Annual Holiday Light Display Brightens Oak Bluff's Ocean Park.
Photography
The wind blows around Island houses these days, rattling old panes and knocking at front doors as if it, too, would like to come inside and get warm by the wood stove.
January 14, 2024
After drying out from a storm earlier this week, another gale hit the Island Saturday, canceling ferries and causing some flooding.
January 13, 2024
A strong storm with winds of 50 miles per hour hit the Vineyard Tuesday night, causing erosion, destructive washovers and scattered power outages throughout the Island.
January 10, 2024
On Saturday, the high school boys swim team won the Cape Cod Classic, a first for the program. The annual tournament features six local competitors — Barnstable, Nantucket, Nauset, Saint John Paul, Sandwich and the Vineyard — and the competition is heated each year.
January 9, 2024
It was and it wasn’t. The first snow, that is. There were flurries in December, of course, and as we watched the weather over the weekend our anticipation grew. The Vineyard only received a dusting while the East Coast got walloped in places.
January 8, 2024
The Vineyard in January. Not as many people see her then. Bundling on layers replaces pulling on bathing suits and a walk on the beach may find you alone instead of weaving through pockets of people on blankets. But the beauty remains.
January 7, 2024
The annual Christmas Bird Count had begun, as birders spread out across the Island to spot, count and identify as many birds as possible on New Year’s eve. It would be a long day, starting before dawn and ending in darkness. The birds rarely stayed put, and neither did the birders.
January 1, 2024
The hope for the year ahead is heard once again in the old and comfortable greeting called out to friends and strangers alike: “We wish you a Happy New Year.”
December 31, 2023
Try to think of December not as a time of darkness but as a time of quiet pleasures. There will be snow and ice and cold, to be sure, but there also will be days of crystalline sunshine and walks without another human soul in sight and long views through tree branches bare of leaves.
December 29, 2023
A year punctuated by housing issues, natural grass versus artificial turf, breaching beaches and land conservation.
December 28, 2023
Winter avian residents arrive and the occasional rare birds move through the Island in December, as winter begins.
December 28, 2023
Someone wrote to the Gazette awhile ago with a few observations about this time of year, thoughts as appropriate today as they were when they were first published: “If we can be still long enough to see the small lights shining in the darkness . . .
December 24, 2023
December 23, 2023
May the season's peace start in our hearts and spread into our world.
December 23, 2023
A storm blowing in lashed the Vineyard with wind and rain, causing flooding, eroding dunes, cancelling ferries and downing tree branches.
December 19, 2023
Even as the days grow shorter and darker, the Vineyard turns brighter. Strings of seasonal lights and shop window decorations in the main streets of Island towns illuminate the passing December days.
December 17, 2023