Sue and Jerry in Ireland

There are three places in the world I'd love to visit (in alphabetical order): Ireland, Israel, and Italy (and it is totally random and coincidental that they all begin with the same letter,) so yeah, I'm green with envy that Sue Carroll and Jerry Grant recently spent a week in the first of my three choices.

Sue writes, "Reading our favorite newspaper [my competition] on the stone wall at Slea Head Farm which is the westernmost farm in Europe on the end of the Dingle Peninsula. Mollie is the dog - she wasn't interested in having her picture taken...In the background are the Blasket Islands. They were inhabited until 1953 by a small group of rugged souls who have left behind a wealth of written memoirs. So interesting. This is an area of Ireland where the Irish language is still spoken at home. Everyone is bilingual except for our three year-old neighbor. He hasn't started speaking English yet, but he wants to."

Coumeenole Cottage"This is the 200 year-old cottage we rented for the week - as they say in Ireland, 'Pre-famine.' The owners are from Massachusetts and rent it out by the week. Ryan's Daughter was made on the beach in front of the house right around the same time Jaws was being made here. There was a book in the house about the making of [Ryan's Daughter] - we could relate.  Many of the people from the Blasket Islands emigrated to the Springfield area - connections everywhere we look." Photos courtesy of Sue Carroll. 

Tuesday Walkabout, October 26, 2010

Davis Lane

It amazes me that I can walk the same basic route through town on any given day and come up with different views and different faces every time. I'm not interested in writing tomes these days - being in school for the past eight years pretty much knocked the long essay out of me - for a while, anyway - but I am realizing, having recently lamented my not beginning this project years ago, that the images I capture today - Edgartown's scenery, architecture, and people - are the makings of tomorrow's history.

The goal of Edgartown News, ultimately, is to turn the mundane into the extraordinary; to celebrate the everyday moments - the people and the views that I take for granted.

...and let's not complete this thought, especially in these trying times.

Fishermen's Pier





The beginning of what is to come.



Timeless




Joe Robichau - a most interesting individual with whom it is always a pleasure to pass the time of day.




The fleet is in.










The harbor is all his now, but I'll bet he would gladly exchange solitude and sovereignty for being fed sandwich and ice cream cone crumbs all day long by the summer crowds.




Does this classic blue Wagoneer say anything other than "Sherm Burnham?"



The tools of Steve Ewing's trade, at rest.
















I suspect that this little catboat is named after Oscar Pease who for many years fished out of a similar, but wooden, catboat - most likely built by Manuel Swartz - named Vanity.




Eddie Gentle, about to head out to set moorings with Eddie, Jr.



"Young" Sandy Fisher. Well, that's what we used to call him, to differentiate from his father, but he also has a son named Sandy (technically, Francis Fisher IV), so I guess that makes this Sandy "Middle" Sandy. Here, he is preparing bait for his conch traps. (Sandy the elder, here.)




Sandy's and his mate's doings have attracted a crowd (Mike Jackson and Marty Kelly), with its attendant fish talk, jokes, and news of the day.




North Water Street Lanterns.










Bailey and Joan Norton's home. This may be the only house on North Water Street that is occupied year-round.




I have heard that in North Water Street's hay-day, back in the whaling days - 100 years ago or so - these houses were filled with captains' families, that it was a thriving year-round neighborhood with laundry hanging on clotheslines and children playing (stick-ball or kick-the-can, or whatever they did back then) in the streets.




The days of balmy air and roses are surely numbered.
















Edgartown's war and veterans' monuments. The trees in the background give a hint of the spectacular fall display you'll find all around town - more vibrant than usual this year, I think; a subject worthy of its own post, I do believe, but alas, this probably all will have changed by the time I return.

Autumn Rose

October 24, 2010

Thirty-three years ago today, also a Sunday, as I recall, my mother walked in the door of the house where my husband and three year-old son and I were living at the time, and where I happened to be in the early stages of labor for my second child, with two late-blooming pink roses she had picked from the bush next door. One was a full, round bloom, the other, branching from the same stem, was a tiny bud. She handed the small bouquet to me and said, "The big one is for you - big and round - and the bud is for the little girl you'll give birth to today." This was well before the days of being able to know the gender of your unborn child, so it was a guess on her part, but indeed, my mother's intuition was correct (proving again that mother is always right), as later that evening, in the upstairs bedroom of the house at #25 School Street, my daughter was born.

When Maria was growing up, I would return to that same rose bush on her birthday and pick a pink rose for her birthday table. She's been gone from home for many years now, and we haven't lived in that house since that one winter, but I still find my way to the rose bush on School Street every year on or near October 24th, and there's always at least one pink rose blooming.

In retrospect, it would have been entirely logical to name our autumn baby girl Autumn Rose, but I've always liked the biblical names. There are many Marys and Maries in our line, and I love the name Maria. Maria is not only a beautiful sounding name ("Say it loud and there's music playing..."), but is also a nod to the Italian side of the family. I would learn many years later that my great grandmother Sara Boylston, the woman after whom I was named, had a mother named Maria. I love this symmetry - especially since it was by accident -  that Sara's mother's name was Maria, and now a few generations later, Maria's mother's name is Sara.

Maria has a brand new birthday twin, by the way, born this morning to Brook Olson and Clinton Fisher: a baby girl, Isabella. Congratulations to Brook and Clinton, and to Grandma Madeline Fisher who says that everyone is doing well and that Isabella is "definitely a cutie." 

I think a pink rose is in order.

#25 School Street, The Holmes Coffin House

What's Going On?

Not much, but I had a pleasant walk on Wednesday afternoon. Love the fall colors and light and air.

Same well-worn path; different views, new faces.

Main Street looks different than it did a couple of months ago. Summer sure is short.

St. Elizabeth's. By request. I'm still working on this - am trying different angles, difficult to get a good head-on shot of her w/o the power lines interfering. Stay tuned.

Fishermen's Pier. Looks like someone unloading bags of conchs at the far end.

I'm very happy to see the scallopers back at the finger piers.

Always a pleasure to see and chat with Floyd Norton.

All is in order.

Marty Kelly, back with his catch.

Yup, it's that time again.

I like Mike, too. He's got the experience, the history, the smarts, the caring - and my vote.

Congratulations, and Happy Birthday

Fisher-woman par-excellence, Estey Teller (photo by Tommy Teller)

See - I told you Estey was a great fisherman. I received this photo from Estey's husband, Tommy, who reports that Estey caught this 16.29 lb. bluefish on Tuesday October 12, and that she was the Grand Prize winner in the Boat Bluefish category, making her eligible to draw for the Chevy 4-WD truck (reportedly worth well over $30K). She did not win the truck - according to Tommy, the truck went to "a lucky guy from America" - but Estey did receive $500, a fishing rod and reel, and a Ray Ellis print (awarded to each of the eight category winners). Oh, and let's throw in a nifty Keurig coffee maker and more fishing gear, not to mention Derby Pin #1, which is also awarded to the eight category winners; "A big deal to derby participants," says proud Tommy.

Also, happy birthday today to Estey - as previously mentioned, she and I are birthday twins - and we are happy to share our day with Cheryl Worden Pinkus, Noel Bagnall, and John Moffett - and countless others, I am sure (wasn't Mona Worden's birthday also 10-22 - dunno, as I am digging that out from a very deep recess in my brain, but it does ring a bell).

I am not ashamed to admit that I am sixty years-old today. Maybe I'll start acting my age at some point. But what's the hurry?

Here's to many more - fish, derby pins, and birthdays - for all of us.

PS - I was just reminded that today is also Tommy and Estey's 55th wedding anniversary - Congratulations!

Long Live the Radio Flyer

State Road, West Tisbury

My little red wagon is long retired from its grocery-hauling duties, having served that purpose quite well in its day. I loved shopping with that wagon, walking straight past the lines of traffic backed up on Upper Main Street in July and August, but it did have one major flaw: it was heavy to pull, even when empty, so hauling a full wagon of groceries home - in those days all the way to Plantingfield Way - took a lot of energy, so I made the switch to a light-weight, folding grocery cart a while back and relegated the wagon to garden and yard duty. I was hoping someday to pull my grandchildren in my Radio Flyer - the super model with wood rails and monster tires - but hauling rocks and dirt, not to mention leaving it out in the weather, has worn the bed down to a fine lace-work of rust, so a new wagon will be needed soon for the babies.

I am of the generation that remembers Lenny Marchant delivering groceries from Connor's Market all over town with his Radio Flyer, and I know I'll never take Lenny's place in the annals of Edgartown Red Wagon History, but at least one person, my neighbor Jim Joyce, did think of me when he saw this video (thank you):

 

Tommy, Estey, and Bruce

Bruce Bettencourt

Bruce Bettencourt, with his fishing boat, Big Boo, has been in town, visiting from Florida. Tommy and Estey Teller went out fishing with him over the weekend, out towards Nantucket - at least that was the plan the morning I saw them heading out. I have not heard a report on the success - or lack there-of - of the trip, but knowing this star-studded gang of fishermen (have you ever seen all those gold derby pins Estey wears? Estey is my birthday twin, by the way), I'm sure they came back with bushel baskets full of fish.

Tommy and Estey

Oatmeal Season, Day Two

Okay, so day two of oatmeal season has not begun so well, my having burnt this morning's batch, which is often the way things go when I am involved with more interesting and creative matters, which includes almost everything. I ate it anyway, though,  because I only have one oatmeal pot and it would have been lunchtime by the time I got it scoured out well enough to cook up an un-scorched serving. I'm not a bad cook, really, it's just that I mostly find that eating, and all the activities that surround it, right down to brushing and flossing afterward, is quite disruptive to the flow of my day. I wonder why we were made so that we have to eat, anyway. Think of all the extra time in the day we'd have if we did not have to: 1. think of what we want to eat; 2. buy it; 3. prepare it; 4. eat it; 5. clean up, etcetera. Maybe someday scientists will figure out a way to upgrade the human body so that we won't be constantly interrupted by having to feed it.

See? Even Stop and Shop knows to put apples, dried fruit, and nuts together.

Stop and Shop's fall apple supply is in.
(And surely, isn't flip-flop season out, now that it's cold and dank enough for long pants and a heavy sweater? Don't get me going on what I think of flip-flops - great for the shower, but how on earth is it possible to accomplish anything in life while wearing these flimsy excuses for shoes that expose the toes to all manner of low-lying obstacles and things that drop, not to mention the extra leg muscles involved in keeping them from falling off?)

Oatmeal Season

View from the Reading Room

I basically eat two things for breakfast: either yogurt with fruit, dried cranberries, and nuts in the summer, or oatmeal with fruit, dried cranberries, and nuts in the winter. These are easy, nutritious, and not as boring as it sounds since I vary the fruit among some combination of bananas, apples, peaches, pineapple, pears, blueberries - whatever is in season - as well as the nuts - either walnuts, almonds, or pecans. Today was the first official day of oatmeal season at my house. It was warm and sweet and stuck to my ribs - a perfect beginning for a cool, blustery, and moody Sunday.

Herring Creek Farm

Dunes, South Beach

October Sky