The Lightkeeper's Blog

Odds and ends are on the list for this vacation week.

The first step to restoring the Light to full health was taken this week when the townspeople of Scituate voted at Town Meeting to support a Community Preservation Project advanced by the Trustees to rebuild the Lantern Room.

I have written before of the process that has unfolded and especially want to thank Jeff Martell, Bob Chessia, and Anne Gilbert of Rivermoor Engineering for all they have done to move the project along. This is a big deal.

I hope to have the boardwalk in place in the next two weeks. I am waiting on a machine to level out the few spots that were shifted by waves this winter. It is minor work but if not done right then the whole summer will be spent wondering just how solid a base there is for the panels.

I did get the banners in place and have checked out all of the gardens. The perennials are looking good and there is far less to be cleaned out than in other years. I did get some help once again from a neighbor from the old ‘hood’, Manny Fontes. I had cut back all the daisies and he took it on himself to clean up the cuttings. When I swept around one of the islands, he came back and clean up the piles of rocks too.

We were happy to receive these bags of Nantucket coffee. While I think I know who sent them (there was no note) I wanted to acknowledge the gift here. That sunrise picture from the bag on the right is a beauty.

I tried to capture the spirit of the Marathon with a couple of photos yesterday. It was always one of the great days growing up with grandparents that lived near the course and I would make the trek like so many others to the finish line after watching the Sox play their early game well into my thirties.

I also have a lot of sneakers.

Along with the boardwalk project I find I have to replace the flagpole line again. I had done that not so long ago and the new line split in three places. I had to gaff the broken line down once again when the flag itself got wrapped on the ventilator pin.

I will wait for the wind to die down – it is really blowing this past week – and then get the new line in place. I bought a length that should not need a splice this time and will cross my fingers that this effort lasts longer than the last did.

A dead animal was discovered in the basement and that chore was handled. Something got to a rabbit and its nest. Cleaning windows is on the list as they are past grimy coming out of the winter and the wind. All the camera connections have been restored. A virus software setting knocked them all off line. I found two small raised planters for the garden along side the Downton stone. I will be working on that once my machine that levels the boardwalk path also straightens out that stone. It has begun to sag to the right and I will get that square and go to work.

A new banner is needed to share what the Scituate Historical Society does to preserve and share the history of this old town. I put out the banner I had made several years ago but it has been beaten up by the wind and weather the last few years. Unlike the others it is exposed and I hope to move it to a wall where it will be more likely to last.

Spring is on us with very good news about funding for the restoration and all the odds and ends that keep me busy. Good stuff.