I awoke this morning before dawn to film sunrise and found a sweet gift of Virgilios sauce and amazingly fat rigatonis in the basket on my front porch. I am recovering from a leg operation and my friend Catherine Ryan called at the very moment that I was trying my personal recovery technique–on the floor doing a shoulder stand, with phone in hand–and she really got an earful. Thank you Catherine for listening to me complain about itchy leg braces and hospitals. I gave her the wrong impression though because I can walk and work–I just cannot sit or stand in one place for very long.
After putting the sauce and pasta in the cupboard I left to go film, and once again, the exquisite Great Blue Heron was there at Good Harbor Beach fishing amongst the reeds. For the third morning in a row I have observed a flock of cormorants leaving Salt Island en masse to fish with the gulls in the outgoing surf along the shoreline. I wonder, do they sleep there every night?
Next stop was to a friend’s home on Rocky Neck to drop off peaches from my garden. The light was hitting the Sailor’s Stan’s sunflowers perfectly and I just had to stop and take several snapshots.
By now it’s after 8:00 and I almost always go to yoga on Saturday mornings but because of the stitches, thought better of it and instead went to measure a new border at the Gloucester HarborWalk.
Blooming today at the HarborWalk are asters, goldenrod, annual rudbeckia, and salvia.
Next stop was the farm stand and then on to Pick Your Own at Long Hill in Beverly. In case any pollinators stop by, I prefer to leave my own zinnias growing in the garden and just love the array of colors in the Long Hill garden mix.
All this gorgeousness before 10:00 and I still have a work day if front of me, but it’s been a September Saturday morning I won’t soon forget! For all these gifts, of friendship and of the beauty that surrounds, I am counting my blessings.
Good Morning Gloucester 
Wow!!! Great shots, Kim.
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Thanks very much Len.
So good to see you at Mayor Kirk’s fundraiser tonight!
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Oh what color~Sailor Stan’s never looked so good! Wishes for a quick recovery are sent your way.
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Thanks Mary! Don’t you just love how cheery is Sailor Stan’s when first entering Rocky Neck? So welcoming, especially with their giant sunflowers!
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Thank you for sharing both the gift of your amazing photography and the gift of Gloucester’s spectacular beauty. I felt that I was home again, right there with you. What a lovely morning!
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Thank you Lora. Every day brings renewed beauty–this morning we are shrouded in dense fog.
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Sounds like you have many to count, Kim, including a good eye. And wait, you have a peach tree? I had no idea that they would grow so far north. Heal up quick.
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Thanks so much Bill–yes we have a WONDERFUL peach trees–it’s quite small, but in addition to all the peaches we ate out of hand and made into smoothies this past summer, I froze 10 quarts! Ours is a ‘Belle of Georgia’ white-fleshed peach tree and she is hardy through zone 5.
This is a plug for my book “Oh Garden of Fresh Possibilities ~ Notes from a Gloucester Garden,” which I both wrote and illustrated, published by David R. Godine–where you can read all about growing peaches in our climate, and apricots and pears, too.
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Get well soon. Love your post.
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Thank you Leslie for well wishes and for comment…counting my blessings.
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Excellent keep them coming – place to just be in the beauty of the moment- pictures what a nice way to reflect and relax! As a young lad did some yard work and general chores around Manships place – he had some peach trees and pear tree’s I seem to recall behind the barn between the quarries…I think there are some Bronze sculptures of bears by one quarry now 3 of them?
Yes even us 12-13 year old have that special girlfriend from younger days then!
Andy Williams – On The Street Where You Live
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From Indiana–How lovely–more than I would have ever imagined!
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