On Sunday 28th April The Platinum Pebble was proud to give its support to the fundraiser at the Land Ho! in Harwich, Cape Cod for Celeste & Sydney Corcoran, the mother and daughter from Lowell, who were both severely injured in the Boston bombing. Celeste lost her lower limbs below the knees and daughter Sydney suffered life-threatening shrapnel injuries.  The driver and energy for the fundraiser came from Land Ho! barman and Corcoran family friend Chris, who, with selfless support from Dillon Murphy, manager of Land Ho!, and Harwich businesses and locals, pulled together the event in just 6 days!.
The sun shone down, the beer flowed and all gave generously with the event’s tally heading over the $12k mark by evening end.
Much in the world these days breeds life sapping cynicism and so it was all the more heart moving and inspiring to see so many Harwich and Cape Cod natives coming out in droves to give their time and money to support these two brave women. Celeste and Sydney may not be from Cape Cod but that didn’t stop Cape Codders stepping up to offer them support as they start their long road to recovery. This was a day to think of the innocent victims and reflect that but for the grace of god it could have been any one of us or our families that stood in the wrong place at the wrong time that day.  Our thoughts are with Boston and all those that suffered as a result of the horrific violence that marred this year’s marathon.
Thank you Chris, Land Ho! and Harwich for putting this event together.
You can follow Celeste and Sydney’s progress and support their fund at this support website.

Chris Land Ho!

Safe travels,

Simon

A fun thing to do on a rainy Cape Cod day is a trip to the Edward Gorey house. Located only 20 minutes drive from our luxury boutique Cape Cod Bed and Breakfast it will entertain young and old alike.
Edward Gorey spent the last of his years enjoying the surroundings of Cape Cod and was a regular contributor to local theatre during that time, supporting Harwich Junior Theatre and Cape Cod Rep. amongst others. It was also whilst living on Cape Cod that he worked on his infamous title sequences for PBS’s “Mystery” TV series. As a result of the “Mystery” series in my mind Edward Gorey will always stir up images of Diana Rigg – a rather odd and slightly worrying juxtaposition that keeps me in therapy!
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Gorey’s “Vinegar Works”, which includes the delightfully sinister “Gashlycrumb Tinies” – “A is for Amy who fell down the stairs and B is for Basil assaulted by bears etc”. A much more entertaining way to learn the alphabet than boring Sesame Street!
Edward Gorey was also the proud owner of a litany of wonderful idiosyncrasies (this is apart from his ability for morbid couplets and gothic sketches!) that included a love of fur coats (he owned 21 in all), a life spent in houses overflowing with his beloved cats, collections of rocks and other arbitrary items and a habit of publishing his books under anagrams or word-games based off his own name (Eduard Blutig, Ogdred Weary, Mrs Regera Dowdy to name but three).

On entering the house I was immediately inspired to write a couple of poems

Ode to The Edward Gorey House
$8 for admission

Ode to Edward Gorey
An artist and scribbler of wonderful verse
He had a predilection for wearing warm furs
You may poignantly ponder and get ever paler
Of thoughts that his moggies were on loan from his tailor

Safe travels,
Shut Moon Inn
(aka Simon Hunton)

As I write this the temperature gauge has finally peaked its mercurial head over the 50F mark and with the announcement that painting will start shortly on the Sagamore Bridge, I think it’s safe to announce that Spring 2013 has arrived on Cape Cod! An apt time therefore to share a few articles that give some great tips for things to do this summer on your Cape Cod vacation. As our Cape Cod Inn sits pretty much at the center of the Cape, none of these activities are far from the inn.

Our particular favorites remain the whale-watching tours out of P-Town, where you will be enthralled by the humpbacks, minkes, North Atlantic right and finback whales  that will emerge from the depths. Dolphins are also a regular site and yes we have had one set of guests set their eyes on one of the great white sharks that spend their summers off Chatham (clearly sharks like to hob-knob with the rich & fabulous!).

The main Cape Cod bike trail is up the road from the inn and winds itself around the kettle ponds and cranberry bogs of Harwich up through Nickerson State Park and on up to the beaches of Eastham & Wellfleet.

Boston.Com Article- 25 Free Things on Cape Cod

Squidoo Article – 50 Best Things to do on Cape Cod

Cape Cod Chamber – 52 Things to do on Cape Cod

Mass Vacation – Cape Cod 1/2 Day Itinerary

US News – Best Things To Do on Cape Cod

Safe travels
Simon

The "Original" Breakers

The historic island city of Newport, Rhode Island is a mere 60 miles from Cape Cod so a comfortable distance for a day trip by car if you’re having a Cape Cod vacation at our boutique inn.
The city is home to the highest number of colonial buildings in the US and, most famously, to the Mansions (or summer cottages of the rich & fabulous to be more accurate!), that were built here in the gilded age of the early 20th century by those who liked to flaunt their hard-earned bling in an architectural way. The Breakers, built by the Vanderbilts, is the most well-known and ostentatious of the mansions, with its marble walls, gold embossed ceilings, platinum (excellent choice) panels and Baccarat crystal chandeliers.

The "Vanderbilt" Breakers

But visits to The Elms, The Marble House (another Vanderbilt bivouac), Chateau-sur-Mer, Rosecliff, Isaac Bell House, Hunter House and Kingscote are also well recommended. Although the owners of all these mansions were clearly not struggling for the odd $1m, they each insisted on shipping their one set of family silverware with them where-ever they travelled. You would have thought that it would have been a mere trifle to raid the amply stuffed kitty and splash out on a back-up set of cutlery to avoid endlessly packing up the truffle forks, bouillon spoons, gateaux knives, lobster forks,  caviar spoons and camembert knives but apparently when you have a favorite knife and fork then no substitute will do.
If wandering around the great Mansions and ascending and descending the many elegant staircases has not been enough to build-up your appetite, then head for the spectacular 3.5 mile cliff walk to take in the heady views, fresh air and great birdwatching opportunities. But remember to tread carefully as there are spots with deep vertical drops of 70 ft if you wander off the path!
Having hopefully survived the cliff walk it’s off to one of the several excellent restaurants in Newport. For casual fare

I Feel Like Dancin'

there’s no better spot than the Brick Alley Pub right in the heart of downtown Newport. For fine dining and a real treat the best recommendation is the Castle Hill Inn, which sits on its own private bluff looking out to sea. Exceptional food, great service and a stunning location.

If that wasn’t enough to entice you, Newport is also home to the International Tennis Hall of Fame so I wasn’t surprised to hear that there was a statue of a man named “Perry” located close-by. However, much to my chagrin, on finding the said statue I discovered that rather than being of that great English tennis star, Fred Perry, it was in fact the Brit-bashing US naval hero Oliver Hazard Perry. A man whose parents had originally named Oliver Danger Perry before realizing that he’d fast become a bore at parties forever announcing “Danger is my middle name” so, after consulting “thesaurus.com”, they elected for the middle name “Hazard”. It was also evident from the pose of the statue that dear Oliver had also been a subscriber to “Disco Monthly”.

Safe Travels,

Simon

No Through Path

Cape Cod basked in one of the mildest winters on record last year and so it should have come as no surprise when Mother Nature, deciding that no Cape Cod Inn should have too much of a good thing, decided to remind us what a normal New England winter should feel like!

We had already got used to weeks of freezing temperatures, battling frozen pipes, and endless snow shoveling when we were treated to the Blizzard of 2013 (or Storm Nemo for those who prefer their natural disasters to conjure up images of harmless, orange Disney characters). 85 mph winds and a foot of snow arrived in Harwich to usher in the weekend and 3 days without power.

Sleighs and Reindeer Only

Areas to the west of us had suffered more snow with three feet falling in Connecticut and over two feet in Boston, but we had the pleasure of the good old Cape Cod wind blowing down from the north to pick up the snow, swirl it around in a devilish dance and deposit it in three and four foot drifts where we least wanted it.

The hurricane force winds brought down more trees than we’d lost in Hurricane Sandy and the December Nor’easter so the next few weeks will hum to the sound of the chain saw as we clear out the path through our woods from the fallen lumber.

Our guests have been real troopers and have loved all the snow and how enchantingly pretty its made the Cape look. Especially the Cape Cod beaches, which are now bedecked in truly white sand that would be the envy of any Caribbean beach!

In another couple of weeks Winter and the snowfall will be things of the past and Spring will arrive to warm us up and get us ready for the 2013 Cape Cod Bed and Breakfast season.

Safe travels

Simon

We celebrated the end of our 2012 Cape Cod Bed and Breakfast season with a sold-out New Year’s Day champagne brunch for our guests at The Platinum Pebble. First order of business was a safety roll-call to make sure that the previous night’s revelry hadn’t resulted  in any guests, with temporarily impaired faculties, deciding that it would be entirely reasonable given their athletic prowess to see if they could swim to Nantucket or climb Chatham lighthouse. Once we’d confirmed that none of our guests would be foot-notes in the morning edition of the Cape Cod Times, the champagne corks popped, the smorgasbord of goodies was dished out and new life-long friends were made.
Looking back on a fun 2012 we are still pinching ourselves that we won “Best Inn on Cape Cod” from Boston Magazine and that The Platinum Pebble was “Business of The Year” for Harwich. Winning one award was a wonderful shock but to take home two top business awards in the same year I can only describe as leaving us utterly gobsmacked and flabbergasted (translations provided on request) and more worryingly people, who should know better, might infer from this cascade of awards that we actually know what we’re doing. Totally unaccustomed to winning awards it has however been easy to replace my “Student most likely to lose their hair” and “Best looking twin – 2nd place” awards above the inn’s mantlepiece.
It still amazes us the places from where guests have traveled in order to stay at The Platinum Pebble. Our closest guests in 2012 literally walked up the road from their house to check-in, while our furthest traveling guests schlepped all the way from Australia (a much longer and more impressive walk). Massachusetts and New York continued to provide most of our guests but we remain big in Switzerland and Sweden for some reason and continue to get a steady stream of guests from Canada, the UK, Germany, France, Holland and Italy. We also welcomed our first guests from Argentina (we managed to avoid any Basil Fawlty – “Don’t mention The Falklands” episodes).
The great summer beach weather this year provided Cape Cod with many visitors and the inn was full from June through to October (so if you’re planning to visit us this year please don’t leave it too long to give us a call to book). Fingers are crossed for more sunny weather this year and no doubt the new Cape Cod to Boston train service (Fri-Mon in summer), the CapeFLYER, will bring more folks down to enjoy the beach, bike trails, kayaking, sailing, hiking and antiquing.
So the Christmas lights are down, the season is officially over and now we’re thinking of ways to surprise and thrill guests at our Cape Cod Bed and Breakfast in 2013!

Safe travels

Simon

Cape Cod was preparing for the worst and the stores were full of locals purchasing their storm supplies and essentials:

A "Hang On To Your Hats" kind of Hurricane

Beer (hurricane or no hurricane this is Cape Cod in the off-season)
Bottled Water (had to be sparkling if you lived in Chatham)
Flash-light (in case you misplaced the beer)
Batteries (price gouging at the store suggested over-charging may be a concern)
Ice (to keep your beer cold)
Fill up the car with gas (a long line of traffic was expected to get your “Hurricane Photo” at Chatham lighthouse)

Your Roving (& Hopping) Reporter

The day of the storm arrived. The guests staying at our Cape Cod Bed and Breakfast had hunkered down in front of their roaring fireplaces to enjoy their breakfast and follow the storm on the TV. We on the other hand decided to throw caution to the wind and head-out to bear witness to Mrs Frankenstorm.

The wind was a steady 40-50 mph with gusts up to 70 mph with Wellfleet winning the dubious award for highest win speed, topping out at 81 mph.

The storm surge at high-tide that threatened to flood Chatham fish-pier brought out the TV crews but although the fish-pier was battered (pardon the pun) by the storm it survived intact. Hyannisport pier was less fortunate and was completely destroyed by the waves barreling over from Nantucket. So apparently, contrary to conventional wisdom, not all piers are equal.

Chatham Fish-Pier

Chatham lighthouse was taking no chances and was fully boarded up against the wind.

Nantucket Sound

Although there were trees down in Harwich, we were fortunate not to lose power at the inn. As the winds shifted from Easterly to Southerly the waves picked up on Nantucket Sound and started to pound the beach at the end of our road. Tomorrow was sure to be a good shell seeking day.

The winds peaked at about 8pm that evening, right about the time the centre of Hurricane Sandy was making landfall in New Jersey, and then at 10pm the wind abruptly stopped. The silence was eerie. You weren’t sure if this was the eye of the storm and it was just a half-time break before the onslaught of the 2nd half or if the storm had truly simply passed on by.

The night was the quietest night we’d had in weeks; no wind and a bright full moon. It was hard to think that at this time New York and New Jersey were suffering the worst storm on record. The morning brought the clean-up, but all-in-all there wasn’t much to do. Rake some leaves, pick up branches, check on the guests and check on beer supplies.

The storm had moved through more quickly than expected and hadn’t wreaked the expected havoc, flooding and Cape-wide power outages much taunted by the media.
By the end of Monday Sandy had been downgraded to more of a Gail (at least on Cape Cod).

We send our thoughts to our friends and guests in less fortunate areas of New Jersey, Connecticut and New York.
Stay safe.

Simon

It didn’t take us very long after receiving the invitation in the mail to decide to accept. I can count on one finger the number of invitations to Boston parties we’ve received in the last year so we weren’t about to throw up the opportunity to mix with the stars and trend-setters of Boston at the infamous annual Boston Magazine “Best of Boston” party. That our invitation was surely down to some computer glitch, bureaucratic fumbling or the Mayan galactic misalignment was of no consequence; an invitation we had and a party we were off to!

As time approached to depart on our journey up to Boston the weather took a sudden turn. Horizontal rain and heavy winds were coming in off the sea. As an Englishman and a devout golfer I was tempted to say to heck with the party and make the most of the weather and nip out for a quick round but no this was even more important than golf, so off we set into the evening and the torrential downpour.

The weather in Boston was slightly better, although I use the term “slightly” very loosely; a brolly was the de rigour accessory for the evening.  The party was taking place in an enormous marquee on the harbor front overlooking the brightly lit Boston sky line with in the distance  the flood-lights of Fenway Park blazing defiantly despite another under-whelming performance from the Red Sox.

We entered the party at the same time as another couple, who upon registration were handed “Winners” badges. Ah well any misguided belief that perhaps our little Cape Cod Bed and Breakfast was to be lauded had been summarily squashed and washed away with the rain.

We strode up the blue dyed red-carpet (Jet Blue were the main sponsor of the party) and checked out the lists of winners. After long lists of Boston’s finest establishments we came to the short section on Cape Cod and that’s where we got the shock of our lives – a truly gobsmackingly incredible moment. There up on high between the Chatham Bars Inn (“Best Spa”) and the infamous Wequassett Resort (“Best Hotel-Resort”) was none other than The Platinum Pebble Boutique Inn, winner for “Best Hotel-Inn on Cape Cod”. We shot back to the registration desk to enquire haughtily as to where our “Winners” badges may be. Once correctly attired we span around and strode up the “blue” carpet with beaming smiles cutting through the gloomy weather.

We are still amazed that The Platinum Pebble is the winner of Best Inn on Cape Cod for the “2012 Best of Boston” awards. We thank Boston Magazine for their support of our business and for recognizing our unique, contemporary take on a Cape Cod Bed and Breakfast. We’re also proud to be in Harwich, where both we and the night’s other big Cape Cod winner, The Wequassett Resort, are happily located.

Safe travels,

Simon

Our Cape Cod Bed and Breakfast, The Platinum Pebble, is fortunate to be nestled between two of Cape Cod’s prettiest villages, Harwichport and Dennisport. After many years of neglect the winds of fortune have now shifted for the historic seaside village of Dennisport on Cape Cod.

de Castellane Gallery

In the 19^th century Dennisport stood tall as a bustling and prosperous Nantucket Sound mercantile seaport with magnificent schooners sailing in and out of the harbor and wharves. Along with its neighbor, West Harwich, Dennisport was also considered one of the main fishing stations of the Cape. At one time there were close to 400 sea captains living in the township of Dennis with many of them residing directly in Dennisport itself.

Dennisport

As tourism replaced fishing as the main industry on Cape Cod in the 20^th century, Dennisport was the chic place to see and be seen, with the rich and famous of the day enjoying the sandy beaches and the warm waters on the south side of the Cape. Many considered the Dennis Port beaches of Haigis Beach, Sea Street Beach and Glendon Road Beach to be amongst Cape Cod’s most desirable for swimming and windsurfing. Even Cape Cod’s luxury grande dame Belmont Hotel looked out across the beaches of Dennisport.
But in more recent years, due to ill-advised development decisions, the area fell on harder times and many local businesses and vacationers moved to other Cape locations leaving shuttered buildings littering the old Main Street.
Finally however, through much needed investment, infrastructure improvements and planning from the Dennisport Revitalization Committee and Summit Realty, businesses and tourists alike are being successfully lured back to this quiet and historic part of the Cape. One of the first businesses to relocate to the revamped village Main Street was Buckies Biscotti. Buckies is consistently voted the best bakery and coffee shop in the mid-Cape and has acted as a magnet for tourists to come back to Dennisport. Other businesses such as Hot Diggity, Jenny Boston Boutiques, Sedona East Gallery and the de Castellane Art Gallery have since opened up. The Improper Bostonian is under new management and has been spruced up and re-opened to big crowds. Aunties’ Ice Cream Parlor will be opening soon so that the families strolling along the Main Street can treat themselves to the perfect accessory for a summer’s day. When you consider that Dennisport still has its beautiful beaches and is also home to two of Cape Cod’s premier restaurants, The Ocean House and The Oyster Company,

The Oyster Company, Dennisport

to the famous Sundae School Ice Cream and to one of the oldest General Stores on Cape Cod, it’s looking increasingly like a home run for the village to become the bustling tourist attraction it was in yesteryear.

But that’s not all. In October a graffiti-covered brick wall in Dennisport will be unveiled and is expected to be the talk of the art community. The Dennisport Revitalization Committee has engaged acclaimed mural artist Hans de Castellane of Harwich to paint a representation of one of the old schooners that used to dock in Dennisport. The mural will be a direct connection to the ships and Dennisport’s history.
Here’s hoping the schooner will symbolize Dennisport’s smooth sail into a prosperous future!

Artists Ted Dimond and Hans de Castellane

This is a very auspicious year on Cape Cod for art lovers.

Not only is the wonderful Norman Rockwell exhibition, “Norman Rockwell: Beyond The Easel”, vacationing in Sandwich at The Heritage Museum & Gardens for the summer, but we also have the  “Tides of Provincetown” exhibition, showcasing the legendary Provincetown School of Art from Charles Hawthorne in 1899 via Hans Hofmann to the present day, showing throughout the summer at The Cape Cod Museum of Art.

But that is not all!

When I first heard that another art gallery was to open on Cape Cod my first reaction was one of indifference. Although the art galleries of P-Town & Wellfleet are invariably excellent, the rest of the Cape suffers from a surfeit of uninspiring art galleries flogging over-priced art to sun-bestricken vacationers; we didn’t need another one.
My indifference was misplaced and soon re-placed with great expectation on discovering the art gallery in question would be owned and run by celebrated local artist Hans de Castellane, who has returned to his Cape Cod roots and relocated his New York gallery to Dennisport, Cape Cod.  Hans de Castellane grew up on Cape Cod and has owned and operated his own mural business here for over ten years, with 137 murals to his credit. Hans opened a New York gallery and succeeded there in providing a highly respected location for a broad range of original and exciting artists be it painters, sculptors or photographers.

The new Dennisport gallery (which, as luck would have it is only a 5 minute stroll from our Cape Cod Inn, The Platinum Pebble!) opened on 9^th June to a large turn-out of inquisitive locals, art lovers and press eager to welcome Hans back and to see the striking exhibition of works on display by the innovative abstract artist Ted Dimond. It is rare that Cape Cod gets to play host to such a cutting-edge exhibition and artist as Ted Dimond and his AZURE collection, so for Hans to be able to launch his new gallery with this exhibition bodes extremely well for its future.

Ted Dimond and Aixa Ortiz-Herrera

Ted Dimond has developed a unique art technique called “lensing” that involves layers of oils on canvas interspersed with layers of stretched polymer over the paint. This novel art method allows the paint to be caught in different stages of drying adding a depth, vitality and evolution of colors that is mesmerizing and represents a unique point in time. I thoroughly recommend catching the AZURE exhibition before it moves on.

Hans also is showing his own work including a number of his idiosyncratic Cape Cod paintings. He has also been commissioned by the Dennisport Revitalization Committee to paint a mural in Dennisport village, close to his gallery, of an old Dennisport Schooner. He will complete the mural this summer with the assistance of local Harwich & Dennis students. Later this year Hans will present works by Russian artist Alex Yudzon.

If you want to see cutting edge art in an unpretentious gallery with one of Cape Cod’s rising stars, then make a trip to Dennisport and stop by the de Castellane gallery.