This is one of the most popular views in my hometown of Marblehead, Massachusetts. (Paul's boat, "Bollocks!" is in the bottom right-hand corner at his mooring.) I haven't lived there for many years. In fact, I moved there when I was only 4 and departed there for the first time at 18. So only 14 years growing up were spent there. I moved back to Marblehead round about 1973 or 74. Spent about 2 more years there until I needed to be on my own again after a marriage that had failed, and didn't move back until after I married Paul in 1986. But alas, we needed to buy a house and housing prices in this pristine little piece of heaven were a tiny bit too high for our pocketbooks, so we found a nice little Cape style bungalow in Salem - -



- - named it "Crow Cottage," and moved in. And here we've been for over 24 years now. But Marblehead will always be my "home town." If not officially, then at least in my heart.

If you've ever lived there, you know what I mean.

My ex-husband, Bill, loved the town so much that he has devoted a good chunk of his life to shouting its attributes from the rooftops. He started out by publishing Marblehead Magazine which was a huge success. Copies of this magazine could be found all over the world since a lot of Marbleheaders are the types of people who travel. He now publishes it as an on-line magazine, and so anyone can partake of it's offerings. Dig deep into that site and you will come to see why almost everyone who lives for any length of time in Marblehead calls it "home," as I do.

I only live in the city next door, so I can go "home" in only a few minutes, like I did today when I had to go to my bank, which has always been in Marblehead. A tiny little home-town-type bank where the people who run the bank are folks you went to school with and where they smile and know your name when you drop in. I like that. I hope our bank always stays that way.



There's Paul now. Or rather, back then when I took the picture above, of him near his dinghy at low tide at Fort Beach. He keeps his boat moored just outside those rocks sticking up out of the water there off The Fort. No wonder he is his easy-going self - what a place to start and end work each day!




I've never really ever seen a town like it in all my life.

~ ~ ~

We're having a heat-wave, a tropical heat-wave. Yes, the temperatures are soaring high today, and I'm trying to stay cool in the house as much as I can. I did go to the office and get more work earlier and then tooted over to Marblehead to the bank, and when I got home, the dogs thought they wanted to go out - until they actually got outside and realized they were being thrown into an oven and then wanted to come right back in - the cool of the house.

Now I am going to organize my desk here to start some work, so if you will excuse me, I'll get to that.

Cheers and keep cool, friends,

Bex