Doug's Project 365

The garden in front of this year’s vacation rental has these striking purple flowers. I soon realized these are artichokes, and this is what they look like when nobody harvests them.

Clouds & wind made for a chilly day, but a lovely evening backdrop for the houses along Ocean Park.

If you’ve been to Oak Bluffs, you’ll immediately recognize where this photo was taken: it’s been our tradition for many years to have our vacation’s first dinner at Offshore Ale House.

I installed café lights over our patio today, making an already inviting space that much more so.

My woodworking project this gorgeous Saturday was to make an enclosure for a Raspberry Pi and display, to serve as a home-automation console in our foyer. I used some leftover mahogany deck boards, and it came out more formal-looking than I was anticipating. I had been using an obsolete iPad in this location, which was really too slow and unreliable to be useful.

This cloud formation eventually downpoured on us, putting an end to another Doug’s Office Hours. We all agreed it looked like a dog, but there was some disagreement over the location of specific anatomical parts.

At the Arlington Center beer garden with Kat and Bob. I think my beer may be technically illegal for being outside the fence line.

We went to the Mystic Aquarium, which is nice but expensive. Their animals seem happy and well-cared-for, and there were plenty of interpretive staff, so I think admission dollars are going to the right places. Here’s a picture of a penguin under water, and another of a fur seal. Did you know fur seals are actually not seals, but closely related to sea lions?

On another nature walk, we came across a pond, and wondered what lived in it. Then we saw the 18″ snapping turtle. We named him Hector. This is his nose & eyes, peeking out of the water.

We went for a nature walk in a small park near our inn, expecting to find some shore birds. That’s not what we found at all.

Click through for some other shots from this walk.