For a number of years now, my husband Bob and I have been lighthouse keepers at Race Point Lighthouse in Provincetown, Massachusetts.  We have met many new friends over the years. This is because we are essentially innkeepers for our guests.  We pick them up in town at a designated spot, introduce ourselves, and pack up their gear in big SUV’s with attached cages.  Then we drive them out of town and about two miles over the dunes to the lighthouse and help them offload their stuff into the Keeper’s House.  When their stay is over, we bring them out as we brought them in.  There are three bedrooms to stay in on the second floor along with a full bath.  There is a spectacular view of the water and roses from all the upstairs bedrooms.

We keepers stay in a bedroom on the first floor.  We share the hallways, the porch, the kitchen and pantry, bathrooms, and we have a gift shop, too!  Plus, we bring our guests to the top of the tower any time they would like to go, and the view from the watch room and the lamp room is spectacular!  The beach goes on seemingly forever, and we regularly see whales just off the shore.  The seals are plentiful and always ready to put on a show.  We are on National Park Service property.  This time of year, all Off Road Vehicle access to the beach by the public is suspended because of nesting shore birds.  When the Piping Plovers and Least Terns have fledged their families, public access will again be granted.

Roses On The Beach

We have hundreds if not thousands of Rugosa roses planted all around the Lighthouse and the Keeper’s House.  They were just finishing their first flush when we kept the last weekend of June and now, in mid-July, the second flush is just beginning.  I love these tough, rugged beauties!!  No one takes care of them, but still, they thrive!  They send out runners under sand and new roses are always sprouting up.  Their hips from the first flush are a lovely orange (when ripe, they will be red) and the new buds are opening every day.  They have single blooms (five petals) and all are intensely fragrant.  Ours out here are magenta, soft pink, and pure white.  I like to go out and cut a few and float them in a bowl on the kitchen table to perfume the house.  Mid-July at home is Japanese Beetle season, and surprise!  It is at Race Point, as well.

Grackles:  The Avian Air Force Brigade

Yesterday morning, when I was just waking up, I heard lots of clucking outside the windows.  I got up and looked out and saw huge groups of Grackles, adults and juveniles, flitting about among the roses.  This is their season to clean out the Japanese Beetles and all their relatives and eat them for breakfast!  At home, I rely on the English Sparrows to do this, but I have witnessed Grackles gobbling them up, too.  These guys fly themselves in during the early morning and have flown away by the time the heat of the day arrives.

Giant Dragonflies:  Mighty Hunters

We have hundreds of huge dragonflies at least 5” long winging about all around the sunny Keeper’s House.  They can fly up, down, sideways, backwards and hover in place.  Plus, they have been on this earth since before the dinosaurs had their time here.  They begin their lives in fresh water, where their mother lays her eggs.  After hatching, they have voracious appetites.  They swim around, and grow fast, gorging on mosquito larvae and other nymphs they encounter in their watery home.  Before becoming mature adults, they will even eat small fish and tadpoles, if they can catch them.  Once they move from the pond to the sky, they are among earth’s most amazing predators.

Dragons are not in the fly family but Odonata, which includes Damselflies.  Dragonflies are in the suborder Anisoptera which means ‘different wings.’  Their hind wings are shaped differently from the forewings.  Flies have only one pair of wings.  Dragons are fierce predators that prey on all sorts of insects.  Here at the lighthouse, we have small dragons in addition to the huge ones and from the time the sun wakes them up in the morning, they are darting all over the place and collecting their food, which they grab with their front legs and bring to a favored perch to devour.  They eat all insects, including wasps, hornets, flies, midges, and huge horseflies!  They have amazing vision.  Two eyes on either side of the face and a triangle of eyes on the top of their heads gives them 360 degree vision.  I love it when one lands on my palm so I can study it as it studies me.  They come in all colors and sizes and are my favorite insect.

I especially love it that there are so many of them this time of year to help keep the green headed flies at bay.

We love our haven here, where Cape Cod Bay is trying to get into the Atlantic Ocean!  We love the sky, the sand, the water, the colors!  And the roses…check us out at www.racepointlighthouse.org