As we prepare for our last trip of the season (and year) to Block Island–too soon, oh, too soon!–I have been looking back over photographs from previous Novembers. This one, and those from the next few posts, are from 2006 and were not taken from our deck but from nearby.
As I prepare to leave early tomorrow morning to visit the island again (at last!) my mind goes back to all the years and days I’ve been collecting photographs of dazzling island sunsets, no two exactly the same. Thank you for allowing me to share them!
Today, here is a sunset from almost this time of year seven years ago–October 17, 2003. I am reminded of the traditional Jewish prayer thanking God for keeping us alive and sustaining us and bringing us back around to this time of year again. Yes, we are getting older and the aches and pains and even the difficulties are multiplying, but still–life is very good.
I thought you might enjoy this photo of a genuine sundog (parhelion) sighting on the island. It’s unusual because the clouds look more like some hybrid of stratus clouds than like the cirrus clouds that usually produce sundogs. But there must have been ice crystals in these clouds, whatever they were, for the sundogs to form.
This post concludes a four-part series comprising eight photographs of the sunset on July 1, 2010. The series shows the sunset as it progressed from 8:08pm until 8:32pm. These two photos are close-ups of the sky (so to speak!) taken at 8:29 and 8:32pm–enough elapsed time for the sun to go down and for those two people to get their vehicle safely off the bar.
This week, we continue the time-sequenced presentation of the sunset on July 1, 2010. This sequence began at 8:08pm (the blog entry on July 15th) and will conclude next week at 8:32pm. Here are two views at 8:26 and 8:28pm.
Both of these were taken from my deck, but at different magnifications.
Last week, this week, and and for the next two weeks, I am posting in chronological sequence a series of pictures all taken from my deck on Block Island on July 1, 2010 between 8:08pm and 8:32pm. Last week’s view near Golden Grove showed the sunset at 8:08 and 8:16pm. Now we see how the sunset progresses. Here are two views of different parts of the sky at 8:24 and 8:25pm.
How much difference only a few seconds may make in the way the sky looks as the sun sets! And even at the same moment, how different one part of the sky looks from another!
For this week and the following three weeks, I’ll post in chronological sequence a series of pictures all taken from my deck on Block Island on July 1, 2010 between 8:08pm and 8:32pm.
8:08pm
8:16pm
Glorious natural fireworks for my Fourth-of-July post: special effects of clouds and air bring the sun down anything but spherically.
Happy summer solstice! The sun has reached the northernmost point in its arc and will now slowly begin rising and setting farther and farther to the south. Summer is here, and on the island that means sweet flowers and mown grass; beach weather; and long, languid afternoons and evenings on the deck as the sun sets.
We worked hard all spring to get the house in peak shape for the season. Next week we get to relax as we hope our guests do and just enjoy the season. Well, at least I hope Dan will relax a little…
Here’s a photo from our visit earlier this month.
Just five days from now, at 7:28am, the sun will reach its northernmost point along the ecliptic. Summer will officially begin, and oddly enough this year we have a few scattered unrented weeks during the season. The savvy reader will surmise that we are willing to negotiate a price (*) and will consider what a special vacation is a week on the island. Particularly this time of the year, when the sun is high in the sky and the island is full of the fragrance of flowers.
Meanwhile, we the owners are no fools. If the house is sitting idle, we will find a way to get there.
(*) Our managers, Ballard Hall Real Estate, can be reached at (401) 466-8883. No more self-serving advertisements, I promise!