End of summer 2020

 

Without summer camps we were left trying to imitate the fun that the kids could have had, such as kayaking on the Charles River

and visiting the town farm and its baby alpaca, Luca

Besides knitting, Heather has been sewing, such as this doll dress

We raised butterflies into September and released 26 with tags that we'll follow to see if they make it all the way to Mexico

Only 2 more spots on the girls' state postcard posters

Can you find the 2 states with the same postcard?

Tessie's first day of "school" was actually a trip to the town rec center, where she took her Zoom calls for school. Even though she is enrolled in the hybrid week-in week-out system, her first full week-in doesn't occur until 4 weeks into the school year.

Caroline's at-home school setup is pretty sweet

Erin calls into her classes from all over the house

Having heard of a US coin shortage, I decided it was time to turn in my penny hoard. Back in 1982 the penny changed from being 100% copper to copper-coated zinc and I collected a strategic penny reserve, hoping to cash in years later. Sadly I never realized that the value of the penny will never rise above 1 cent, and even these shiny 1984 pennies, with their mint luster, aren't worth a dime.

In the end I had $73 dollars in change. I went to to the nearest bank down the road and tried to exchange them for cash, but they told me that I couldn't do this without an account there. Stupid banks. We have passbook savings accounts at another local bank and they were happy to receive my change.

Tessie started in-town 2nd grade soccer with only 1/2 the usual number of kids

Apple picking

The good ones are always in the treetops

The garden this year produced a good number of peppers. All of these went into a giant batch of salsa verde, Erin and Tessie's favorite salsa 

The pumpkin harvest was lame. I had a ton of greenery, but only a few flowers set and produced 3 uncarveable pumpkins. The white ones were very chunkable. 

Massachusetts instituted travel restrictions requiring residents returning from naughty red states to quarantine for 2 weeks upon return. Besides New England, the only good states were CO, NM, WA, and OR. We couldn't have planned our summer vacations any better. 

We spent a weekend on Cape Cod, home of the great white sharks

And at the beach in Eastham, there were dozens of seals cruising along the coastline

Seals are better shark food than children, right? Tessie couldn't resist playing in the surf.

No children were harmed in this photo

Ever since I was a boy crossing over the Bourne Bridge during summer vacations to Falmouth, I have marveled at the bike path along the Cape Cod Canal and dreamed of biking on it. Well 2020 is the year to accomplish that dream, although packing 5 bikes onto our Nissan Rogue proved to be quite a challenge. One bike suffered wheel damage from being stowed improperly low on the tail hitch rack and another bike had its wheel left behind at our hotel in Hyannis, so only 3 of us left on the journey  on the path from Sandwich. Erin threw a major meltdown midway through and almost pitched her new bike Peaches into the canal, but we persevered to the end in Bourne.

Back at home, poor Reggie remains a prisoner in the back bedroom while Tundra exerts his dominance over the potential usurper

Study break with Tai-Tai

We have had so little rain this summer that vernal pools are drying up early and stranding tadpoles. Alerted by our neighborhood list serv, we collected a pile of them. Then we learned that it takes 14 months to complete the life cycle and since we are not prepared to overwinter any more pets, these swimmers were returned to a local pond.

I've been doing the Sunday NYT word puzzle for years and now Caroline can contribute. For only the second time ever, we found all of the acceptable words.

Since the home pumpkin crop was so sad, we had to supplement with pumpkins from Wilson Farm

We elected to receive our ballots and vote by mail, just in case the Trumpians play dirty at the polls