balustrade at the home’s doorway. Just below the porch, the spikes of iris push forth from a spring garden, their hues blending with the blue trim and cream color clapboard of the house. \ *

The Pritchards (their family includes two “old but faithful dogs," Shep, 10, and Meatballs, 9) really enjoy their home. They like its proximity not only to their work and the beaches and harbor (they enjoy sailing too), but also its relative closeness to New York, Washington, and Philadelphia. And their hope is that this area of the Jersey Cape will “remain committed to historic preservation.”

rooms of the Pritchards (not counting son Travis Mark Russell Pritchard who, at 10 months, has yet to form an opinion in that regard). The Prithcards retro-fitted and renovated much of the house themselves (with help from friends and professionals). Renovation wasn’t new to them. After seeing the Cape’s potential in the early 1970s, they moved here upon graduation from Denison University in Ohio and soon had a former plumbing supply house on the Cape May mall converted into the Whale’s Tale, one of the best and most successful gift and craft shops on the entire Jersey Coast. An emblem of their trade hangs outside their home on the portico, a spouting whale. Like the house and its surroundings, the playful little whale blends in with a country wreath of natural plant materials, a carriage-style lantern and Victorian-styTe

f—Jersey Cape NATURALLY’ by Anne Gain How would you like to spend your life cemented to one spot, standing on your head, kicking food into your mouth with your feet? Such is the successful strategy of the bar- j nacle.

The most widely known barnacle is the common rock or acorn barnacle which en crusts pilings, breakwaters, rocks, jetties and can even be found on the shells of mussels and horseshoe crabs.

Barnacles are Crustaceans, cousins to the crabs. They have six pairs of appendages encased in six to 8 calcium carbonate plates. On the low tide the plates close, keeping the animal inside from drying up. On the high tide, the two uppermost plates open and the barnacle sweeps the surrounding water with its feathery feet to collect microscopic plants and animals for food. I Barnacles will settle on any hard surface — fouling the bottoms of boats, lobsters pots, and other marine structures causing much work to remove. Scientists would like to be able to synthesize the cementing substances of barnacles. Ann* Galll It gist, director of Dig Wrtlands Intlltute.

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. SOth&NEW YORK AVES. • NORTH WILDWOOC

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