in the garage (one more box emptied; I found Paul's baby book and some guitar strings from many years ago). We talked to my parents and took a long walk when he got home. 

My evening consisted of baseball (the Orioles and Red Sox both won) and rewatching Strange New Worlds' "Level Five Transporter Accident" which just gets funnier on a rewatch. Then we watched this week's very dark Silo, and now we're watching Avatar: The Last Airbender because we only just realized the second season was out. Crafters at Salem Heritage Days a couple of weeks ago:

Greetings from the Sunflower Festival

Most of my Tuesday was pretty quiet for me except online. I did a bunch of chores and reading and I also talked to Chris, plus we took a walk and saw several bunnies. My DS9 group watched "Family Business" which is a must-see because of Kasidy Yates and Moogie, but the Ferengi story is really hard to watch even knowing that it ends well a few seasons along. 

Then we watched the Red Sox win (Adley hit a home run) and now we're finishing Kevin Can F Himself, which I guess doesn't end with a murder so that at least is good, though maybe Kevin and Neil will destroy each other and I might be okay with that. Some of the music, local craft vendors, and decorations at the Sunflower Festival at Red Apple Farm last weekend:

Greetings from Mystic Arts

On Saturday we drove to Connecticut to meet Kristen and Laurie and the latter's family for the Mystic Outdoor Arts Festival, which is in tents all along the river on either side of the boardwalk. We looked at lots of crafts, including wood and resin cutting boards, glass jewelry and ornaments, decorated picture frames, and nautical pottery, plus lots of other things, and we got to see the ships around Mystic Seaport. At lunchtime we walked past Mystic Pizza to Cucina Al Pantheon. 

We stopped in the Polish pottery store and watched the drawbridge open to let a tour ship through, then drove home in the late afternoon and saw most of the Woosox game with Adley Rutschman catching. Then we started the Orioles game, but it was not going well, so we watched The Dink, whose cast is better than its script but so many of my friends play pickleball that it was fun watching tennis players complain about it. We had another thunderstorm which hopefully will make tomorrow less humid.

Greetings from North of Boston

I had a great maritime Saturday in Salem and Revere north of Boston, seeing ships and at the beach! The Salem Maritime National Historical Park was having its Heritage Days festival, with people demonstrating historic crafts like aspects of shipbuilding, lace-making, furniture carving, and traditional cooking, plus there was a band singing sea shanties and a Cardboard Boat Regatta which I'd thought meant people tossing models into the water but was actually cardboard boats crewed by several people in a race. 

There were food trucks (Paul got fried Twinkies) and since Salem's tall ship the Friendship is being restored, Pride of Baltimore II was visiting and letting people tour the deck. We had brought a picnic and ate it at a table behind the Custom House, which was also open for tours and had an actor dressed as Nathaniel Hawthorne talking about his work there. We got to see the scales and measuring equipment, the public stores for items no one could pay duties on, and the original wooden eagle that adorned the roof. 

Since we were in Salem, we also visited several of the witch shops -- lots of Tarot, crystals, herbs, crafts, and statues, though I didn't buy any -- and walked through the downtown before driving in the late afternoon to Revere Beach. The water was much warmer than I expected and there were clam shells, mussels, and some snails, plus many seagulls and a few pigeons looking for dinner. We were at the nearly empty north end of the beach and I got so much sand in my toes that I rode the rest of the way home barefoot.

 

We ate cheesesteaks for dinner and watched part of the terrible horrible Orioles game against the Phillies before giving up and putting on the start of the second season of A Good Girl's Guide To Murder, which is pretty well written and acted but very dark. And we discovered that the rain last week stained one of our windowsills, so we cleaned that up. Now I must sleep after a really nice day!

Greetings from Worcester

Quickie, ran late tonight because we had dessert with our neighbors and played Rummikub, then watched Strange New Worlds and the last couple of episodes of Ride or Die with Cheryl (I loved the old pulp fun of the first combined with the Classic Trek dilemma, and I loved how the latter wound up until the implied cliffhanger!). Now we're watching the new Silo because I can postpone Sugar more easily than this. 

My day was quiet -- reading and computer stuff -- till afternoon, when we went for a walk, ate meatball subs early, then went to our neighbors for dessert on the deck followed by a game of Rummikub, which I hadn't played in probably 30 years (I almost won but then my neighbor put down her tiles first). I caught bits of the Orioles game while in and out, too. Pottery and glass at Worcester Center for Crafts' Hot Night in the City:

Greetings from Worcester Center for Crafts

The weather is finally mostly clear, so I had a nice Friday -- did a bunch of computer stuff and some reading early in the day, then when Paul got home we went to Hot Night in the City, an arts festival at Worcester Center for Crafts, which had both stage and marching bands, food trucks, artist vendors (lots of stained glass and pottery) in tents outside, and craft demos and shopping in the center building. We got a bakery pretzel and I bought glass octopus earrings.

 

We came home and took a walk around the neighborhood now that the air is breathable, then came home and ate leftover pizza for dinner. Then we watched most of the Orioles win, followed by Apple TV Friday night: Sugar and Silo, both great. Now we're watching Heartstopper: Forever, the movie Netflix made to wrap up the series, which is sweet and melancholy and as with Good Omens I'm fine with nearly all the focus being on the characters from the main pairing.

Greetings from Saima Park

Sunday was the annual Kesajuhla (summer festival) at the Finnish Center at Saima Park in Fitchburg, which is not far from where Adam and most of his in-laws live. Hildy, Cindy, and Solveig were playing and singing with the Fitchburg State Community Orchestra at the event, and Hildy was also performing with the Finnish dancing group. So we spent several hours there watching the performances with Tom, walking through the little market, and hanging out with various relatives and their friends.

 

We did a little shopping on the way home, did some watering and pruning of the lilac bush in front of the house when we got there, and took a walk to see bunnies when it got cooler. We watched the always-fabulous Vampire Lestat after dinner and I loved all of it but I screamed when Lestat told Daniel he was saving all his energy for Wor-chester, Massachusetts, then argued insisting that that's the correct pronunciation. Now we're watching late season three Discovery, and the stupid, it burns.