It is a beautiful morning here in Cape May as I was awoken by the songs of the birds and the smell of the crisp salt in the air. The cool breeze that blew in from the windows surrounding my bedroom felt delightful as I automatically crawled down deeper beneath the down comforter in the bed. I heard Bill stirring around in the kitchen where he put on a pot of coffee. A cool breeze and the smell of fresh brewing coffee motivated me from the bed to the sofa in the living room where I curled up in a blanket and began to look out at the view of the wet lands with its tall grasses a variety of green and brown colors and the many varieties of birds that feasted. I spotted a bird I have never seen before. It was small approximately the size of my finger. I watched as it danced across the grasses. There were several robins looking for worms and I wondered why they were looking for worms in land that must be tainted in salt. Do worms live in salted ground? Do robins eat worms from salted ground? Depending on the amount of rain that has fallen in previous days and the tide, the wetlands can be very dry to very wet. Only one day did the water travel all the way up to the back of the house during high tide and a previous heavy rain fall.
It is quiet here. On occasion you may hear distant traffic however most of the time the only sounds one hears are from the wild life or the wind as it taps the windows. Our house is surrounded by windows. We have five windows in the living room and four windows in the kitchen. The living room can be entered by the sliding glass doors that come in from the screen room. Our bedroom has two windows whereas the two lofts on the second floor have two and three windows respectively. When you enter through the front of the house you will enter through another set of sliding doors to the screen room. If you enter through the back of the house from the deck, you enter through a set of sliding doors into the back of the screen room. All in all there are three sets of sliding doors for entrance into and out of both the screen room and main house. The stand alone shed out back holds our bikes, beach chairs, beach umbrella, out door tools, gardening supplies and toys. We have a fire pit in the back that is covered with a tarp but will be stored in the shed for the winter when we close next weekend. This weekend the goal is to clean out the cabinets of food along with most items in the refrigerator and freezer. We will bring all food items home this weekend. The linens have already been stripped from the upstairs beds (kids). I will bring all the linens home to wash then bring back next weekend and store in vacuum pack containers and store in the downstairs closets. Indoor plants will come home this weekend. The clothes in the bedroom and hall closets will also be brought home. Next weekend I will store all those stuff animals the kids have down here in vacuum pack containers and leave them down here and before we leave next Sunday, the screen room furniture will be stored indoors and the living room sofa will be trashed as to force us to purchase a new living room sofa next spring.
We are going to pay someone to roll up the awning and winterize the pipes. We will call the cable company and have the cable/internet discontinued until next April. We will leave the electric on but shut down the box so the outdoor lights do not automatically come on at night. I never realized how much work there was in closing down a house for a season and I am sure there is just as much work as opening up the house too. Our heating system and stove are supplied by propane tanks. We generally shut those tanks off every-time we leave the house for the week anyway. It has been an amazing first year down here and the neighbors are very friendly. The community is safe as it is a gated community so no one gets in without an automatic pass on your car that automatically opens the gate after passing by a guard. The best part of being here is family. We are surrounded by family as both my parents and sister have homes in the community. We started a tradition of having coffee at my house whereas Bill makes the coffee and my sister comes over and we chat over our morning coffee while planning out the day and enjoying the view of the wetlands.
I feel extremely blessed today.
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