Saturday, May 23, 2015

Today was the kind of bright sunny day you can’t imagine being anywhere else but outside.  Except maybe when the temperature is 44 degrees and the wind is wrapping the flag around the pole.

We raised the Lighthouse Banner as well.  That only goes out on weekends and holidays and is attached below the U.S. flag.  And this is not only a weekend but it’s also the Memorial Day holiday.  Larry and T took it down for the night.

After breakfast I went to work in the guest quarters cleaning from top to bottom.  Both rooms, the bathroom, hall and stairs, vacuuming and putting up curtains and with Cyndy’s help, making up the beds with fresh linens and installing a new towel rack in the bathroom.

There are a pair of sparrows who are determined to build a nest on the porch vestibule so we have to keep the doors closed for now until they find other accommodation.  And every time you open a door whether it’s into the Whistle House for a tool or to get a mower, or into the Donkey Engine House down below or leading a tour into the tower, there are birds flying in behind you faster than you can close the door; getting them out can be a challenge.  Cyndy just came in from outside and said the gulls where having an orgy down on Cobble Stone Beach and then it suddenly stopped.  All the birds on this paradise are mating.  And they are desperate to find homes and nest.

I made a really good carrot ginger soup from a lot of different leftovers we had to warm us for lunch, which we had, along with Larry’s leftover meatloaf for sandwiches.

The four of us met after lunch in the cove to begin inspection of all the buildings on the grounds the Friends of Sequin Island Light Station maintain.  I’ll let T’Ann take over the details with her blog as she also documented the Grounds Patrol with her camera.  The tour included the Boathouse, Donkey Engine House, Public Outhouse, Keeper House Duplex and Tower, Oil House and Whistle House.  An evaluation and assessment was made, to be turned in to the On Island Committee.

T’Ann has been making sales in the gift shop, even if mostly to us.  I had to get my brother a shirt for his birthday.

By the afternoon we’d become determined to feel the warmth of the sun somehow, so we ventured out onto the lawn to try and find the place that was most protected from the wind.  It turned out to be in front of the Pump House, shielded by the Whistle House on a rectangular patch of grass where as recently as 40 or 50 years ago stood the caretakers wood-framed house.  He later moved up to the present Keeper House and made this one the Assistant’s.  Anyway it’s gone now and a beautiful warm sun lingered in the crisp blue sky long enough to let us soak it all in before it was time to head up and make dinner.

Slow cooker pot roast pulled pork with sautéed Brussel sprouts packed us in for the night, topped by the last of the dump cake Larry made the night before.  We’ve had a lot of fun together and I know they will leave their mark on this island.  They are so eager and excited to be here.