Boog's Blog

Monday 24 July Rain, heavy at times.

A no visitors day.

WP has a new editor, beta. Trying it out. Nope, still too buggy with media. Reverted to visual editor.

Dinner at my current lobster favorite.  Anthony’s.

Two pounders, might have been a bit more.  One claw was in a to the death fight with me; I won. Yummy.

QB had the scallops, also in the picture.  Ample serving of eight.  Fresh farm corn as well. Another yummy.

Tuesday 25 July

Another quiet day. Breakfast at a old style diner. Run by an extended family for the past 30 years. Clean, well run.

Gary’s on Thames

At Starbucks QB finally finished editing Richard’s novel. Discussion planned for August. Quite a good work, I read it for pleasure not editing; funny at times. Especially funny at other times.

 Once again at Benjamin’s.

Oldest gas lighted street.

And then the tomato house on Corne Street.  He brought them here. Praise be.

His house.

Finally, and certainly not least, a major correction.  In the comments the other day Elizabeth asked if the Newport Tower was Stone built, meaning no mortar.  I mistakenly answered yes without taking a second trip and look.  Clearly I answered mistakenly.  

Sunday 23 July

Peggy and Stuart left after lunch.

Newport Tower, likely an old mill

Highliter of the day was a walk about Sachuest wildlife refuge.  On a point to end of Newport.  

Nice trail along the ocean shores.  QB purchased an especially charming HR souvenir.

Trails and views

Nearby Norman Bird Sanctuary was skipped.  We saw, on the Sachuest trail, several birds, likely a yellow throated something and another mockinbird as well as hills galore.

We skipped due to ticks.  Too many warnings for us. Spray, long pants, socks tucked in, arms and more covered, check regularly.  We skipped.

Have now added 1st 2nd and 3rd Beach to our visited or seen list.

Thursday 20 July

The three days covered in this post can be skipped without missing much. Mostly average days with visits of friends and usual places.

NOT highlighted is the significant slight by George. He did not bring a fine, he called  it the best, lobster roll from new Bedford

Easy day of reading and bumming.  Dinner with Sara, Dan. A large desert.

Dan with face in desert

another of the older houses. 1710.

1710

Friday 21 July.

Spanish lesson, arrival of Peggy and Stuart. 

Belle’s for breakfast.  located by the shop repair yard, large hoists pictured.  Notice that the tires are as tall as QB.

Bell’s

Hoists.

Thai dinner, drunken noodles.

Saturday July 22. High heat though a little less.

Another 18th century, cusp of.

1700

Old armory.

Just a other night of lobsters at the lobster shack.  However……

One was a very soft shell. Not good at all.

One was a usual soft shell, good as usual.

One was a harder soft shell. Far better than usual.

Monday 17 July.

 Billie and Naomi day. Billie was a childhood friend of QB.  They drove here from Connecticut. Oldest tavern at day’s end.

George’s vegetable pancakes; he made these fine tasty treats for dinner.  Went well with wine, salad etc.

The oldest extant structure 

Tuesday 18 July An extremely hot and humid day.

Chepstow and Stables

Chepstow: named after a Welsh castle that was razed in the English civil war (the family eventually became part of the new York 400) was built in 1863 or so.  Before the guilded over top ones of the late 19th century.

Exterior is Italianate style, or so the tour guide said. Lived in until the 1950s it has been enlarged.

Furnished with as much stuff as possible on the walls, named artists, named furniture. More pics on Flickr.

Above piece, Flemish, from mid-17th century. Quite lovely.  Many Hudson River school pics as well as portraits galore.  Many of the declaration of Independence signing Morris’s.  We were expecting the arts and crafts Morris. 

Lovely grounds of course.

Vanderbilt stables, maybe a mile from the breakers house, put there to keep the flies and manure smell away from their summer residence.

Many fine carriages. This one has a good story, below.

Sunday 16 July 

Some have reported notifications going regularly to spam. If you have this problem and see this post adjust your mail program. Likely in the filters.

Polo day and your of Bell house. Never been to or seen a  match.  Judith has played. Play by play was expected but not delivered; too long ago to remember the rules.

Morning visit to Issac Bell house.

http://www.newportmansions.org/explore/isaac-bell-house

American shingle style, Stanford White, brick down stairs shingles upstairs, bamboo posts.

Notice green bamboo painted  posts. Uneven front step for carriages exit in the inclement weather.

Some interior shots.

He was an obsessive designer as an architect.

American elm, so marked on trunk.

Polo match adventure.

Asked at least fifty people the rules. None knew. Seemed to be there for a big tailgate type party. 

Horses above, getting ready. Below in the game.

Sara on the left, our hosts for the event.  A truly fine host.

Stomping of the divits. A half time tradition. Observership out in Massachusetts and, well, stomp around.

Boquerones at a tapas place.

Saturday 15 July

More Black Ships, Judith arrival.

Group breakfast at wine and cheese place. 

Then off to the Black Ships ceremony.  Japanese naval band.  Japanese tunes and saints go marching which is apparently popular in Japan. Short Flickr video.

Taiko drums performance. 

Judith could not wait to get away from the loud Beats. George avoided them; reminds him of the MIM and visitors banging on the drums.

Harbor your vía boat. Nice ride around, slightly different route than the Jamestown ride we took previously.  Lovely cool breeze on the boat; personalized naration by the harbor shuttle captain. 

Dinner: Lobster Shack.

Might have had more than one each. Third one was best as we waited to share a freshly steamed one.  Judith took the easy route with a six oz. roll, declared excellent.

Friday 14 July Much colder, down 10+ degrees.

Spanish lesson to start the day. Black sails, Flo’s, and Red tide.

On the way back from my lesson I passed the opening ceremony for the Black Sails event.  Brass band (short video on Flickr), many speaches of friendship. how Perry “opened up” the relationship.  

Rear admiral, generals, mayors. See seating in pic.

A walk to Flo’s clam shack to test their famous fried clams.   QB had heard of this place on the Food Network: Diners,Drive-ins and Dives.

Their clams are Ipswich clams, like little soup pods on a handle.  Quite good, very different from New Jersey ones.

Flo’s is just past Easton Beach.  Red tide turns out to be smelly seaweed and not the topic red alge.

Thursday 13 July. Health care bill release day again. Rain on and off.

Two balls of string day. Possibly a trifecta. Found a boat in the harbor, hop on and off. First stop for us Rose Island.

Not too crowded. 

Rose Island.  Important lighthouse, bird sanctuary and port in the storm for us. Much of the island off limits until 15 August. Nesting season. QB took some good gull pics, see Flickr.

Goat Island. Not much here, mostly an upscale hotel. Small sign. Nice ships.

Black sails welcoming ceremony with bagpipes and Irish dancers. Perry “negotiated” the treaty of Kanagawa. Now white whitewashed as friendship.

https://www.blackshipsfestival.com/

Very much a small town affair.  Several local mayor’s, several mayorsfromJapan, lots of business card exchanges, much forgetting of names, pictures galore. Irish band short video on Flickr. Kinsale is a sister city

Wednesday 12 July some rain late in day.

Some observations about posting.

– notifications by email to Gmail accounts are now working. However some receive them occasionally/all the time/never in their spam folder.

-comments are not the way other social media sites work.  When you comment I always get the comment and need to approve it (moderation).  You do not get notified when I approve it.  You do not get notified when I reply to your comment. Not ideal.

QB took a me day, shopping. G&M went to Brimfield antiquing.

Sunning while partner shopping. Clearly expecting it will not be quick. This is on the main shopping street.

Cacophony of many students drive me out of Starbucks to a fine if muggy walk about.

Dinner started with one of these.

Evening walk.

Tuesday 11 July Heavy rain for a few minutes in the early am. Then sunny and very humid.

Home repairs made. Sink aerator, toilet. Shower judged ok but still small.

Dinner tonight with Marcia and Bruce.  Raw oysters and more. 

Bruce has completed 50 years as a lifeguard at Jones beach. Still going strong. He once made an attempt to teach me to swim faster. Good pointers but my  technique was  not good enough.
It appears that the mailer notification system has been repaired by Tom. Only an email masochist could care about the details; quite interesting to me. Notifications should now be flowing properly. Whether they go to spam or your inbox only your mailer knows.