Sven is still asleep when I set out for a morning walk with my trusty camera. I drive through a pine forest to the new parking lot at Fox Island, in search of elusive blue herons.
The marsh there is said to be full of them. I have scheduled the trip according to the tide, in-coming, as Denny O’Connell, President of the Wellfleet Conservation Trust has advised. Unfortunately, a sharp wind blows up out of the northeast and no blue herons venture forth. They must have all taken cover in the reeds. I then proceed on to Marconi where an employee tells me the bluebirds have indeed congregated on the lawn out front, but two weeks ago. I return home without a photo of either a blue heron or a blue bird. Such is life. Sometimes everything works like a charm. Sometimes whatever you try doesn’t pan out. A package from Amazon awaitd me on the front step. Inside I find six new books for the environmental shelf in our library. Sven is having breakfast and perks up when he sees them. In fact, he immediately appropriates Jeffrey Sachs’ The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities For Our Time. For me, finding time to read is more problematic. Still, I intend to devour The Natural Step for Communities: How Cities and Towns can Change to Sustainable Practices, by my friend Sarah James and Torbjorn Lahti, a Swede. Sarah has even installed solar panels on her house over by Hamlen Farm.
March is a good time to spruce up Web sites, so I review ours, scribbling a few notes, which I will communicate later to my son. I am blessed to be an innkeeper with children willing and able to help. Stephanie makes my calling cards. Paul does the Web site. Natalie helps me out financially. Running a bed & breakfast in a seasonal economy is not always easy.
While online, I check Google and Chez Sven is right up there on the first page, when you type in bed breakfast Wellfleet. Position 9. Not bad!
We raked up the last dead leaves and Sven took them to the dump. While he was gone, Anders Neumeuller called from Scandinavian and Swedish Press Magazines. He is writing a feature on Chez Sven and wants to interview my husband. The article, for the “Treats” column, will be published this April.
Off we go after lunch to Hyannis for Sven's appointment with a doctor. I drop him off and drive over to Trader Joe’s in search of their environmentally-friendly cleaning products, highly recommended by a friend.
I also buy tulips for this weekend’s guests, red with yellow highlights. Really nice!Back in Wellfleet an hour later, Sven calls Anders Neumeuller and has a twenty-minute conversation, which I cannot understand since I do not speak Swedish. I do get the part about ancestors though, some his, some mine, both from the same part of Scandinavia. Mine had the dogs and the whip. His paid the taxes. Sven also tells Anders about his excitement at finding the Liberty coin under the house during renovation. I wonder what the article will be like … Can't wait!
