Slow Living in Annisquam: A Winter on Goose Cove
Slow Living in Annisquam Part 1: October – December
In the 10 years that we have lived this slow living “Slomad” lifestyle (= slow nomad), we have stayed in some pretty cool places. One of those was Annisquam, where we spent one of our first winters on Cape Ann.
To be honest, I wasn’t crazy about the house itself, it was really big (lots to clean and expensive to heat) and the interior was a bit too rustic and traditional for my taste, but the location was fantastic: in a wooded area on a cove, with our own dock, and tons of different kinds of birds and other wildlife.
This post has a LOT of images! Hover over them to see the caption.
Morning coffee on the dock
“Our” dock
Evening on the dock
View across the cove from our dock
Belted Kingfisher on our neighbor’s dock
The kitchen had huge picture windows looking out over the back yard and across the cove through the trees. And I did love the sunroom, which looked out over another part of the cove and had a wraparound porch. I set up my office there and spent the winter working with my camera right next to me ready to go, because every time I looked up, something capture-worthy was happening outside.
View from the sunroom
This (female) Downy Woodpecker was often working right outside
I came to think of her as my little office mate 🙂
It was a really quiet area and the birdlife was just incredible. We moved in in early October, which around here is still warm and often quite summer-like, and I loved sitting on the dock in the morning sunshine, and then again in the evening when the light was golden and glowing, then pink and purple, and all kinds of birds showed up in the cove.
Ducks (mallards, I think)
Double-crested cormorant
The Kingfisher, back for an evening meal
Golden evening light
Seagull at sunset
Red-breasted Merganser
Pretty post-sunset colors
I often brought my camera, but sometimes, I was just being still and observing. It was such a beautiful and magical time to connect with nature and live in the moment. Slow living at its best.
One morning I came down to the dock to find muddy footprints all over it. At first, they almost looked like children’s’ feet, but then I realized it was a raccoon. And he had left part of his breakfast on the dock. We called him Muddy Paws Vaske (raccoon is tvättbjörn in Swedish and vaskebjørn in Norwegian, both meaning “wash bear”) and he was a regular visitor. Unfortunately, we never saw him in person, only the tracks and leftovers. 🙂
Other cool sights were the cloud formations and sunsets, which ranged from pretty to spectacular!
Anyone else see a rubber duckie in this image? 😄
cape ann, ma
annisquam village
“Our” house was across the main road from Annisquam village, and I used to go for my morning walks over there. It was only a few minutes away – after following the main road for a bit, there was a small side street leading down to the footbridge that goes over Lobster Cove into the village.
The bridge was built in 1861 (but has been restored and renovated many times since), and is now in the National Register of Historic Places. The view from the footbridge is gorgeous!
And oh, the village! It’s so picture perfect it almost feels like you’re walking through a movie set. Most of the time, I didn’t see a single other human on my walk, which added to the unreal feeling.
Below: Winter preparations have begun; boats and dock ramps are put away for the season.
Dock ramps put away for the winter
Those quiet fall days in the village were so magical, sometimes it felt like you were in a dream.
A rare human sighting in Annisquam village during off-season 😄
Annisquam yacht club
Another thing I loved over there was the “floating village”. In the summer, those little houses are further out on the river, and you can rent them (although they’re apparently booked years in advance), but during the winter, they are sitting safe in the harbor, looking adorable.
cape ann, ma
winter in goose cove
Winter arrived early that year with ice on parts of the cove in the second week of November already.
And then we got a decent size snowstorm in early December.
After that, things calmed down a bit, until we got hit with a huge blizzard (apparently a “historic bomb cyclone”) in early January. More on that in Part 2 →
art Prints from the fall in annisquam
If there’s a particular image in this post that you would like as a print but don’t see in my store, just get in touch and let me know which image it is, and the size you would like. I’m happy to do a custom print whenever possible.
