Different Perspectives

It’s won­der­ful how a change in scenery can shift your per­spec­tive, improve your mood despite Novem­ber’s typ­i­cally gloomy weather in northerly lat­i­tudes. I was reflect­ing on that while chat­ting with my dad ear­lier today. He was com­mis­er­at­ing with me about the stormy weather in Mass­a­chu­setts, won­der­ing if I wished I’d stayed in Seat­tle…

We were talk­ing about Novem­ber rain and cloudy skies — and how we respond to day after day of cloudy weather. He was feel­ing sorry for me, fac­ing an autumn storm alone on Cape Cod. But I was rel­ish­ing the look of the high tide fill­ing in the tidal meadow a few hun­dred feet away.

Talk­ing about my upbeat mood, he won­dered if long-time Seat­tleites are some­how immune to mood swings from dark and cloudy skies. Au con­traire… Was I happy despite the weather because I’m used to gloom, or was it the change in scenery?
I said it was the scenery… Here’s the view this morn­ing from a sec­ond story win­dow: our nor­mally grassy meadow awash with sev­eral inches of sea water, thanks to an unusu­ally high tide. Ducks were float­ing nearby.

Here’s the same meadow yes­ter­day at low tide. For this shot I was fac­ing east (instead of the southerly view from our win­dows). Fall sun­shine bright­ens Pop­pones­set Bay. (Cotuit Bay and the Nan­tucket Sound are out of sight, behind the dark pine trees.)

Until last night the weather on Cape Cod has been sunny, crisp and chilly (down­right frosty at nights) — a sparkling cold that’s a wel­come con­trast to Seat­tle’s warmer but dreary Novem­ber.

As you can see below, the fall col­ors have faded but not dis­ap­peared alto­gether from Cape Cod, a col­or­ful frame for nearby bays and coves.

This shot shows the cove where we beach and launch our kayaks, now empty of boats or sum­mer vaca­tion­ers.

Cape Cod’s waters are back under the con­trol of the osprey and great blue herons. You hear seabirds call­ing, rather than the high-pitched drone of jet skis or motor boats. Except for the birds, the waters are quiet. The shore­birds rule until next sum­mer…