Undaunted!

A beautiful afternoon after a week of rain.  So Rachel and I headed to Falmouth near the end of Cape Cod to see an art quilt show at Highfield Hall -- a beautiful mansion now used as an exhibition and performance center.  Alas! the doors closed at 2:00 (we thought we had until 4:00) So what to do?  We had noticed, driving into the Highfield, that many trees had been wrapped in knitted somethings, in all sorts of colors and designs, including birds on branches and flowers.  Fat trees and thin trees. Delightful!

We couldn't go in but we could wander the gardens which are full of delights like a bird tree in the middle of the formal garden, a structure like a skeleton of a house with pieces of glass, some with words like Family and Love, flowers, woodland paths.  Nice.

The picture at left is a tree with a knitted sleeve -- it is in Iceland, but the idea is the same. I supposed trees in Reykjavik need sweaters more than our trees do -- the ones we saw were brighter colors; but the idea is the same.

Then we decided to explore the main street of Falmouth. Clothing and tourist-oriented trinket shops. We saw creativity of all kinds from dress designs and wonderful textiles to jewelry, essential oils, ceramics of wonderful design and profusion -- not tacky, cheap tourist junk but  creative craftsmanly designs.  We are not so much shoppers as admirers.  I saw some totally wonderful fuzzy animals that I might have to return and purchase for the great-grandchildren for Christmas. Our own town, Hyannis, has a main street  somewhat on a par with these shops. So do other towns on the Cape.  But we don't often go into any of them so an hour of browsing and admiring, comparing taste an disagreement about what is navy blue, what is purple, what is royal blue, what is deep teal, was a pleasure.

Ah and then we noticed the boulangerie  (bakery, in English which at least I can spell) and knew we really need real croissants and coffee before we started home.  Truly flaky, French croissants are a rarity in any town.  These were authentic and lovely.

It was not a wasted afternoon. We did not see what we went to see, but we saw much else. The sun was bright, a cool breeze was giving the day a bit of an autumnal edge.  It was beautiful.   We'll go back and see the art quilt show -- it's on the whole month of October.