parotechnics

In talking of the histories of towns, past and present, one has to be careful to find the spot that's your locus standii. P-town and Bombay share something in common. The Portugese. Provincetwon had a large Portugese population - sailors and fishermen. And today it's got a big gay community. Perhaps these intertwined histories give the town it's feeling of openness. Small as it is, this is not a small minded town and when you walk on the streets, the air is easy. I've searched hard for a picture of these two histories. Not the usual funny ones of leather gear shops called Christopher Street, not the inscription on a house with the obvious name Gaspa. The Portugese Bakery opened just a few days before it was time for me to leave. It's over a hundred years old. And the pastry case made me feel oddly at home, with its meat patties and doughy sweets. In truth of course the sweets here are much nicer than Goan ones - most of which seem to be versions of gulgula, which is

Bada tadpaya! But finally before I leave, just before I leave - I shot the cardinal!

Trying to get to the Beech forest has generally been an abortive enterprise. The first time my friend Katrina was supposed to take me I fell sick. The second time I went with Tara and kids and we got disheartened half way and didn't continue. All we saw were a couple gold finches and no amount of scattering crumbs and Mihir making guttural sounds that were supposed to be bird calls helped. Third time lucky! I had given up on the forest and then my friend Stefanie suddenly emailed to say she'd take me. We spent an afternoon walking there and at an abandoned salt marsh called Hatcher's Harbour. Finally there were birds, and I didn't just soared them winging! A downy woodpecker - which has V shaped black and white stripes and a slash of red on its head; Canadian geese fat and tame on endless bread; tit-mice with their square grey bodies and surfer hair-dos; red striped blackbirds, which have red under-wings, visible as a blood red streak when they are perched. The forest i

Look carefully now for country of origin. Spotted on Commercial street, Provincetown.

Now that the time is coming to leave I have the bittersweet feeling - of looking forward to something new, but feeling that Cape Cod has been sort of home. So on this day a song I learnt from Uma, Tara's daughter. It's an old New England folk song.. Cape Cod Girls they have no combs They comb their hair with fish cod bones Heave away, Heave away Heave away my bully bully boys Haeave away and don't you make a noise We're bound for Australia Cape Cod boys they have no sleds They ride on codfish heads Heave away, Heave away Heave away my bully bully boys Haeave away and don't you make a noise We're bound for Australia Cape Cod cats they have no tails They blew away in the Nor'east gales Heave away, Heave away Heave away my bully bully boys Haeave away and don't you make a noise We're bound for Australia Cape Cod doctors have no pills They give their patients cod fish gills Heave away, Heave away Heave away my bully bully boys Haeave away and don't y

This shop of scraptures has been in Provincetown since 1946. Lots of houses there have them- they're all made of metal scrap and fall into some odd middle ground of art and garden ornament. The grandson of the founder is in the air force. He started working in the shop from the time he was 8 and the day we went in he had just come home from duty for the weekend and was busy in the workshop. The scraptures have a zany, assertive beauty. And they aren't cheap either!

Back from sunny LA I found.. Sunny P-town! We had beautiful days. My friend from college, Tara, came with her husband Jumbi and their two lovely kids Mihir and Uma. We spent the day at the beach, ate, played games, made the kids walk far too much so we could eat at Tips for Tops'n, a Portugese restaurant. It was nice to be able to share this lovely space with some friends - what fun is it to have things if you can't enjoy them with your friends. I wish more people could have come to visit while I was here. Mihir's school has recently introduced them to the idea of bird watching, so we bonded a bit on that front. We went to the Beech Forest to look (unsuccessfully) for the birds. Half way Uma burst into tears of hurt betrayal because there was no BEACH in the BEECH forest. So beach it was...