Summer days

The summer days in Gloucester,MA have been wonderfully inspiring, relaxing and gave us hours of bonding. We've had all the time we needed to come back to family life, lazy hours at the beaches, going on long walks with our dog, reading, talking together and making plans, sightseeing, dreaming and of course the joyful decisions of where to eat and all the delicious sea food choices we could make...











This has been family time after a long stretch, we've had a hard year. And our plan not to send the children to sleep away camps but stick together and explore this wonderful country together has been a big success.

We discovered many places, small towns steeped in history, sleepy corners in tiny villages, lobster shacks recommended by the locals, an old cemetery with graves from
200 years ago...



We discovered Boston and Salem, Rockport and Marblehead, we spend a day in Maine and I've finally got to see Concord,MA a place I have had on my list to visit for a very long time. (Luisa May Alcott's Orchard House)

We all needed time to adjust and in the beginning both kids complained of boredom, but slowly we found our ways, our rhythm and the pleasures of slowness.



Our next door neighbor's 4 children became the companions for our kids playing and bathing together at nearby beaches.Their parents opened their 200 year old home to us, shared their wine and told us many tales of the area.






They helped us find hidden treasures and places off the beaten path.
We've met so many delightful people, a local tile artist,who inspired our children to many stepping stones, a lovely woman who invited us for lunch and will be a new friend, a man who made wood his artistry, a painter turned photographer and a photographer who started painting...



We sailed the shoreline of Cape Ann and fell in love with the country.




I've learned so much about the history, of the pilgrims who settled exactly across from our house, 'witches' and their fate, the American revolution (Boston and Concord) and the civil war and it's sad implications. I've read about Harriet and Isabella Beecher Stowe, about Luisa May Alcott and her circle, about the transcendentalists, the Emersons, the Hawthornes and many others who lived in Massachusetts and shaped its identity. One can feel it until today.



Sitting at a cove on our last day a seal stuck his head out several times a looked at us with curiosity, we looked back in awe and said our good byes.



I am so very grateful for the time we've had together, I am grateful for these peaceful days and I am grateful for the new ideas and inspirations for a simpler life which only appeared after this time to reflect.



Soon I'll show you many more pictures, these I have taken with my phone and lack the quality I am usually after, he... they are simple family pics after all...

All pictures by V.Zlotkowski