Cottage Days

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Dear Sisters,

I hope this note finds you all healthy and happy for the upcoming Memorial Weekend holiday. A farmgirls work is never done, even on the holidays. There’s still plenty of feeding, planting, milking, cleaning and caring to be done but that can wait a few minutes! I’m reminiscing about Cottage Day’s to come and I’d love some company! We’ve got so much to be grateful for and the beach is the perfect place to find some quiet and remember those who have fought and still fight for our luxurious freedom every day. Come with me and we’ll clear our heads together at the beach! Only one condition. Check your cell phone at the cottage door! No selfies, snap chats, tweets or tumbles allowed!!!

Touch the earth, love the earth, her plains, her valleys, her hills, and her seas; rest your spirit in her solitary places. For the gifts of life are the earth’s and they are given to all, and they are the songs of birds at daybreak, Orion and the Bear, and the dawn seen over the ocean from the beach. ~  Henry Beston ( The Outermost House) 

 

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Let’s pretend it’s sunrise and we’re headed out for a walk at first light with good old Henry. We step out the creeky cottage door into the dunes and slowly make our way down to the flat wet sand. At low-tide the air smells of dead clams, rotting sea weed, washed up ocean critters and the unmistakable scent of sea air. If you like the smell of a horse barn or a cow pasture then you’ll like the smell of low tide too. It’s a mix of aromas only mother nature could cook up.

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We observe that the tide is still out by several hours. As we walk along we are together, but alone with our own thoughts. The early morning light dances on the trickles of tide waters left behind after the last high tide drained back out to sea.

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The sea birds are already busy with their morning rituals of fishing for breakfast and calling out to one another. Imagine what they are saying to each-other? How’s the fishin’ today Fred? Well, Vern. I had better luck down yonder this morning, hows the fishin’ up your way this morn’?

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As the sun gets higher on the horizon a bank of fog rolls in and the skies begin to turn milky white. We walk and listen as the waves gently lap at the shoreline. Each wave claims more of the beach as it rolls in and out.

It’s so easy to shed your cares and worries when you are at the beach, or any outermost place isn’t it? I tend to walk with my head down when I’m walking the beach. I love to find beach glass and sand dollars to stick in my sweatshirt pocket so I’ll have some small measure to remember my walk by.

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Sand dollars get left on the back steps to dry in the sun and the beach glass will go in the jar with the rest of my little glass treasures.

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The longer we walk the more we awaken to the beauty and the soul of the ocean. It’s vastness and mystery ignite our sense of wonder and curiosity. Both of which are hard to come by when boggled down with the comings and goings of daily life back in the  ” real world “. It’s out here on the water’s edge, barefoot, hearts and minds wide open just like the sea where we can find those pieces of ourselves that get buried by the pressures of a busy modern life riddled with perhaps too much technology for our own good and not enough time to unwind in the natural world.

 

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There’s a peace and comfort that comes with ” knowing ” a natural place well. Whether it be the back-hills on your favorite trail horse, the city park walkway, a mountain hike, or a ride around the farm on your tractor. After a while those familiar bird calls, waves of grain, cloud formations in the sky, the way the light hits the hayfield or horizon a certain way just before sunset, and the way it just smells so darned good become part of you and you a part of it. And once you’ve found your special place in the natural world you’ll be called back to it again and again forever and ever.

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Henry Beston’s The Outermost House inspired the establishment of the Cape Cod National Sea Shore in 1961 ( now a Massachusetts Literary Landmark ) with his classic American nature writing. It was the year he spent in his tiny cottage Fo’Castle which inspired the book. I’m no Henry Beston when it comes to prose, but we do have a couple of things in common. His modest sized cottage ( 16 x 20 ) was situated on a barrier beach. He could see the open ocean on one side and the bay side on the other. Our cottage the Sea Horse ( 16 x 23 ) is also positioned on a barrier beach. Out our back door we have glimpses of the open ocean and through our sleeping porch windows on the front side we have views of the protected bay. I’ve yet to spend an entire year at our cottage ( for one thing it’s only 3 season right now ) but, it’s on my handsome Yankee’s and my bucket list! Henry and his wife Elizabeth also loved farm-life and he wrote a book called Northern Farm about their years together on their farm in Maine.

I attended a lecture this week by Author Don Wilding, co-founder of The Henry Beston Society. To learn more about Henry Beston and his amazing life before and after ” The Outermost House” go here!

 

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 The sea’s are the hearts blood of the earth ~ Henry Beston

I’ve got my copy on order from the library and I’d love it if you’d all read along with me!  We’ll read ” The Outer Most House ” and Henry Beston’s Cape Cod ” then meet back here in a couple of weeks for a book club meeting! I’ll share more about Don Wilding’s Henry Beston Society in my next blog! 🙂

It’ll be our own little Farmgirl Summer Book Club! It’s probably available on kindle too!

Who’s in?

Now, tell me… Are you part of a natural place too?  I want to hear all about it!

Until our next shoreline visit~

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Beach Blessings and Happy Memorial Day!

Hey, now you have some reading for the long weekend!

Much love,

Sister Deb # 1199

 

  1. Sandy says:

    Beautiful

  2. Adrienne says:

    In honor of Memorial Day, I will be going to the Presidio for a ceremony to remember the fallen and place flags on their graves. Tomorrow, however, I will be at the Palace of the Legion of Honor for art lectures and then stand on the bluff overlooking the ocean, Golden Gate bridge, Alcatraz and say a prayer at the Holocaust Memorial. Then I will appreciate all I have from those who gave all to our country.

    • Deb Bosworth says:

      Sounds like a very full and meaningful weekend Adrienne in a beautiful place. I’ve crossed the Golden Gate Bridge many times! 🙂 It’s an experience for sure!

  3. Bonnie McKee says:

    I’m in! I just requested a copy of the book from my local library. Looking forward to my first summer read along with you girls! Enjoy your day! 🙂

  4. Nanette says:

    I always love your posts – especially the photos. I’m a “beach girl” at heart living in landlocked North Dakota. Your photos are so refreshing. Thanks for sharing.

  5. I love your prose and photos. Being raised in Hawaii, I long for the ocean. I do not live close enough to the Puget Sound to see it, and it’s a reasonable facsimile to the ocean, but I do take an annual trip to the Oregon coast to renew and refresh. I love smelling the ocean and having it lull me to sleep. It’s powers are deep. I’d love to read Henry Beston. I’ll search for those books.

  6. Lisa says:

    I have the wonderful blessing of living along the coast year round. Your description of the sound and ocean is the complete truth. I cherish living here and would never ever consider living any where else. I NEVER take it for granted and always give praises to Our Creator for the beautiful sea. Thanks for sharing!

    Lisa

    • Deb Bosworth says:

      I agree… I made my self a promise when we moved to this area 12 years ago that I would never take it for granted and I don’t! It’s a blessing to be near the sea or anywhere you can God’s handiwork in the natural world.

  7. Sharon says:

    Just got back from the Outer Banks, NC last weekend and still smelling, feeling and seeing it all as you write. Rereading The Outermost House may help. I’m in.
    Henry, Henry – Northern Farm my absolute favorite. I have a 1948 hardback edition. I can’t read his books without notebook and pen. “Then with a swing of the finger,I started the pendulum of the clock, and with the steady tick, the life of the house began to beat. Home again. Home.”
    That’s where I am, home again and back to the real world.

  8. Pauline says:

    Hi Deb,

    I love the ocean as well. We take vacation almost yearly to the Oregon coast. I love your blog as well and love hearing your stories about the beach activities! However, we have property in Idaho in a mountain region near a very large lake. I keep daydreaming about it and possibly planning for a cabin in the future. Just haven’t gotten the gumption to actually take first steps. We go up there about 3 times a year and kick around, burn brush and trim pine trees. Is that how it starts? I hope so. Thanks for sharing. Pauline in Idaho

    • Deb Bosworth says:

      Yep! That’s how it starts…You’re in the courting stages now but you’ll be wedded to that place before you know it! Thanks for reading Pauline 🙂 xo Deb

  9. Betty Benesi says:

    I too will try to get the book “Outermost House”. I live in the Santa Cruz mountains in northern California. My little cottage is perched on a hillside with 180 views of the hills and vineyards and gorgeous sunsets. I love my little house. It is such a refuge from my job in Silicon Valley.
    By the way, I thought your prose in this article was exceptional:).

    • Deb Bosworth says:

      Great Betty! It will be fun to hear everyone’s reactions to the book! Oh, your cottage and surroundings sound lovely. That is a beautiful area!

  10. Don Wilding says:

    So glad you enjoyed the program, Deb. I’ll share this link on Facebook.

    • Deb Bosworth says:

      I really enjoyed your lecture Don and I could so relate to Henry’s experience on the outer cape in his little beach shack! Thank you for your note! Deb

  11. glenda woodward says:

    Thank you. I needed a gental tug back to reality. Being in nature is one of the most wonderful parts of being alive. I live out in the middle of nowhere NV. Not a lot of people, just enough. It is hot here now and will only get hotter until September when it cools a bit down to a simmer. I do my best during these months to let my mind think we are at the beach. Outermost House is a wonderful read and one worth repeat.
    My favorite escape is a quiet mountain area not to far away where I can take long cool walks under the trees following the river. I imagine I could just live in the bed of my pick-up all summer but I have animals and such that need to be looked after. A day or two at a time is …Heaven. I love visiting your cottage, thank you 🙂

    • Deb Bosworth says:

      Where abouts in Nevada Glenda? I’m from Reno,NV!Yes, even a day or two can make all the difference…:) Thanks so much for your note! xo Deb

      • glenda woodward says:

        Down south on the north shore or what used to be the north shore of Lake Mead. The draught has taken our beach ! Pray for rain ( and snow in the rockies and rain and then another few years of snow in the rockies ….) I did live in Ely for a few years. Love the Reno outskirts and Carson City. Imagine I used to live 3 blocks from the beach in Del Mar CA. My parents made that move for me. Dang it.

        • Deb Bosworth says:

          Okay, I know where you are now Glenda…Praying for snow, rain and more snow in the rockies… I remember the droughts of the west well. I agree, the outskirts of Reno and Carson City and Genoa ( where I was married ) are beautiful the way they sit at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains…Stay cool this summer Glenda!

  12. Jennifer says:

    Outermost House is a wonderful book. I have a cottage on the Cape in Wellfleet (alas, no ocean view) and I reread the book every summer when I spend time there. I’d love to be part of the book club!

  13. Marge Hofknecht says:

    You make me drool over your description of a day at the beach! I love the beach and miss it living here in TN. So when I do get to the shore, I pay attention to every detail: shells, waves, texture of the sand, the wind in my hair, the smells. What’s that old saying? Absence makes the heart grow fonder. When it comes to the water’s edge of the ocean, it sure does! I’ll look into Henry Beston.

  14. Peter Wells says:

    Dear Deb,
    What pleasant reading here – sort of an early meditation this Mem. Day.
    For their anniversary in July 1949, my mom gave my dad an inscribed copy of HB’s OMH. She wrote, “…with an Atlantic of love”.
    May you and your family have a perfect holiday.
    Ps I saw your comment on HB page

    • Deb Bosworth says:

      Hello Peter,
      Well, thank you so much… ” with an Atlantic of love” …. I LOVE that!
      Blessings to your and yours! Deb

  15. CJ Armstrong says:

    Well, Deb, like I’ve already told you . . . I’m sure wishing I could come and hang out with you at your cottage. Maybe someday . . . you are so, so very far away from me.

    BUT, I’m walking barefoot on the beach so that I can feel the surf wash over my feet, looking for shells and/or sea glass. I love to walk the beach! Swim? Not so much!

    Hope you have some wonderful days at your cottage!
    CJ

    • Deb Bosworth says:

      Hi CJ! That a girl…! I’m like you,,, I’d rather be looking at the ocean than in it at least in this northern Atlantic sea water… It doesn’t really warm up until August! Now, Aruba is another story… that water is beautiful and warm!
      I’ll be here when you make your trek east and we’ll have that visit!xo Deb

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