Buddy at MacDowell Lake
A friend and I, with the dogs, went and sat on a hill at MacDowell Lake the other day. It was a brisk fall day, and we lay on a blanket and soaked in the clean air. All four of us were dressed in layers, which was smart as we actually had a brief snow shower as we lay there.
Buddy, who was feeling so much better after his days of sapped energy, played Frisbee, and Bo lay on the grass and observed. I watched a hawk soaring in the wind overhead.
Bo just watching.
Hawk soars overhead.
This friend of mine and I have headed outside together many times. We both love stones, and one of our favorite places to go in search of these is at the ocean. We have scouted the nearby eastern shore for rocky beaches, and now have favorites to which we return when the need to be near the sea can no longer be silenced.
So many stones to look at.
The first time we headed off we spent the entire day on one beach sifting through the marvelous stones at our feet – each one a gem.
Signs of sunstroke.
One of our sorties found us at Singing Beach where dogs are allowed off season. Hundreds of dogs raced about joyfully off the leash, up and down the sand and into the water. There were tiny dogs and huge dogs. All were mingling, and happy. We didn’t hear a single growl or angry bark. Bo was in heaven. He’d run off with the other dogs, and every once in a while return just to be sure we were still around. Buddy stayed pretty close to my friend and me. At one point, a lanky, sandy, dog discovered our vacated blanket, and plunked himself down in the middle, on his back, and had a delicious, ecstatic, roll of delight. His mortified owner finally caught up with her dog. We were laughing out heads off – he was such a happy dog.
Beautiful boulders scattered about in the sand.
A mid-winter calling found us heading to Crane Beach at 4:00 in the morning to watch the sun rise. We rolled into the empty parking lot in the dark, grabbed blankets for us and the dogs and headed off with flashlights, over the snowy boardwalk to the ocean, and plunked ourselves down facing east on one blanket, wrapped ourselves and the dogs in another blanket and waited. Buddy and Bo must have thought we were mad. Slowly the sky grew light. Seagulls began arriving, flying in from the distant land, following the edge of the water in search of food. The sky began to change colors. Contrary to our expectations, the sea did not reflect the colors of the sunrise, but remained steel gray and cold looking.
We were lucky that morning. The clouds stayed up off the horizon, so that with the deepening colors, the sun eventually appeared – a brilliant red ball, so bright we had to look away. Once the sun was fully up, and we were growing cold we trekked back over the ice covered boardwalk to the car and off to find a place for breakfast.
Another treasure.
My sea loving friend and I have found some magnificent rocky places to explore. At the western end of Crane beach there is a huge sea garden full of boulders all scattered about. Each one is different from the others, and a magnificent feast for the eyes. We could not understand how they came to be there – all so different, and all just lying about just below the high tide line – almost as if someone had brought different rock samples from all over the world and put them there, but as they each weigh tons, that seems unlikely.
The sea at the old quarry site in North Rockport
Another of our favorite places is an old quarry site north of Rockport, now a protected area. Here you can lie on the rocky coast and watch the water pounding in over the boulders.
Our destinations must be carefully picked as I take the dogs with me, and there are many places where dogs are not welcomed. Our choices are greater off season, but this isolated spot in Rockport is open all year to dogs, so it has become a favorite.
Lying under the shade trees
One of our visits there when the temperature was up in the 90s, we spent the day lying up in the grassy area in the shade under the trees. We had brought cherries with us. As we munched away, a noisy bird called from a nearby tree. We tossed a cherry for it, and the bird came down, picked it up by the stem and flew off to enjoy it in private.
The call to return to the sea has been getting louder these past few weeks, so no doubt we will be heading out in that direction again soon.
Heading Outside 