In the dunes of the Cape

I spent a few days in Wellfleet, on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Our family rents a home in the dunes every year, and even though I only drove out for a couple of days, it was restful and the weather was beautiful. Yesterday we walked the streets of Province town, and I was struck by how many little, well-designed gardens there were. Cape Cod is nearly zone 7 in parts, so Hydrangeas and other more tender shrubs thrive.

SOME SMALL GARDENS LOOKED AMAZING, EVEN THOSE WHO MADE ONLY A LITTLE EFFORT. EVERYTHING LOOKS NICE IF YOU HAVE CHARMING ARCHITECTURE AND THE OCEAN NEAR BY! I LOVED THIS IRON BUNNY SITTING IN A COTTAGE GARDEN LAWN.

ON COMMERICAL STREET IN PROVINCETOWN, THIS STYLISH GARDEN SHOP HAD AN IMPRESSIVE SIDEWALK GARDEN, WITH EVERY SHRUB TRAINED INTO A SQUARE GRID. EVEN WITH A LOT OF PAVERS, A FEW SHRUBS CAN MAKE A STRONG IMPACT.

Back at the rental house in the Newcomb Hollows area of Wellfleet, the world changes into total silence.

The ocean is a quarter mile away through the dunes, and a private lake which you can barely see in this photo, is  a short walk through the pine forest. It was cloudy today, but last night, the sun sets right through this crevice.protected lakes with no houses, and total silence sans some woodpeckers, the entire area is now under the protection of the Cape Cod National Seashore and no one can build in the Hollows, only those lots sold in the 1960's exist, and the nearest house is a few thousand feet away.

This morning we found these two moths on the screens. Above, a Small Eyed Sphinx Moth (Paonias myops) looked exactly like a piece of the pine bark in the forest that surrounds the house.

 A few minutes later, another bark-camouflaged moth, a Dasychira (basiflava?) appeared on another screen. My limited moth knowledge assumes that these two are mating? They had very hairy legs, almost like spiders!