Week 4 of 29: Farewell to the Cape/Back to Beantown

Photo: Sunset at Herring Beach Cove, Provincetown (c) 2008 by C. E. Smith

One of the most immediately useful gifts I received as I was leaving Arlington was a Book of Days featuring quotes and photos of the pottery of Brother Thomas. I’m going to borrow from what I wrote there to “catch up” here, starting from the day after my last blog entry:

March 5: Today I met our neighbor, whom I’ll call Charity, an 80-year-old who lives in a house on the other side of the fence. She’s been there for 71 years. What a fount of wisdom and New England-style pluck. I need to do some writing just on the insight she dropped on me … I had a great bike ride all the way out Bradford, past the West End and into the National Park at Herring Cove Beach. Two of Tony’s friends from the coffee and dessert shop where he writes came over for dinner.

March 6: I got caught up from the past several days of not writing in this book. I went for another long ride, this time via Commercial Street to the wetlands and then to Herring Cove Beach. It was splendid – and cold. I needed gloves and a scarf at least, and was wearing neither … now it’s time for me to pack and move on. “Never harbor or port have I known.” The discovery of the day: Riding down Commercial, I heard this beautiful voice and music coming out of a little music store. I went in and asked the clerk, “Who is that?” It was Stacey Kent, and the cd was Breakfast on the Morning Tram. I bought it immediately. To get a sample, visit www.staceykent.com. Warning: I’m now addicted to this artist, and you may become an addict, too.

March 7: A very laid-back day for the most part. I ate breakfast, trying to help clean out the fridge … Tony and I dined at Ciro & Sal’s for our last meal on our last night. It was almost empty. I wistfully looked into the windows of the museums I hadn’t visited on Commercial Street that I wouldn’t see on this trip.

March 8: The rain poured all day long. I forgot and left my umbrella at the cottage, but I didn’t realize it until I was dropping Tony off at the Amtrak station at Back Bay. The good thing is that now, I can see an umbrella as a recurring metaphor/symbol to carry from the start of the novel until the end.

(c) 2008 by Carlton Elliott Smith. All rights reserved.

Herring Cove Beach, Sunset 6 Mar 08