Category Archives: fort hill

Enjoying the fog and mist

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is about the best you can do this week so here are some pictures from my travels down Cape yesterday.

The view from Fort Hill was softened in the fog until there was no ocean to see….

This old apple tree nearly blended into the phragmites and the marsh beyond like a soft impressionist painting…

Monet himself would have loved this red grass…

and he probably would have loved the fields of wild yellow mustard as well…

Sure it’s nice to have a warm sunny day but there’s something quite lovely about a misty foggy day as well. Good thing, since we have quite a few of them at this time of year!

Stormy Days

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The Nor’easter of the last few days has been very intense with strong winds and deluges of rain. Branches and trees are down everywhere but nowhere is the damage felt as strongly as along our beaches. Although the outer Cape beaches have probably felt the impact the strongest, many bay side and even south facing beaches have taken big hits as well.

On the outer Cape the erosion has been so severe that most of the stairs leading down to the beaches have been washed away and the dunes so undercut that no one is allowed down on the actual beaches. At high tide, there is no beach. Only what’s left of the cliffs and the raging water…this first picture is from Marconi Beach in Wellfleet.
This second shot is from Nauset Light Beach, where the only stairs remaining are the top few that are still hanging on to the platform…
This view from Fort Hill doesn’t look very threatening….until you realize there is no marsh and no barrier beach to be seen….all under water!!! Very shocking….
Here’s foggy view of what is left of the barrier beach in the distance. You can see the water washing over it and over the marsh (or what used to be the marsh) behind it.
This white water was already past the dunes that used to be there at Coast Guard Beach and slamming against the bushes that are supposed to be upland, not wetland plants….
Storms have always caused upheavals and rearrangements of beach area on the Cape but in my lifetime this seems like one of the most severe ones. We will have to wait until the tides recede and the waves calm down to truly assess the damage….

Fort Hill in Eastham

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I have always loved Fort Hill and I know I am not alone. These photos are from earlier this month….much of what I photographed has now passed on but why not have a last moment of lovely autumn while we can?The poison ivy was turning….Rosa rugosa hips were still red but getting soft….

The milkweed seeds were just setting forth on their journeys across the meadows and beyond…
And even the invasive phragmites were looking rather poetic against the early October sky…
The seed baskets of Queen Anne’s lace were still standing strong, keeping guard on the edge of the great marsh….
And the clouds were moving across the sky just ahead of the wind leaving wonderful shadows in their wake…

I’ve been away from this blog working in classrooms for the last few weeks and will be posting some pictures from my programs as well as other areas very soon.