Donnie Benefit and Greg Bettencourt lead dredging efforts in Edgartown Great Pond.
Donnie Benefit and Greg Bettencourt lead dredging efforts in Edgartown Great Pond.
Only three days left in January and the Island now enters a final run through the back side of winter. The weather of our wintry season has been anything but predictable to this point. All the patterns seem confused and perhaps it will remain so until the gathering of another Vineyard spring.
Winter birds are settled in on the Vineyard, and feeders are busier in January as birds look for reliable sources of food in snow and cold temperatures.
Reminded of how capricious and resistant to prediction our weather can be at this time of year, the wisest among us will accept each day without complaint. On the other hand, we reserve the right not to be wise.
After another ferocious winter storm this weekend, the fragility of the Island’s coastline — and the sheer, sublime power of the process — were on full display, as high tides and storm surge turned Edgartown’s Left Fork parking lot at South Beach into a pond, tearing up roads, and pulling down th
On Sunday, the Vineyard boys basketball team suited up for a game against arch rival Nantucket. They wore their traditional uniforms and boarded the ferry as they had for countless away games.
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.
After drying out from a storm earlier this week, another gale hit the Island Saturday, canceling ferries and causing some flooding.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
A year punctuated by housing issues, natural grass versus artificial turf, breaching beaches and land conservation.
Winter avian residents arrive and the occasional rare birds move through the Island in December, as winter begins.