Kayaking Buzzards Bay, Leaving Cape...Flying to Tromso, Norway

 Kayaking in Buzzard's Bay, low tide, you can touch the bottom with your finger...sunny day makes me want to jump in of course, as I love Massachusetts ponds in summer, am kind of obsessed with them, but it's too shallow, so paddle over to one of the islands after a local boy from Brooklyn who spends summers here, tells us there water is deeper...it's a "private" island, but I jump in any way, it's still not deep enough to really swim.  I had some great swims this week-- off Oak Bluff's on Martha's Vineyard and at at ocean beach on the National Seashore close to Provincetown at the top of the Cape..wish we had been able to take the dune bike path there...

Stuart survives his first paddle...at 6'4", he needs special long boat for his legs, but it's a nicer boat than mine..we see baby crabs all over and rabbits, shore birds...my water shoes disintegrate into shards of fabric and rock, so out they go.

Cranberry Bog ice cream at Somerset Creamery ...full of walnuts, chocolate chips and pieces of cranberry, no doubt local ...Stuart must always stop for ice cream even though we were having dinner early with some friends...and who am I to resist homemade ice cream on a warm July afternoon?  I know ice cream in Scandinavia is not exactly dreamy, whereas New England and ice cream are serious bedfellows...my memories of a cup at Herrell's in Northampton, Mass, a couple of weeks ago when I was at the Wellspring House retreat working furiously on my first novel, will carry me through the ice cream wilderness as I eat reindeer and  lots of fish...flying out to Tromso tomorrow night and will be met by my friend Laura who teaches Native American Literature at the University there...