It’s been a mellow week here at Chez Breeze, mostly hanging out in Salisbury and enjoying the warm weather and gentle winds. And the beach. It’s my last beach stop until probably January, so I’m making the most of it.
It’s also been a time for connecting with old friends, some by phone and some in person, which has filled my soul right up with love and companionship. You know who you are, we don’t need selfies to prove our friendships are deep and long. So I’ll just put a cool picture of rose hips here instead.
I also got to close a loop this week. Ages ago, when I lived around here, I bought a proper ring (white gold, amethyst stone, two side diamonds) at a jeweler in Rockport to mark my 40th birthday. I loved that ring but in 2014, when my house was robbed, thieves stole it from me. So last Friday I went back to Rockport, where a different jeweler told me that the one I was looking for had retired years ago. This jeweler, however, had a lovely little lapis ring, he’d made so I bought that one. It’s not as fancy as the original, it’s more suited to the casual life I live now.
The big project I started last week, and will probably be working on forever and a day, is to find out more about my mother’s side of the family. I didn’t inherit a wealth of photos or information, so I’ve been googling a lot and found that my great-great-grandfather brought his family from Nova Scotia to Lowell, not far from where I lived all those years ago. So Thursday, I ended up at the University Mass Lowell Center for Lowell History, where the archives manager helped me find his obituary in the local paper (on microfilm) and then use yearly Lowell directories to find out a bit more about his family.
At one point, my friend and I had 8 years worth of these spread across a table, figuring out arrivals, appearances, moves, and who lived with whom during that critical time before the great-great-grandfather died. It’s fascinating stuff to me, because I never knew anything much about this side of my family.
To close out this weekly report, here’s a lovely photo of the beach. Ah, the Atlantic. It’s a lovely ocean.
We are all ghosts. We all carry, inside us, people who came before us.
Liam Callanan
I didn’t know what rose hips look like but now I do! Love the oil for home facial treatments, and I’ll remember that beautiful image now to go along with it. Your ring journey is priceless; warms my heart how tragedies or disappointments can be transformed into the next right thing. Or ring, in this case :-). Thinking of you from our ocean here on the opposite coast!
Love the ring! Glad you got a “lazy” week – need those every now and then! 🙂
Sounds like you fill your days with beautiful quests. I need to learn how to do this myself. Love the ring!