Backyard in Barnstable, 1988
Text Box: This is the view from the end of the long yard in the first of two rentals in Barnstable, on Cape Cod, in 1988. In those days I tried hedging my bets by renting for a week or two in one place and then moving to another rental for another week or two. Adam was almost 5 and the little beach was perfect for him to play on. We got him a small inflatable boat (JM-1) and pulled him around in it. I remember thinking the small clear plastic panel on the bottom would be great for him to look through but it wasn’t really clear enough. A couple of times a day a big Whale Watch boat would cruise by. As usual the guide would be announcing all the wonderful whale sightings so that anyone within earshot would want to go out on the next cruise. We were on a whale watch recently where we saw at least 25 whales cavorting. The naturalist was so excited that he was tongue tied on the way back to the dock. That’s what to listen for if you want to see whales. Even though this yard was perfect we never went back and gravitated back to Wellfleet. Gerry had been trying to get me to do clouds for a long time. I’ve always found them elusive to draw with a pen but the clouds on one of the days I was drawing just seemed perfect for my style. I used the background of this drawing to give depth to a drawing of a dead boat I had done in Wellfleet two years prior. That drawing was in Chapter 11.

All material copyright 2016 Neil Borrell

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Close Ups

But I’m not sleepy, Neil.

I think the background works well in both drawings.

This was taken at the second place we rented in Barnstable. I think this photo looks like it was taken in England but it’s Cape Cod. The people who owned this property rented it out in the Summer while they moved to a cottage in the background of the drawing.