Bees and dragons!

Well, only very small dragons - in fact Italian Wall Lizards. All photos taken on a sunny day in Ventnor Botanical Gardens on the Isle of Wight. Featured plants include fox gloves and poppies and the bees are one of the species of banded white-tailed bumble bees.

Climbing the Pilgrim Monument

Just before I left Provincetown I found a new minutes to climb to the top of the Pilgrim Monument which dominates the town skyline and, as I saw for myself the day before, can be seen from far out to sea. 

The tower is atop a hill and at just over 250ft is the highest granite structure in the USA. It was built between 1907 and 1910 and commemorates the first landfall of the Pilgrims in 1620, and the signing of the Mayflower Compact in Provincetown Harbor. 

On August 20, 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt officiated at the laying of the cornerstone.

Ground floor - looking out on the town

The way to the top.

Then ways bear sponsorship plaques - this one from the Society of Mayflower Descendents 

 The views from the top:

View of the piers and harbour

Whale Watching Tour boats at the pier

Please come whale watching with me!

Please come whale watching with me. 

We are going out to sea from the magical settlement of Provincetown - landing place of the founding fathers of the USA and now a colouful stronghold of liberal values. 

First we have to take a little walk along the pier past the various shacks selling art and tours.

Our boat awaits us. 

And at the allotted hour, off to sea. We pass by some washing King Eider ducks.

We pass the famous artwork dedicated to the Portuguese settlers who came here: Portraits of four elderly ladies face out to sea.

The naturalist on board tells us where we are going and what we are likely to see. On the map Provincetown is at the very end of the long peninsula where his finger is pointing..

It's a Saturday and looking back at the shore we see folks have taken their 4x4 vechicles out for a day on the beach.

Thirty fast-moving minutes late we are near the northern edge of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary and spy a great puff of 'steam' ahead - the blow of a whale. 

We encounter two feeding humpback whales


When they leave the surface a giant circular fluke-print is left at the surface.

The humpback whales have a famously small dorsal fin, distinctive black and white tail flukes and giant pectoral fins. Each whale weighs about 50 tons.

'Fluking-up' ahead of a dive.

Another whale-watching boat packed with tourists has joined us.

We return back to shore - along the way we also see fast moving fin whales and some distant dolphins. 

Here's a view of one of the lighthouses and behind it the Pilgrim Monument tower which acts as a marker for shipping for tens of miles around.

In a sheltered bay - 'house-boats' Cape Cod style.

Close to port - cormorants have colonised a breakwater.

 And back to shore!

The Streets of Provincetown

Provincetown foreshore in the early evening

Around the streets of Provincetown - June 2018:

This famous little town at the end of the long spit of land that ensnares Cape Cod in Massachusetts, USA, is a pretty sprawl of idiosyncratic shutter-board-dominated  architecture. Each building is different. There is some grandeur, some of the town is subjugated to the rich tourist season when  the population more than quadruples, and some of the quiet back streets contain quintessentially cute little homes, behind white picket fences. Each little house is a gem.

(I will be updating this blog with other images in due course.)

Commercial Street

Whaler's Wharf

The Tourist emporia inside Whaler's Wharf

Back to the beach

Provincetown Town hall

Sage Inn - one of the mid-town hotels

Looking towards the town from the pier/marina as the sun sets.

The famous large and poignant art exhibition on the end of the pier.
Images of denizens long gone who still greet sea-born visitors.