.dune trail on 35mm.

I finally developed a roll of film from my trip to the cape this past November. Of course, the roll was mostly pictures of the dune trail. I'm not sure why I hadn't done this walk before. Being that I went in November, I had the trail to myself - fully engulfed in the dunes. It's pure cape cod magic with undulating dunes just a few minutes drive from the seasonally chaotic ptown. Within a few minutes of walking, the presence of town and the highway fade away, transported to another world. Walking up and down the dunes, the views expand and contract, and sounds rise and fall. Then, after maybe a mile of walking in the sand, a final hill brings you to the wild open waters. The trail offers a short beach walk and then loops back inland. As you climb back up into the dunes, suddenly, tiny weathered dune shacks appear. These little artist retreats are the ultimate off-grid residency. I was reading The Creative Act by Rick Rubin (again!) this morning, and a quote stood out to me. He wrote, "when we build our awareness, the universe expands." The silence and solitude of these dune shacks - I wonder about all the art that has come from such an expansive space.

.massachusetts + maine on 35 mm film.

Some moments captured on 35 mm film from a recent trip to New England. The first time on a plane since 2019. 

1. Hatches Harbor Trail, Provincetown, MA (cape cod)

2. Deer Isle Bridge, Deer Isle, ME (downeast Maine)

3. My old home, Somerville, MA

4. One of the magical trolls at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Boothbay, ME 

5. Edgar M. Tennis Preserve, Deer Isle, ME (downeast Maine)

.the beaches of massachusetts.

Growing up in the arid sagebrush foothills it feel pretty magical to be able to drive 10 mins to the ocean. I love sandy beaches of Massachusetts. Cape Cod has yellow corse sand and here on Cape Ann it's such a fine white almost powder sand. 

.cape cod.

“Follow your intuitive insightfulness! Heed its subtlest intimations, even if you can’t put them into words. Direct insights happen without words. It is a mistake to believe that only what is expressible can really be true. The Truth exists beyond all expressions.vThe Mystery all around us is so ungraspable that our limited concepts can only point at it. Now trust your most delicate feelings. They speak to you more clearly than any words.”

~Gayan Silvie Winter and Jo Dose

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There's nothing that makes me feel more summer than sunbathing next to a body of water. I grew up going to a lake so going to water IS summer. Last summer, my first summer in New England I went to the Cape with my sister and totally fell in love with the ocean - the dunes - the cape. It's such a powerful feeling just looking out onto the flat horizon before me and the towering dunes behind me. It's a magical place for me that fills me up. 

Do you have a place you go that feels like summer to you? 

Do you have a place that recharges your spirit? 

Where is it?

It was hard to come back to the loud busy city. We came back late Sunday night taking our time exploring the backroads of the small towns of the upper cape, eating as much seafood as we could handle and a little more with salty hair and dry sandy skin. There's such a freedom I find in summer. 

So grateful for the beach - the ocean - the waves - the summer - the inspiration.