Block Island collage 1.

A smattering of images from my time out on that beautiful island. Part one.

Sunrise on Crescent Beach

One of my favorite vistas on the island. It always looked different.

I love barnacles.

Misty day, green roofs, ocean.

Enormous decaying jetty being submerged by giant waves.

Jean, Pat, and Lucy, walking on Crescent Beach.

Stormy crazy day. Ocean, with marker on side – showing where one of the original settlers (a Dodge, of course) had his house.

Crescent Beach again. Long slow gentle waves.

Nature is red in tooth and claw

Corn Neck Road, like something out of Wyeth – only the ocean is right beyond those telephone poles.

I’m so scared. Someone hold me.

Much of what I saw reminded me of The Shipping News

My snow-covered porch furniture

A shell in the morning light

The den in my house with the hideous leather couch. I spent most of my time in this room.

In memory

Path through the dunes

The weather on this particular afternoon was incredible. Bright sun on one side of the sky, thick black clouds on the other. It brought things out in clear and startling relief – like the statue erected here at the rotary, in 1896, by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. She is known as “Rebecca”.

More of that crazy day. Black clouds beyond, the ferry gleaming like a white wedding cake in the sun.

Snowy abandoned rowboat

Wave crashing against the jetty

The mythical North Light, my favorite spot on the island

The huge National Hotel (where Jean and Pat had their honeymoon) catching the last rays of sunset.

My porch steps

More of The Shipping News

Frozen snowy Sachem Pond, with the North Light gleaming on the other side.

Early-morning Sheila shadow, on the beach by the North Light

Morning visit to the Southeast Lighthouse, there was this old furniture sitting out on the lawn. I do not know why, and it was only out on the lawn for one day. The lighthouse is closed to the public now. There was never anyone around and I always had the place completely to myself. But it sure looked pretty in the morning sun.

The ferry arriving at night.

All the ponds had frozen, and Mum and I saw these guys ice-boating out on one of the ponds. Turns out one of them was Claire’s boyfriend.

Part of the “New Harbor”.

Mum and I took a hike along the cliffs on the east side of the island. The views were dizzying. You can’t really tell the perspective here, but that ocean visible is hundreds of feet down. Mum is on the very corner of the island.

Abandoned boat, Corn Neck Road stretching off in the distance

The famous hairpin curve. How those huge tanker trucks get around that corner is one of life’s great mysteries. I’ve seen them do it, and it amazes me. Ocean to the front.

The Southeast Lighthouse on a frigid freezing night, snow in the air, a cloud bank moving in, the light flashing in the tower.

The Southeast Lighthouse tower on that same night.

Gatsby? Is that you??

Pat on Cooneymas Beach, my favorite beach, by far, on the island. You could see Montauk from there on a clear day.