Views near Golden Grove

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.

2009-1206 406pm

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!  🙂

Views near Golden Grove

It’s been five or six weeks since we’ve been on the island: much too long! The island seems not to hold a grudge, however, and gave us three wonderful sunsets in as many afternoons this weekend. We were heading home as the sun set on Sunday, but we stopped to snap this shot over the Great Salt Pond.

2009_1122 Great Salt Pond

Views near Golden Grove

Our last trip out to the island already seems so long ago! It’s hard to believe it was less than a month, and harder still to believe that the fall season is almost over. On that last trip, we spent a good part of Friday on the standby line at Point Judith–from an hour before the first ferry of the morning until the 3:30pm ferry, when we finally got the car onto the boat. “We have to get a house someplace closer,” Dan pretended to complain that evening. “We left the house at 6am, and we didn’t get here until 5pm.” But on a day that promised only clouds and rain, the sky gave us a treat at Pt. Judith as the storm system rolled in–and another one on the island when the sun lined up with a gap in the clouds for an unexpected display.

Cloud front moving in at Pt. Judith

Cloud front moving in at Pt. Judith

A hole in the clouds just at sunset

A hole in the clouds just at sunset

Click here to view previous post.

Views near Golden Grove

I am currently visiting seaboard locations far south of Block Island. This week’s Golden Grove sunset comes from the archives. The year is 2003, and judging from where the sun is setting, I’d say it’s maybe late April or early May.

Sunset with lighthouse, late April 2003

Sunset with lighthouse, late April 2003

Click here to see last week’s view.

Views near Golden Grove

Starting this week, I’m beginning a new feature on this blog. Every Tuesday or Wednesday, when possible, I’ll post a picture from my archive of Block Island photos. Most of these pictures are taken from the deck of my house on Block Island, or from a nearby location. And the great majority of these photos are sunset photos, because that’s the specialty on the deck of my house: A view over the water, the freshest air anywhere, a glass of fine wine or a made-from-scratch margarita, and the World’s Best Sunsets.

Why is this feature called “Views near Golden Grove“? Because the part of the island where my house is located is known by that name. And why would a treeless sweep of glacial till be called “Golden Grove”? Because the brig Golden Grove, on its way from Halifax to Ireland, was shipwrecked just off the coast here in the winter one year late in the 18th century. And why, the astute reader, might persist, would a ship bound from Halifax to Ireland be sailing (much less grounded) anywhere near Block Island?

Good question.

In any case, the crew were all saved, and some of them made the island their home. The cargo of pork and lard occasioned many a trip out to what was left of the Golden Grove that winter to augment the island diet. And the place name stuck.

To start things off, here is the sunset near Golden Grove on October 3, 2009, three days ago.

Block Island sunset October 3, 2009

Block Island sunset October 3, 2009