Extremes II

Old Saybrook Town Beach, April 2009 (top), and October 2009 (bottom)

Oyster Boat S.W. Sheppard

On a hazy, windless, August morning, I spotted the S.W. Sheppard oyster boat working the beds just south of New Haven. Operated by the Norman Bloom Shellfish Company, she was built at the Stowman Shipyard of Dorchester, New Jersey in 1922. Searching for information about her on the internet, I stumbled across some photos of a restoration project that looked to be from the early 1980's. Unsure if these pictures were of the same boat, I emailed the Flanigan Brothers Boatyard. They were kind enough to respond and confirm that it is indeed her.

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Flanigan Brothers: S.W. Sheppard Restoration

Stowman Shipyard: Ship Registry

Soundbounder: Oyster Boat Columbia

Smyth Sanctuary & Pratt Cove Preserve

On a winding road connecting Essex and Deep River are two protected areas, side by side. Smyth Sanctuary and Pratt Cove Preserve both overlook the freshwater marshes here that feed the Connecticut River. They are areas best explored by a kayak or canoe.

Pratt Cove Preserve was donated by Susan Haig and is managed by the Nature Conservancy. The preserve includes a short trail, along with a launch area. Despite being freshwater, the cove is tidal, with a current that looked fairly strong when I visited.

Across the street and slightly south, is the Smyth Sanctuary. This is a wooded area maintained by the Deep River Land Trust. There did not appear to be any trails, but a viewing platform provides an attractive view overlooking the marshlands that make their way to the Connecticut River.

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Nature Conservancy: Pratt Cove

CT Coastal Access Guide: Pratt Cove

Map

Deep River Land Trust

Our River.org

War As A Tourist Attraction

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Everybody is free to chose the own way to go in vacation. It's clear. Some people find strainge ways. Today I knew about this one.

Some persons go in the dangerous zones of the Earth. Those, where there is war.

And there are not one or two of them. They create entire groups, and the best entertainment for them is to pass from point A to point B through the zones where they shoot. I read a report of one of them, where a retiree-war tourist tells how their group passed from airport to the hotel trough the dangerous zone. The militars did not want to allow them to go there but they did it.

Extreem tourism...


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Wildwood State Park

The 25 mile shoreline between Port Jefferson and Mattituck is often an overlooked stretch of Long Island Sound. Other than Mt Sinai (just east of Port Jefferson), there are no harbors to be found here. The deep, curved, bays to the west, give way to an uninterupted shoreline of bluffs and beaches. It is a region that is east of the suburban sprawl, yet west of the North Fork's wineries and tourist destinations. If Long Island had a flyover region, this would be it.
It is along this section of the Sound that Wildwood State Park is located. Until October, I had never visited, and was pleasantly surprised by what I found. The 600 acre park includes camp sites, a large picnic area, a playground, as well as numerous hiking trails. This portion of the park is heavily wooded, and despite the thinning foliage of autumn, there was little indication that a body of water was nearby. Only by following a walkway descending a narrow ravine did the beach and Sound come into view.

I walked east of the deck and concession stand, and was amazed at how beautiful a spot this is. The shoreline seemed infinite, with very few landmarks to distinguish one area from another. A water tower and a distant antenna were all that broke the endless shore. I thought to myself how different this view would be if the Broadwater Liquefied Natural Gas Terminal had been built. It is the flyover location I described above that has made this area vulnerable to several bad ideas.The Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant and Broadwater proposals are both located within view from this area.

With the late season sun low in the sky, some sections of the beach were shaded by the trees atop the bluffs to my south (It gets late early there). Along those stretches, I walked below the high tide mark, and weaved my way between the large rocks that were wet from the waist down. What I like most about Wildwood is the beach has been left in its natural state. In order to accommodate large crowds, state parks often groom the beaches, making them more user friendly, but less authentic. Wildwood has left in place the large glacial erratics and boulders strewn along the mile-and-a-half beach. And for now at least, it's views are undisturbed.

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Wildwood State Park

Map

Sphere: Compilation Of Broadwater Posts

Novemblog

If you remember reading my blog around this time last year (probably not, so here's the link), I mentioned that November was --and indeed still is-- NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. Last year I attempted to write a novel, but unfortunately it fizzled out sometime mid-month. But I was excited and motivated to start anew this year and get the bastard churned out once and for all.

Until I realized that I couldn't write a novel.

In fact, around October 31st, it occurred to me that I actually quite suck at writing fiction in general. I had never really considered my writing, or most writing, for that matter, in such broad strokes as "fiction" and "non-ficiton," but the more I thought about it, what I write on this blog and anywhere else is basically non-fiction. Actually, the last "fiction" thing I wrote was probably in some "creative writing" class at Timnath Elementary School, about two decades ago. If I'm not mistaken, it would have probably involved a talking dog and the DeLorean from Back to the Future.

But I digress. The main point is that I write non-fiction. Moreover, I actually strive to write essays. When I was a high school student, I probably would have been amazed to know that I'd turn into such a nerdhole who enjoys writing essays about current topics in the world, but there you have it. And some of my favorite authors --David Sedaris, Dave Barry, David Rakoff, and what the hell why are all of these guys named Dave, now that I think about it-- are also non-fiction essayists. I guess that propensity towards non-fiction explains why my novels were turning out to be such shit. Once I came to that realization, I concluded that I'd in fact not write a novel. I just couldn't face the self-recriminations and guilt that I would feel if I set out to do something so grand, only to fail... or worse yet, to succeed and to actually complete a novel, although likely a novel that I feared even I myself would find tacky.

So, I'm gonna keep writing non-fiction. I was actually going to continue my Blogtoberfest idea I started last year, but unfortunately I remembered that idea around October 17th, far too late to pick up the Blogtoberfest celebrations in drunken earnest. But I'll see what I can do about making this November a so-called "Novemblog." As usual, I've got quite a few blog ideas on little sticky notes and spiral notebooks, so I'll try to flesh those out in more detail this month.

Until then, thanks for reading, and good luck to all of this month's novelists!

November Walk

We have a walk at St-Thois on Tuesday 17th, starting at 2pm. This is a rural walk (about 5.5kms) including a fine stretch of the Nantes-Brest Canal and some attractive countryside with good views. Meet in the canal-side car-park, about 5kms west of Chateauneuf-du-Faou on the D72. Turn right immediately after the bridge over the canal and the car-park is just ahead on the right. 2�50.

In December we'll be having a visit to Quimper - mainly to visit the excellent art gallery, but Xmas shopping optional instead! This will be a small group, booking essential event, sharing cars from the expressway parking between Pleyben and Chateaulin.