It seems we are now making headway, though we continue to row upstream. We capture an extra hour of evening light this weekend when Daylight Saving Time takes effect at 2 a.m. on Sunday morning. Hurrah! Ospreys are returning to the Island, as are other migratory birds like red-winged blackbirds and tree swallows. A pansy was […]
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The windows and doors rattled and shook in the old house Monday night, keeping the occupants of the former summer cottage on the north shore awake and on guard. Outside, the roar of the wind was deafening, a small dog stumbled to get her footing, and the cold seeped through the lining of a parka […]
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We had a wee bit of snow this weekend. A covering, softened just enough by sleet and rising temps to capture the footprints of rabbits and raccoons and dogs and deer before hardening back to a crusty record of one winter day on the Vineyard. We had sun, too. We walked through the woods in […]
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There’s a breed of Vineyarder who prefers the winter over the summer. In fact, this species is quite populous. Sometimes it’s hard to identify one, as he or she may be covered in neoprene head to toe or swathed in fleece and wool. But they’re out there, enjoying the ocean and beach which, ironically, people […]
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Things are looking up. We have 10 hours of daylight. We hear a lot of garden-planning and seed-swapping talk on the street. (Yes, we hear other talk on the street, but we steer away from controversy.) We took advantage of the little warm-up this week to walk around the backyard, imagining where the new garden […]
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Around here we refer to our ferries as boats. As in, “I’m running late to get to the boat.” “I missed the boat.” And the always popular “The boats are not running.” It doesn’t matter if it’s the M/V Woods Hole, the M/V Island Home, the M/V Martha’s Vineyard or even the M/V Katama or […]
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Single-digit weather is nifty. Sea smoke hovers over breaking surf. Icicles the size of dinosaur teeth dangle from docks. But here’s the thing: It’s hard to do just about anything when the temperature is as low as five degrees and the windspeed as high as 30 mph as it was this past Monday. Even a glassy […]
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One day last year, naturalist Gus Ben David dropped by the Gazette office with an owlet in a pink plastic tub. It was a three-week-old great horned owl that had fallen out of a nest. Gus was charged with caring for it until it reached 16 weeks of age and could be released back into […]
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Lately, the evening light show has been fantastic. There is a moment when you look out the window and notice that the sky has turned a rather eerie yellow color. But soon it softens to a ripe peachy glow. You walk out into the street, or if you can, hop in your car and zip […]
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And so the story begins: Life on an island seven miles out to sea, circa 2019. At 12:00 a.m. Monday night, nothing changed and everything changed. That is the good news. We still have this beautiful, quirky, unique place we call home (whether we live here all year or for only part of it), and […]
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