The Staging of An Effective Press Conference

What's Up at the Marina?

Lots going on at the marina where Sven and I chose to walk this afternoon. Guitar music carried across the full parking lot from Pearl, a gentle twanging from a live band that performed on the back deck. We saw people sitting on marina benches with picnics and others jogging, walking, biking, paddling, fishing, stowing gear after a fishing expedition, hosing down equipment. We noticed new picnic tables at the end of the marina, behind the bandstand. Folks congregated at the old tables outside Mac's and, although it was almost 4 pm, the air smelled of french fries. Some beachcombers headed off towards Mayo Beach, while kids played on the buoy beside the pier. Teenagers dangled feet over the side, ice cream cones in hand. The pace was slow and relaxed. Everyone seemed definitely in vacation-mode and not especially upset that Wellfleet was having another non-beach day ...

Games People Play on Wellfleet Beaches

Do Muskmelons Grow in Wellfleet?

The answer to that question is YES! I wish you could smell the honey-like aroma in our kitchen. Today marks the first breakfast at which we will serve muskmelon, from the garden.

“How can you tell when a muskmelon is ripe?” I asked Tracy Plaut while she gave me a massage today.

“I’ve never grown muskmelons,” Tracy said, which was surprising because there’s pretty much everything else in her vegetable garden at Mac’s.

I repeated the question to Sharyn Lindsay, organizer of Wellfleet’s farmers' market.

“Some people say when you shake it, and hear movement? Others say, by the smell. Maybe give them another week?”

I have a lousy sense of smell, so that would not be my method.

“How can you tell when a muskmelon is ripe?” I asked Beverly Calistini at Sonflowers Garden Center.

“Mostly by smell,” Beverly said. “And the melon will come off the vine relatively easy. If it clings tenaciously, it could be saying ’Not Yet.’

Then I Googled and found a ton of information from Garden Web: ”Muskmelon and Galia types are easy to tell when they are ripe because the fruit pulls off easily or ‘slips’ from the vine. They should be harvested at full ‘slip’ when the ground color under the net starts to turn yellowish.”

Actually, I’ve been watching for ripeness for several weeks. In France, I learned to choose the best melons de Cavaillon, at the market, by checking the top, where a bit of the stem should still be attached. If there’s a slight gap between the stem and the fruit, the melon will be ripe.

I checked OUR melon yesterday morning and noticed it was beginning to crack. Yikes! Not a good sign. When I lifted it up, it “slipped” right off the vine.

A water bug scuttled out of the crack as I harvested our first muskmelon. Would it taste okay, I wondered? Yes! Check out Sven enjoying a slice at lunch. I sprinkled mine with salt. Also, I love melon with port, the way we used to serve it in France. Thank you to my sister-in-law. Betsy Krogh, who planted the melons for me back at the end of May, and bon appetit!

How do you prefer your melon, sliced, cubed, au naturel, with port, with salt? Any other wild melon preferences?

The Sounds of a Wellfleet Summer

Our guests have all headed off on bikes, rented from Idle Times. The house is quiet again. The sun just came out, making most of the 25000 people now in Wellfleet extremely happy, for the day's weather remained quite iffy all morning. The summer visitors can go to the beach. The locals can get to the store. Only the merchants do not welcome the sun. They would have preferred clouds to increase the number of 2011 tax-holiday shoppers. Friends of the Wellfleet Libraries are also peeved that they canceled another book sale due to risk of rain.

Here's what I hear when I stick my head outside: The birds are chirping. Down at the Waterbury’s, it’s changeover day, and one of Ms. Waterbury’s sons-in-law buzz-cuts the grass, astride her motorized lawnmower. A few fans whir in windows behind me. Bees buzz amongst the cleome while butterflies flutter here and there. Ah, summer!

What People Leave Behind

I used to travel with a down pillow. Once I took my daughter and Sven to a Vassar reunion. I was too busy keeping track of them to keep track of my pillow, which disappeared from the dorm room, minutes after our departure. I know this because I called up and no one could find it. This experience made me realize guests will contact us if they have lost something and want it back.

I’m fascinated by how many people leave stuff behind when they stay at a B&B. This year we have accumulated quite a treasure trove. If someone emails me to request that I return a lost item, and it is here, I will do so. No request, no return. Here’s the list for 2011, so far: striped pajama bottom, child’s pajama bottom with horse pattern, four lots of packaged shells, a bottle of premium vodka (now stored away for this guest’s next visit), a rag doll, books. I have written about what people leave behind in past blog posts. My favorite is from 2009.

The Hatley child’s pajama bottom provides the opportunity to mention how important it is for children to wear clothing that is not treated with flame retardants. On the Web site, Hatley explains why: “Industry standards dictate that if a piece of kids' or infant clothing is going to be fire-retardant it has to be coated with a chemical. Hatley tries to keep its clothes as natural as possible using mostly natural fibers. In order to maintain compliance with industry standards our clothes are snug fitting instead.” So, now I know where to shop for clothing for my grandkids!

Have you ever left anything behind? What do you think I should do with the unclaimed shells? Are you aware how devastating flame retardants can be for our endocrine system?

Glass Half-Empty or Half-Full?

Above, a photo of a charming family that visited from England. They spent six days here and thoroughly enjoyed their stay. If only all guests were as amiable and discreet! They took full advantage of all Wellfleet has to offer. These days innkeepers must spend extra energy worrying about how happy guests are, more so than ever with the growing influence of Trip Advisor. To illustrate this point, let me tell you a little horror story. …

In July, a guest was negligent with leaving food out in the cottage kitchen. It was like sounding a gong for all the local mice that live in the woods. When I discovered the situation two weeks later, at 11 a.m. on Sunday, Sven placed mousetraps in appropriate places. I warned the new guests who arrived at 2 pm sharp and explained the mousetraps were primed for action. The wife bubbled over with excitement, like the bottle of champagne I almost put in the refrigerator for her 40th wedding anniversary but didn’t. Although both she and her husband could not say enough treacly things about the accommodation, I guess I had a hunch something would go wrong…

I was tired after cleaning both the cottage and Liberty Coin Suite, so went to bed early.

At 10:30, Sven woke me up. “They’re leaving,” he announced.

“Who’s leaving,” I mumbled, rubbing my eyes.

“The cottage people. She’s hysterical about mice getting guillotined.”

I got dressed and encountered the couple as they packed up to leave. There was an empty bottle of wine in evidence.

“Won’t you spend the night in our personal guest room?” I asked, still rubbing my eyes.

“No,” the man said. “We’re driving home.”

They lived at least four hours away. I tried to convince them to think it over, but no. And, they wanted their money back. Otherwise, and I quote, “This could get nasty.”

By “getting nasty,” the man implied a very bad review on Trip Advisor.

I asked a friend in rentals the following day how I should have handled the situation, and she said that since they had been forewarned and we had done our best to provide a remedy and alternate lodging, there was no need to return all that money. We killed three mice and that was that.

Sven can shrug off such experiences, but not me. I found the whole thing very upsetting.

I already described an occasion where Chez Sven was given a bad review in May. I had an awful cold and was pushing myself to receive guests in the best way possible. The couple seemed happy. They ate up all the food I served, including a special request for toast with almond butter. They made no complaints to my face, wrote something nice in our guestbook, yet posted a negative review to Trip Advisor.

Now, I know potential guests take the reviews with a grain of salt and read a bunch of them, but such nastiness is unnecessary and offensive. I checked the other day and 29 people had said this review was “helpful,” ie. they chose other accommodation.

Fortunately, we also have guests who raise my spirits and make innkeeping feel worthwhile, guests who return several years in a row, like Betsy and her two lovely daughters, or contact me years after staying here, like Elise did yesterday:

“I have been reading your blog regularly since my sweetie and I stayed at Chez Sven in 2008. It was a magical vacation for us. Your hospitality and our days on the ponds (and Mary Oliver's poetry) made it a visit at which we are still marveling. Thank you.

I am writing because I understand your tiredness at working so hard for so many hours each day. While the idea of having a B&B seems so romantic, the work of it is intense. My friends and I, of our age (55 - 60's), are feeling scared and worried about our future. I would like to transition from my job to something else but am frightened at not being able to get affordable health insurance. I feel stuck and worried and stressed.

Chez Sven is an amazing place and your blog is doing an incredible support to educating people about the idea of the importance of small changes and thinking locally.

Perhaps there is a way that you can continue your B&B, but not have to deal with people who don't appreciate your sensibility?

Thank you for your ongoing public thoughts. Thank you for giving me a memory of an incredible vacation in Wellfleet.”

You have to take the good with the bad. The unpleasant experience remains rare.

Sven was a teacher for over 40 years. He tells me that you can’t please everyone. “In a class of 30, there were always one or two who disliked me, for reasons unknown. Sometimes you see the glass half empty, and I see it half full.”

Which type of person are you, half-empty, or half-full?

What Fun Events Are Happening in Wellfleet?

There's lots going on as we approach the mid-August mark.

Yesterday night Jimmy Tingle rocked Preservation Hall. If you missed the show, go next Wednesday.

Tonight Sebastien Junger will speak at the Congregational Church, a 7:30 pm event to benefit our library. Friends of the Wellfleet Libraries is also staging their second annual book sale on Sunday, Town Hall parking lot, from 9 to 1.

If you've got a Kindle and prefer to spend your hard-earned dollars at a benefit for Preservation Hall, attend Las Vegas Night, tonight, Thursday, 7 pm, with a $10 entry fee and a huge silent auction.

On Saturday, take in an opening at Left Bank Gallery on Commercial Street: new work by Ellen Grantner and Graceann Warn will be on display.

On August 13, the Burdick Art Gallery will be hosting An Evening from Paris, honoring artist Lynn Shaler and presenting the American debut of her limited edition etching, "Le Printemps Parisien". Burdick Art Gallery is located at 25 Bank Street. The reception will be held from 6 - 8:00. Lynn will give a talk about her art from 1 - 2:00 on Sunday.

Don't forget the excellent plays at WHAT.

And, on Sunday, don't miss the 10th Annual Reception & Charity Auction organized by the Wellfleet Alzheimer's Association, from 3 to 7 at the Inn at Duck Creeke where you can even bid on organic cotton sheets donated by Chez Sven ...

What's New On the Bookshelf?

Many of you probably know Sandra Steingraber for her second book, Living Downstream. Perhaps some of you have seen the film by the same name, featuring this erudite biologist and cancer survivor? Now comes Raising Elijah, a tale of her son’s childhood and the environment.

At the beginning of the story, the author turns down a job offer due to her determination to raise children in a town, presumed to be free of pollution. She and her husband choose an idyllic spot near a lake in upstate New York. By the final chapter, entitled "Bicycles on Main Street and High-Volume Slickwater Hydraulic Fracturing," the couple has realized their hometown is targeted by hydro-fracking companies.

I especially enjoyed the chapter on arsenic, with its description of how the chemical industry re-marketed a poison by inventing pressurized wood, used for children’s playgrounds. That arsenic now leaches out of these playground structures, endangering all kids who touch the wood and put hands in mouth. (Note Norway was the only nation to take action when this information became known.)

The other chapters cover topics that range from what causes asthma to endocrine disruption and hydro-fracking. I had a bit of a problem with the weaving of Elijah’s childhood into the real nitty-gritty, ie. what Dr. Steingraber’s seeks to communicate about environmental risk in today's world. Still, the book was very informative and, at times, lyrical. Take this passage, for instance: “The land that lies above the Marcellus Shale is full of farms and vineyards. It's the state's food shed and wine-growing country. It also contains some of the largest unbroken forest canopy in the Northeast. Fracking, thus, represents the industrialization of a rural landscape. If it goes forward, it will usher in the biggest ecological change since the original forests here were cleared. More than shale will be fractured.”

“Ultimately the environmental crisis is a parenting crisis,” Dr. Steingraber concludes. Indeed, life for young parents has become an obstacle course, with food labels to read, if labels are available, toxins to avoid, whenever risk is known, and fingers to cross that the very air children breathe is not laden with polluted particles that will make them sick later in life.

The sub-title is Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis. A dad who reviewed Raising Elijah wrote, "As a parent of two young children I share Dr Steingraber's assessment that protecting my children is primary. I will be giving copies of this book to my elected representatives in the hope that it doesn't take another 40 years to implement policy that is clearly needed to protect children. Well worth reading and sharing with friends. This would be a good choice for book groups and for every school and community library."

Protecting children should not be this difficult. What a shame we have polluted our world to such an incredible degree!

Beach-Ride in Wellfleet

Calling All Volunteers ....

This sunflower popped up in the side garden as a volunteer. Today I'm in search of not flower volunteers, but people ...

First, if you know any doctors or nurses on Cape Cod, either as residents or summer visitors, please let me know right away. GreenCAPE has composed a letter for them to sign about YOU CAN GUESS WHAT. GreenCAPE needs signatures on the letter this week. Have copies, will deliver. (Let me know: chezsven AT comcast DOT net.)

Second, tomorrow is a day of action against toxic chemicals in the environment. As Moms Rising writes, "On Wednesday (Aug 10th), moms and kids across the country will be putting on their super hero capes and gathering at the state offices of their U.S. Senators. That's right. Folks, just like you, are gathering across the country to deliver one single message to the U.S. Senate: We know our Senators can be super heros and protect America's children & families from toxic chemicals."

The Massachusetts contingent will gather at Boston City Hall Plaza at 11 am. For more information, call 617 338 8131 ex. 208.

Cape Drug Problem Makes the New York Times

While lifeguards patrol our beaches, who is watching our homes? Apparently, the police force on Cape Cod is hardly up to the challenge presented by drugs and drug dealers. A reader alerted me to this article about drug crime on Cape Cod. (Thanks, Sharyn!) While I had heard the problem of drugs does exist within the shellfishing community of Wellfleet, I had no idea drugs were also driving so many break-ins elsewhere. The reporter specifically mentions Dennis, with a winter population of 17,000 that swells to 75,000 in summer. Best to remain vigilant. The break-ins involve not only homes but parked cars.

Cape Cod To Be Featured on Good Morning America

Muck, that's what I call what's on Newcomb Hollow Beach this week. It's unpleasant to swim in because it gets into bathingsuits, sticky on the barefeet when you walk along the shore, and quite ugly to look at. Check out how clear the water was June 17th! Despite the reality of seaweed at our beaches, Cape Cod will be featured on tomorrow morning's Good Morning America in the segment "The Most Beautiful Places in America." Here's the segment, but be forewarned: most of the coverage is of Newport!

Sandcastles = Wellfleet Art?

Sandcastles are one of the reasons I enjoy walking the beach in summer. Kids love to build them, and I love to see a kid at work, total concentration on his or her face. Pleasure and pride are two observable emotions. Sand is often a new element that produces real joy.

I have admired lots of different types of sandcastles on the beaches of Wellfleet over the years: castles with a moat, castles decorated with shells and seaweed, free-form castles, castles created with a turreted pail.

A lot of the young visitors are from the city. Their only previous experience may be sandboxes in parks or schoolyards. Sand is particularly satisfying because it's so malleable. Kids get right down and dirty, allowing their inner-artists to take command.

Digging is fun, too. Some kids prefer to dig holes and watch them fill up with water. I wonder what that says about their personality? Who knows.

My kids used to do both.

Sometimes you encounter kids who like to be buried in the sand.

I can remember one year in particular, at Newcomb Hollow. My son had carved out a pyramid like this one, using a broken shell. Or, two pyramids. I've forgotten exactly how many there were and no photos were taken, but those pyramids were perfect. We were all admiring his handiwork, when my younger daughter pulled on the sleeve of my beach jacket. She wanted me to check out her structure, too. I turned, took a look, and blinked. What lay before me was a recreation of Hatshepshut's temple at Deir el-Bahri. My daughter was too young to have seen a photo, of that much I am sure. This story sounds preposterous, and yet it's true.

When you were a kid, did you build sandcastles at the beach, or dig holes? Can sandcastles be considered as art?

Another Letter to the Editor Published Yesterday

The piece of glass above sticks out of the sand. We can see it, avoid stepping on the jagged edges and hurting ourselves. Not an option with pesticide residue on fruit or traces of herbicides in a glass of water. Here's my latest letter to the editor of the Cape Cod Times, entitled "Urge Senator Brown's Support on the Safe Chemicals Act," published yesterday:

I am very worried about the quality of Cape Cod drinking water. I have done extensive research over the past two years, since NStar decided to switch from mowing to spraying up to five herbicides under the power lines, and I have learned that these toxic chemicals can leach through the sandy soil into our sole-source aquifer.

Once chemicals get in our drinking water, there is little recourse, so we need to prevent this from happening. If it is known by tourists that drinking water is compromised with traces of endocrine-disruptive chemicals, tourists will stop coming. Real estate values will plummet.

I urge county government to take a firm stand against herbicides — not only those sprayed by NStar, but by all homeowners. Toxic chemicals need better regulation.

Please ask Sen. Brown to support the Safe Chemicals Act of 2011, now before Congress. Cape Cod is known for being a pristine place. Let's make sure it stays that way!

Happy 50th, National Seashore!

Today we are going to celebrate the National Seashore, which is having its 50th anniversary this year, a topic covered by Winslow's Tavern blog last week. I already wrote about the initial festivities in May. Now I would like to draw your attention to an exhibit of paintings at the Addison Gallery in Orleans, which consistently offers up high-quality art for collectors and non-collectors alike, AND the Atlantic White Cedar Swamp.

Addison Gallery has put together a marvelous assembly of artwork that conjure up Seashore beaches at dawn and dusk, the iconic buildings, the wildlife. You can admire these images on the gallery Web site. The online exhibit succeeds in putting words to the visual experience of encountering nature in the park, not a simple feat. Have no doubt that it would be well worth your while to visit Addison Gallery, but if you are not on Cape, check out the lyrical descriptions instead.

I particularly admired Stephanie Foster’s photograph entitled "Sea Splash" and its caption: “I enjoy the solitude and beauty of fall and spring when I’m alone in the vast spaces and can feel its power and observe the rhythms. Or at the start or end of day when the light is magical. The National Seashore gives me a sense of place and belonging.” I think similar thoughts when I walk through the Seashore. This is the people’s park to enjoy. It belongs to us all.

The Cape Cod National Seashore boundary is less than half a mile from Chez Sven. Regular readers have heard me mention this boundary often because the power lines run alongside the park. Check out the map to the right. All the green is National Seashore, forty miles of pristine sandy beach, marshes, ponds, and forests dotted with lighthouses and wild cranberry bogs. It's a great place to go hiking. We are fortunate that President Kennedy saved these 44,600 acres from development. Did you know 61% of Wellfleet is in the Seashore?

Yesterday Sven and I journeyed out to the Marconi site, with its vistas of pitch pine and endless blue sky. Our destination was the Atlantic White Cedar Swamp trail, which starts at the far end of the parking lot.

About 5,000 years ago, Atlantic white cedar began to grow on Cape Cod, wherever there was wet ground or swamp. The colonists cleared these forests and used the wood. Most of the white cedar is gone now. The Atlantic White Cedar Swamp, within the National Seashore, remains.

The last time we visited together, five years ago, I remember brilliant colors that I have mentioned to guests ever since: purple and yellow, in particular. We chose a sunny day, after the rain, in the hope of capturing those colors with my new camera. To our surprise, the rain had mostly been absorbed into the very dry ground. Everything was green. Green moss, green ferns, green leaves, green shadows. Beautiful, but green, not purple and yellow.

Have you visited the Cape Cod National Seashore? What is your favorite national park?

How I Spend My Day & Summer Chaos

Sometimes I envy the tourists, who spend the whole day at a beach or pond, relaxing, enjoying vacation, or have the leisure to clown around while visiting the National Seashore, but there are simply too many of them this year. Those of us who live in Wellfleet year-round keep our heads low. We are all trying to simply get through the summer. Everyone seems to agree that July was as busy this year as August is usually. Here at Chez Sven, we have hardly had time or energy to walk at the beach.

Last week a reader asked, “How many hours do you spend just caring for the B&B in high season?” My response: “That varies.” Every day is different.

Room prep takes about an hour or two for each room and bathroom. Rooms "changeover" every three days, and so require new sheets every three days. Cottage prep takes longer because there’s a whole house to clean. Cottage guests stay a week and spend a lot of time inside, which means more intensive cleaning is required.

Every few days there’s laundry to wash, sheets to hang out to dry, pillowcases to iron.

Every morning, in summer, I prepare breakfast and set the table outside. Each group of guests eats at a different time, 8:30, 9, or 9:30. I often sit and chat with the guests over breakfast. I get up at 7. I grab a cup of coffee, check email, shower, bake, ie. from 7 to 10, I’m on my feet, 7 days a week.

Every other day I shop for organic fruit and stock up on provisions for breakfast.

Shopping in town is a challenge in summer. There are only so many parking spaces in the town hall lot, and newcomers do not always follow the directional arrows. The best time to shop depends on the tide, the weather, and the day, with Saturday and Sunday being the worst. I tend to venture out in late morning or early afternoon while most tourists are at the beach.

Before guests arrive, it is necessary to wait for them. It’s hard to start a project because their arrival will interrupt whatever I'm doing. When guests do arrive, I spend a half hour on orientation.

We have extensive flower gardens at Chez Sven. Since it had not rained for weeks before yesterday evening, we have been watering the gardens every day to keep the flowers alive. It is actually pleasant to water at the end of the day, but still, it’s work. And, then there’s the general household to maintain …

August is intense here with traffic jams on dirt roads that normally see no traffic.

Thanks to our new pharmacy, it’s no longer necessary to take Route 6 to Orleans, twenty miles away, which is a relief. Often Route 6 is bumper to bumper with tourists looking to stock up on food, get to the beaches, place beer in coolers, etc. When I shop in Orleans, I try to go early in the morning.

Last week I wrote a post about noisy tenants at a neighbor’s house. Now that Facebook exists, I have noticed Wellfleetians will voice their frustrations with the summer chaos online. I am not alone in feeling overwhelmed. Here are a few of their comments:

“It's August and it is better to laugh than to cry when driving on Route 6,” Suzanne

“Oh my good God. Our little road was so quiet that only the foxes and coyotes were here with me for weeks on end. Now it's Beerfest-Party-On, Dude.” Carol

“I love watching the tourists who think they know the tides and set up huge camps on the beach, loudly telling the wives and kids the tide is going out. Meanwhile, half an hour later it's a huge SHIT SHOW, and I stand there laughing. Ha-ha-ha. Don't be a know-it-all. We are here to help you if you only ask.” Settie

Would you like to be an innkeeper? Do you live in a tourist destination? Is tourist season as intense in your town?

More Hazy, Crazy, Lazy Days of Summer, 2011

In Praise of Paul

Paul Boutin is marvelous. It is not often that a mom gets to write a tribute to her son, but here we go. I’m doing it because he deserves praise for Chez Sven’s exceptional Web site. Tourists come to Wellfleet for the beaches, but guests come to Chez Sven because of our Web site. It is phenomenal. And, so is he. When I ask him to add something, he complies with grace. Now, a father of two young children is often busy, but Paul does his best to help us out whenever he has the time. He never says no. What's more, this is the second Web site he has designed for Chez Sven.

When I first saw the design for a new site about a year ago, I scratched my head. I’m not as modern as my son. A photo gallery that rotates? Unusual. That was back then. Now everyone wants one, or has one. Paul is avant garde. He knows what will succeed and does it before anyone else. He has his finger on the pulse of modern life, and I have learned to trust his judgment. That trust has never been misplaced.

The specific reason for this post is his recent update to our Web site, so do check it out. Chez Sven was mentioned in the July issue of Cape Cod View. Now Web site visitors and potential guests can click through to the article and read why our bed & breakfast is so “down to earth.” Thank you, Paul!