Hate to go

We had likely our last paddle out to an island well offshore today. Tomorrow will be mostly about packing. But we had great conditions, got bounced around some and caught a ride back on the tide. It is always astonishing to get out to an island, on a gorgeous day, and not find company. It seems like more people should want to be out there. But we aren't complaining.

Lumpy

We took the older cat in for a look at two lumps that have been around and seemed pretty harmless, but started showing redness in the last few days. After the insertion of a couple of needles into them and a look at the results under the slides, it appears that are a type of mass that is typically benign in cats but can change and cause a problem. So we have a visit with our regular vet already set up in a couple of weeks to assess his overall health and talk about surgery. The redness is probably more an indication of excessive licking than a scary change, but I suspect that the final advice will be for surgery.

This cat has periodic bouts of being just ill enough to cost us money but never having a really serious or debilitating problem. He's a neurotic mess in a tank of a physical plant. He is the only cat I have ever lived with whose sanity relied on licking a plastic orange bag (grapefruit also OK) a few times a day. When we arrived here for vacation, having forgotten the bag from home, our first purchase had to be a bag of oranges. His rituals at this point include a calming collar, the plastic bag to lick, a rope scratching pad or post of the right shape and size between where he sleeps and where he eats, a ready supply of mouse-like mouse toys and occasional dabs of a homeopathic calming oil. We have spent less effort and creativity keeping cats on daily medication for terminal illnesses on an even keel than this guy. But we keep doing it - proving that loyalty often lacks common sense.

Other than that news, it has been a daunting but good day. We are going home without my violin of over 30 years, herself being replaced with a new (old) one that promises more sound and an easier playing experience than her. She is in good hands and will find a decent home, far enough away from me that I won't find her next to me being played by some fool that I can't stand.

The conditions here today have been quite lumpy, not a day for small craft with high winds and fog banks rolling in and out. It is a damp kind of day all around.

Like Cats and Dogs

We stopped by the local humane society yesterday, one where they encourage visits to the pets. We found, as always, a couple of cats that we could have taken had we needed more and an old hunting dog that was blind in one eye. I was offered him too, but until they can use kitty litter our schedule doesn't work well for dogs.

Our oldest cat will be going to the vet's while on vacation for the second time. Oddly, our cats that were on their last legs never needed a vet visit while we had them away. But Atlas, overall still fairly healthy, seems to need one every couple of years. The last time it was for a tooth infection that we treated with antibiotic until we got to our regular vet for extraction. This time it appears to be a sebaceous cyst or similar that will again take a holding action until we are home. The good news is that we never have to wait long - his wailing makes vets anxious to get him out of the waiting room.

We ended up knocking around today after making the vet appointment for Thursday. We found some gifts at a crafts coop, scouted out a new launch point for the kayaks, visited a historic site and ended by getting ice cream at a local stand. Dinner will be later, after dessert.

The violin decision is made. The one we'll be leaving with is getting a wooden tail piece with four fine tuners, and the two bows are being worked on. So far we haven't heard of any problems with the Knopf bow, and hopefully that'll stay that way. The Nuremberger is getting a new frog which was NOT in the plans until this coming year. But a crack that no one had spotted showed up in this rehairing, and the final part of the support tip fell apart when the old hair was removed. So, at least the new frog looks lovely.

It's hot here, but still better than it would be at home. They'll be a great red sunset from the front porch tonight.

Escape!

Andy has figured out how to get outside from the cabin, and had two escapes this morning. The first one lasted a while - we didn't realize he was out until our friend saw him walking down the path through the woods to the cabin. He scooted from there to the bushes by the shore and we picked him up off a rock at water's edge. An hour and a half later he was out again, having grabbed the thinnest of opportunities to go and help Jim hang out the hand-washed laundry. In both cases he was walking along while keeping the bell on his collar quiet.

Happily he is willing to be caught, but it is a good thing that we are free of company for a while. We need to enforce tightly latched doors for a couple of days until he settles back  inside again.

The good news is that of the two cats, Andy is the most unlikely to panic and bolt far, far away. The bad news is that he is much more comfortable going outside to start with. So one stop today may be a pet store, looking for a much bigger bell!

Settling In

The cats have settled in nicely to the cabin, the only problem being their nearly constant interest in eating. We can fed them 5 times a day and it is not too much. We appreciate the appetite after Val's final months, when we had to cajole her to take in the smallest amounts of food. The other two were off their feed too, discomforted by her crashing health. But it is taking time to get used to this newly ravenous appetite.

One of the constants about this enclave of cabins is its safety for children and dogs. The property wraps around its own cove about a half mile from the main route near the southern tip of an ocean peninsula, with seven ramshackle buildings that have been converted for summer rental. Most were working structures for the operation of the whaling captain that first owned this land - the salt house, the hay barn, the stable and other storage. The owners, a sister and a brother, live in two buildings in the middle of the cluster. One occupies the original whaling captain's house each summer and the other lives here year round in a newer house that overlooks the beach and dock. The third sibling lives in a new log cabin at the southern end of the property, on a parcel of land that was sold to him when he and his wife retired. The properties that bound this tract are large, 4 to 8 acres each, mostly forested with one house and limited road access.

As a result of its natural isolation, renters can come here with children and well behaved dogs and not worry if they go exploring. That means that both can show up at your doorstep unannounced, looking for food (the dogs) or direction (the children). I expect that the kids would take food too, but it is less controversial these days to slip a cookie to a dog than a two legged offspring. The owner's grey poodle makes a regular circuit of the cabins once they are occupied, and half the time when we see the owner it is because he decided to track down his dog. His prior poodle stayed by his side constantly, but this one is perpetually vague and wanders at will. Unlike the two black Labradors that showed up on our doorstep last night – telling us that the July regulars in the salt house have arrived – the poodle is also alarmingly close to coyote food. But so far he seems curiously blessed and has escaped being dinner. His vagueness may disguise better survival instincts than we realize.

This truly idyllic spot, characterized by the sounds of sea birds including osprey and a variety of near and offshore birds, sits in a region with lively year round musical and fine arts activities. There is a major chamber concert program that was started by summer vacationers from the Curtis School of Music in Philadelphia and a fine arts museum, both of which have been marvelously managed. Both have also been blessed with high profile supporters that regularly help raise funds and awareness for the programs. The museum, the Farnsworth, has a long time relationship with the Wyeth family most of whom live locally. The Museum has extended its reach into much of the downtown block, putting several buildings back into viable use that would otherwise have been abandoned. The Bay Chamber program maintains its strong relationship with faculty and students of Curtis and the summer program at Blue Hill, and gets strong ongoing support from the Zimbalist family.

One unexpected result of the music connections is that this area works out for serious luthiers. The living is harder than it would be in a large city, but there are enough serious players to keep a good shop going. My violin and bows have been coming on vacation with us for many years now, to go in for their own spa treatment of cleaning and rehairing at this shop. This year I will be coming home with a new violin, or at least new to me. The three that are in the final group run from 1795 to 1923 in their dates. I spent a few hours yesterday sorting through seven violins, each one marvelous in its own right, to settle on two to bring home for more time. These were all instruments that would be the starting point for a young player looking to move up, but they were much better than the one that I have been playing.

It was a confounding experience – I kept going back through playing them, realizing that each was quite different and equally good. I now have no idea how someone who is a world class player decides on a violin. My limited experience yesterday must be the normal one for someone who can access the upper reaches of the violins out there, except they would likely have more made available to them. It may be a relief for players to be loaned instruments from museums – they end up with a remarkable instrument without having to decide whether they want that one, or this one, or the other one...

The hummingbirds are showing up for their morning rounds and the household is awake. It's time to make breakfast.

Bigger

We saw a couple of unusual animal fights in the last two days. Yesterday, a mature bald eagle landed too close to an active osprey nest for the ospreys' comfort. We saw the eagle hauling across the river to find safety in the trees on the opposite side with both osprey after him (probably given the size). Usually when smaller birds take on eagles they stay annoying above them, dropping down on them from an impossible location for the eagle to turn towards and pecking them into leaving. But the osprey were much bolder, chasing flat after the eagle from barely above them. It was probably a combination of their size and maneuvering ability, closer to that of an eagle than song birds, that gave them the luxury of a more frontal attack. The eagle was decidedly uninterested in turning to fight them.

Today we saw a sea gull diving on a black bird in the water as we paddled home, something that would not be unusual were it a duckling. The larger gulls will kill and eat very young birds. But this was not a duckling. The target of this attack was a bird that was about the size of the grey wing gull itself. As we came closer we realized it was a mature cormorant, a bird that is unlikely to receive fatal damage from a sea gull. By the time we got close the gull had given up its attack and the cormorant was on its way, with much shaking of the head and its feathers in some confusion over the attack. We guessed that the cormorant had surfaced with a fish in its mouth and the gull was after that.

Sometimes bigger isn't a factor.  

Horses...

I fell asleep during the news last night and woke up to old Roy Rogers movies. I noticed something I hadn't as a kid, that Trigger really was a beautiful looking horse. His head was not pretty - the long mane and forelock were good ideas. But his build was one I have always liked. He was hefty and solid with great mass in the hindquarters, a build that I don't tend to associate with Paliminos. I had also forgotten that they had introduced a second trained horse during the course of these movies, a lighter built but similarly marked Palimino horse named Trigger Jr.

The second movie that came up was one that really showed the sign of the times. These were formulaic western movies of the 50's, set in a time when the sheriff was as likely to appear driving a car as riding a horse but still wore a holstered gun. The movies each had a wild horse herd available, used for various purposes including rushing Roy Rogers and his buddy to try and break them out from cover, and being led back and forth over the Mexican border carrying diamonds.

But the really striking difference from current times was the violence among and towards the horses. The first movie gave you a hint that some of the wild horses were being killed to retrieve diamonds from their gut. The second portrayed a large white horse, a rogue stallion that was being used to kill horses to convince ranchers to buy protection. They showed some real fights, though the camera pulled back during the worst of it far enough that I suspected Trigger and Trigger Jr were being represented by stand-ins. But these were kicking, biting fights and some horses definitely were hurt. They had quick camera shots portraying a horse that had been killed, though happily those looked staged.

Even with the editing, the violence was real, and these were kids movie. In someways the horse violence bothered me more than the person to person stuff, because you know that the horses were given little choice.