The winter sun sets far to the south of the lighthouse. From our house we look through the sparse trees on the nature preserve to our south, across Sachem Pond, over the dunes, and to the sea beyond.

“Those are very pretty sunsets,” my mother comments, “but they don’t look like winter sunsets.”

“What does a winter sunset look like?” I ask.

“Well… colder. Less colorful.”

Sorry to disappoint you, Mom, but we get wonderfully colorful winter sunsets. Here’s one from November 20th.

This was a sad weekend, because it was our last weekend on the island this year. We are in exile until spring. But the island rewarded us with a beautiful sunset just after 4pm as we were packing up the car. I am especially fond of the ones when there is a sunglade across Sachem Pond.

Communications in the ferry terminal on the island seemed to have come down to the bare essentials. Maybe it’s the deadening effect of the cold weather that rolled in this weekend along with biting winds. There are, as anyone on the island surely knows, two doors to the waiting room in the terminal, one marked with an official sign that says: “Entrance Only”. The other bears the corresponding official sign: “Exit Only”. Beneath the “Entrance Only” sign, someone had taped a hand-lettered piece of paper reading: “IN”. And sure enough, they had also taped a hand-lettered sign beneath the “Exit Only” sign: “OUT”. Just to be perfectly clear about this.

Meanwhile, the following conversation took place in the waiting room.

Person 1: It sure did get cold today, didn’t it.

Person 2: Yup. But maybe it’ll get warm again sooner or later.

Person 1: Yup, maybe it will, sooner or later.

Well, duh! If spring doesn’t do the trick, maybe global warming will.

Goodbye, island! Until spring! Or global warming, whichever comes first!  🙂