Oxford Still

Yesterday, we took a break from work on the boat to walk into town for ice cream sundaes followed by a stroll along some of the streets. There are many lovely old homes, most with nice front gardens. The early spring flowers are mostly gone, but the roses in various equisite shades on the warm side of the color spectrum are stunning. 

Delicate pink rose unfurling its petals

Various shades of orange roses on the same plant

Orange roses (and a ladybug)

Yellow roses by an iconic Oxford fence

Pink rose buds and purple clematis

Also, this year's Oxford Picket Fence entries are on display. There are not as many as last year, it seems, perhaps because 2022 was the re-starting of traditions as COVID began to wane as a public health threat. We have two favorites so far; one is in front of St. Paul's Pilgrim Holiness Church, depicting crab pot buoys hung to dry, and the other is a great blue heron.

Buoys (They are three dimensional.)

Heron

Peter has equalized the batteries and done other tasks. I have scrubbed every surface, even the insides of locker doors, in the aft cabin and removed and washed the life ring, the life sling and other items from the stern railing. The cockpit cushions covers were removed yesterday evening, and I stored the stern rail items and the uncovered cushions in the bathroom's shower. This morning, I am at the marina clubhouse, laundering the cushion covers while Peter is working at his volunteer job as landscape committee chair for our neighborhood in preparation for a board meeting on Wednesday. 

On my way to do laundry, I passed an array of white, gourd-shaped purple martin houses. Birds were coming and going. Found throughout the United States, in the Eastern U.S., the birds nest exclusively in man-made nest boxes and bird houses. The sociable purple martins, North America's largest swallow, return to this area in March from their migration to the Amazon Basin and stay until October. Nesting season begins in May. The eggs are incubated for 15-18 days, and the nestlings stay in the nest for about a month. 

Female purple martins

We are steadily making our way through the perishable food on board, so we may go out to lunch today.