Views near Golden Grove

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted a Block Island sky scene in this blog. Time to remedy that. We’re back on the island after more than three months away. The autumn equinox is almost two weeks past, so the sun is setting and rising a little bit south of due west and east. That means the sun is now setting over Sachem Pond again.

September 2, 2013

September 2, 2013

And it’s rising over the woods and bushes east of the house.

September 3, 2013

September 3, 2013

But the real sun show of the day yesterday was neither the sunset nor the sunrise. It was a fortunate late-afternoon confluence of clouds and sun that created a bright sundog.

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September 3, 2013

Views near Golden Grove

It’s finally happened–a sunset so photogenic that I can’t winnow the photos down to just two or three. Yesterday evening it pretty much didn’t matter which vaguely southwesterly direction I was looking in or how far down the sun actually was or how much zoomed in the camera was–everything was perfect!

See what I mean? But I’ve narrowed it down to only six more, and so without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, I present: December 5, 2012!

     

 

 

Views near Golden Grove

It hasn’t escaped my notice that there’s a lot of heavy road-work equipment out by the parking lot (or I guess I should say, what used to be the parking lot, for the North Light. So I walked over to take a closer look and to find out what they were up to.

Turns out that what they’re up to is completely demolishing and rebuilding the parking lot because of damage from Hurricane Sandy. You would never mistake this piece of the island for a parking lot right now.

While I was there, I took a picture of the light on Sachem Pond, which was extraordinary. And of our home on the island, which I must say is also extraordinary.

 

 

Views near Golden Grove

I went for a walk/run yesterday around sunset. I’d meant to go earlier in the afternoon, but our weather forecast of “partly cloudy” had generated some rainfall; then I had a late lunch; and before I knew it, it was 3:30 or so. Sunset time in New England! And me, not on my deck!

Never mind the deck. Me, without my camera.

Oh. Wait. The new cell phone has what’s supposed to be a pretty good camera. Why not use it?

And so… may I present… sunset over Sachem Pond!

 

Later, after the sun had disappeared, I found myself up on a hill on the south side of the pond, where I could see in the deepening dusk–my house! So here, only partially obscured by a pine tree in the bird sanctuary, is a never-before-published view of my house with Sachem Pond in the foreground and Block Island Sound beyond.

Views near Golden Grove

The astute reader may have noticed that yesterday’s post included sunsets from November 11, 12, and 14, but not November 13. While it’s not exactly accurate to say that there was no sunset on November 13, it’s entirely true that the sunset was not visible from my house here on Block Island. Instead, we had a day of glorious wind and clouds and even an occasional bit of rain as a cold front moved through. The swiftly moving and changing clouds danced with the light on ocean and lighthouse and winter landscape to create breathtaking vistas, all clouds and cold, as the day went on. And so… just to prove that I don’t post only sunsets, I present… November 13, 2012 on Block Island!

   

Views near Golden Grove

I’ve been on the island for several days now…really busy with work, writing and editing, and getting a lot accomplished, too. But I’ve begun to notice in myself–something not quite so obvious on shorter visits–that I am a real deep-in-the-gut sunset fanatic. (Well, duh! I can hear you saying. Eighty-eight posts of photographs on this thread, and you’re only just now noticing how many of them are sunsets? Photographs taken from the very same house?)

But listen, it isn’t just that I take all these photographs of sunsets, and it isn’t even that they’re all beautiful. It’s that every one of them is different. It’s the mystery of these sunsets that has me by the gut, that drives me up from my chair and makes me prowl around the house, camera in hand, heart beating rapidly, taking pictures from windows and decks and the path to the beach. I never know what each sunset is going to be like, in what way it’s going to be uniquely beautiful. I never even know from minute to minute how each one is going to change, how its beauty is going to evolve ten minutes from now, compared to now. Let me show you. Please allow me to present, in close proximity, the sunsets of November 11, November 12, and November 14, 2012.

  

And so I want to capture every minute of every sunset. I order my days around being home for this event. I have, dear readers, hundreds, maybe thousands, of sunset photographs in my archives, and every one of them is special. I am–I will confess it now–a sunset addict.

Views near Golden Grove

It’s been a month since we were on the island–and how good to be back again!

The house survived Sandy very well. There were just a few loose roof shingles, and yesterday Dan climbed up there and nailed them back again.

Then…a lot earlier than it used to be, and a lot farther to the south…there was another glorious sunset.

Life is good, here in the island. I’m glad to be here all this week.

Views near Golden Grove

After a long, hot summer, it’s great to be back at our home on Block Island again. It’s warm, humid, cloudy, a bit rainy today, and beautiful. As always.

The sunsets the last two days have been lovely.

As always.

Here’s September 2, 2012.

   

I’m assuming you all saw my nifty new tripod in the immediately previous post, with which I took this last photo!