Working through the week

This week has been an active, busy one, but not with a lot of touristy things. We've been working around Aunt Cheryl's house and I've been working on fundraising for Cape Cod Community Club. Through it all, I have tried to keep my feet in the sand at least once a day. A girl has to have goals, you know.

This week the porch got painted. Torin and Jordan cleared the furniture and then Torin bleached and sanded the porch. Jordan trimmed the privet hedges with the clippers and I weeded all over the place and planted Nasturtiums (I love them!). She and I worked together to bag the trimmings and clean up. Makenna worked inside. She was having some sort of hive type skin reaction and the sun was baaad.

The next day had Jordan working on a filing job inside and Torin rolled the porch out. Makenna and I painted the outside edges and the parts that Torin couldn't roll. It was a good team effort. Aunt Cheryl was out networking and working hard and when she came home she was jumping up and down she was so happy with her beautiful new porch.

We had computer problems all week so I got behind on a lot of my computer work. No blog, no working on CCCClub stuff, bills, email, etc. We all were frustrated but it seems to have worked itself out.

I was balancing play with the work and that makes me a happy camper. I spent time walking down to the beach, Kenna and I went to the pool at Trader Ed's, I hit the Goodwill and Trader Joe's (for fun, not for serious shopping). I spent time reading on the porch - my novel and the long lasting joy of a week of the NY Times.

Kenna and I also went to the outdoor movie in the park in Hyannis. They were playing Hotel for Dogs. We brought a big beach towel to lie on, and I brought 3 cozy couch blankets and a big bedroll for our heads. I also brought a jacket and wore socks and sneakers. Can you tell I've been a bit chilly here when the sun sets and the wind blows!? Let's just say we were comfortable. I popped popcorn at home and we chowed down and watch the movie. Afterwards, Makenna treated me to ice cream at McGees. Thank you Makenna!

On Wednesday before we painted we all went to breakfast at The Daily Paper. I love this restaurant, it's so delicious and clever and the food is very good. We had the choice of 4 different types of coffee and we all chose the Ethiopian. Imagine that, good, dark coffee at breakfast. I ordered the breakfast burrito, with avocado, Torin ate a kielbasa and caramelized onion omelet, Jordan had a grilled coffeecake muffin and strawberry yogurt, and Makenna ate her fav, pancakes and bacon. I want to go back again.

After breakfast we all headed over to the Hyannis Farmers Market. It's small, but lovely. There is a great foodie magazine here called Edible Cape Cod and a lot of the folks who go to the farmer's market have been featured in this mag. I bought a jar of Peter Rabbit's Carrot Marmalade from Green Briar Jam Kitchen. It is made of carrots, sugar, lemon and almonds. This was one item featured in an article entitled Cape Cod's Jelly Fix by Ellen Petry Whalen.

Ellen oftentimes does articles about her adventures with local foraging, and this interests me a lot, but this time she featured jelly making and the local people who make jelly. Within this article was some very good information about foraging for good sweet summer preserve ingredients. She talks about beach plums, which can be hard to find and how local foragers will protect the secrecy of their harvesting places much like the French and their well-guarded truffles locations. There was also good info about Rosa Rugosa, or the Cape Cod beach rose, which was brought to the cape from the Orient in the 1800's for erosion control. It's a member of the apple family, has huge rose hips and adds beauty to the beaches around here.

So, this food magazine inspires me, and the farmers market is full of the people who inspire the magazine. And that made for a nice addition to a lovely morning with the kids.