Rifkin's Reflections

Getting ready for Winter - Geese Can't Read

“O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?”Intrepid photographer Paul Rifkin captures the essence of winter's start

That quote by Percy Bysshe Shelley is an optimistic look ahead. Old Farmer's Almanac counters it with, "The sun that dark December day, shone dimly, down through skies of grey." The top photo is dawn today at Cotuit Harbor, and it lives up to the last description.

The complete poem by Shelley, "Ode to the west wind," ends with these lines, "The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?". The complete poem is here.

This is the  time of year Mashpee's Steve Murray pulls moorings in Cotuit Harbor. It is also when the Cotuit Canada Geese ignore instructions and prove that Geese can't read. - Photos by Paul Rifkin

We wrapped our Congressman's office with crime scene tape

Main Street Hyannis was the scene of a peace rally and the natives were restless

Peace

Christmas joy came early to Cotuit this year

Christmas in Cotuit was a great success Saturday

   Santa arrived at the Cotuit Town Landing by boat to the delight of the waiting crowd.

   Magician Peter Boie makes a peace dove appear at the Cotuit Public Library before the arrival of Santa.

   Face painting, a magic show and soon Santa--what kid wouldn't have wanted to be in Cotuit Saturday?

   You can tell by the kids' expressions that Peter Boie must be on heck of a magician!

   The kids weren't the only onese waiting for Santa. Here, Nicholas waits for St. Nick!

   Who doesn't love a candy cane, especially when it comes from Santa!

The 2008 Sandwich Turkey Day Trot

Santa and 1,500 runners raced through our oldest town this morning

   The adults start off (don't use that crosswalk for a bit), and below is the start of the "Kid's Dash." 

The Thanksgiving We Gather Together 5K Walk/Run is now a Cape tradition

Text and photos by Paul Rifkin

It wasn't all sweat and shin splits, Santa greeted the non-runners as well.

Runner #89 sported a "Turkey Hat" for the occasion.

About 1,500 runners ran this morning in the eighth annual Thanksgiving We Gather Together 5K Walk/Run.

The race started at 8AM. It was proceeded by the "Kidz Dash", a quarter-mile race for children under 12.

The registration fee for the race is $10 plus a bag of at least 10 non-perishable grocery items. The groceries are delivered to the Sandwich Food Pantry and pantries in Falmouth, Bourne and Hyannis.

The 3.1-mile route takes in the Historic Sandwich Village winding it's way past Heritage Museums and Gardens, Shawme Pond and along Main Street. Time Out Productions Executive Director Rich Havens introduced the new route last year and moved the starting location from the Stop & Shop Plaza to the Wing School.

“We feel that our new 5K running and walking route takes in much more of the historic part of Sandwich by going through Shawme Pond and up by Heritage and down through Main Street,” he said.

   The "Kid's Dash" started a little later, and a grand time was had by all visiting Shawme Pond, Heritage Museums & Gardens and strolling along Main Street of the Cape's oldest town.

A peaceful promenade through the Mashpee Indian Meeting House Cemetery

“There is a harmony in autumn, and a luster in its sky, which through the summer is not heard or seen, as if it could not be, as if it had not been!”
                                                                                                   - Percy Bysshe Shelley

   Wild turkeys wander around the Mashpee Indian Meeting House Cemetery.

The Old Indian Meeting House was built in 1684 on Santuit Pond by Deacon John Hinckley and was moved to its present location on Route 28 in 1717. 

It is the oldest church building on Cape Cod and was used by the Mashpee Wampanoag at the time as a Christian church.  It was also used as a school.  The meeting house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.

The Mashpee tribe still uses this site for worship, meetings, and social activities.

The Old Indian Meeting House, at 410 Meetinghouse Road in Mashpee, is currently undergoing renovations.

A walk around the burial grounds revealed the following interesting headstones:

   Russell Peters' headstone

   Aikens headstone

A mighty tree's final fall in Cotuit

Rifkin and other residents weep for the willow

On August 25, 2008, a fierce nor'easter tried to topple the mighty weeping willow tree that has adorned the corner of School and Main Street (the very center of the village) for over a century. 

After the storm, that evening, things didn't look good:

But at first light, August 26, 2008, it was evident that the robust willow wasn't going down that easily:

But alas, on November 24, 2008, man accomplished what nature could not.  The tree was on the property of Archi-Tech Associates, Inc., at 6 School Street.  In spite of precautionary bracing and extensive limb pruning there were instances of branches breaking off and landing in the street, on vehicles or on the building.

The owners of Archi-Tech decided that safety concerns outweighed the aesthetics of the village landscape and natural history.

And so...

There was no turning back...

And now, Rifkin and many other Cotuit residents weep for the fallen willow.

"Stuff the Bus -- Feed the Hungry"

Difficult financial time lead Fred Schneider to donate the use of his bus to help raise money and food donations for the hungry.

Fred is a congregant of  Our Savior Lutheran Church at 14 Cape Drive in Mashpee.  The church is spearheading the

"Stuff the Bus- Feed the Hungry" project. 

Fred's bus was parked in the Mashpee Stop & Shop parking lot on Sunday.

If you want to help,  contact the Reverend Randall Bessett at 508-477-4966 or  ro412@aol.com.

A final gesture for peace

Eve D. Casey of Mashpee died in Mashpee on October 30, 2008 at the age of 93  1/2.

Several days before her passing this sweet lady, the mother of a friend of mine, Jim Casey, a Mashpee builder and carpenter, wanted to make a final statement and asked her son to take a picture of her with a "Stand for Peace" button.

Jim tells me his mom was a promoter of peace her entire life.

-- Paul Rifkin

The ineffable humor of Cape Codders

That's a shell of a tree on Long Beach in Centerville

Cape Codders are a wry people, and much of our humor is ineffable and charming. How many gentle folk have contributed a chambered nautilus to the bare branch's of this bush we may never know, but the effect is pure Yankee humor.

And this chair, which I call "Summer is over - Long Beach loneliness" may simply be a beach chair forgotten on the strand.

But these bouys left, on the Cotuit Dock before sunrise, become art all by themselves without any help from a photographer...  except he was there at that improbable time to shoot it.