My Little Town

And its people.


                                                            Geno

  (above) Boys, fishing.

                       (below) Bigger boys, fishing.

The Shurtleff Homestead

I found an old photo, heretofor-unseen by me, of my great-grandparents' farmhouse, which inspired this little photo essay.



The Shurtleff Homestead, built in 1838, the farmhouse on Plantingfield Way where my grandmother Mabel Shurtleff Boylston grew up. I don’t know when the photo was taken, but apparently it predates the existence of Shurtleff Way.  I love the simplicity here. 

The Shurtleff Homestead in 2011, showing the same basic structure, but with an added dormer (and a wing on the back). I raised my family next door, and four (soon to be five) of my grandchildren are growing up on their great-great-great-grandparents’ (Charles and Mary Shurtleff) former farmland.
The former Shurtleff Homestead in 2020. You can see that the basic shape remains (same view as above), but much has been added, and what were once open fields with a view of the sky and wind blowing through are long gone. (Below: facing Plantingfield Way)

People!

Okay, well, one man and his dog. But my favorite subject to photograph is people, has always been people, and how happy I am when I meet folks who allow me to photograph them. When out and about the other evening I happened upon a most willing subject, Mike, with his terrier, Mickey, whose one-year birthday they were out celebrating. Happy birthday, Mickey!

Bicycle Browsings

Bicycling on the Island hasn't been this pleasant in many, many years, all due to the fact that we are still semi shut down around here and there's much less traffic than usual, so I've been taking advantage of the situation and getting out and about on my bike - with the Lumix, of course - at least once a day (I am also working on shedding some of my winter and lock-down poundage).




Twilight, finger piers and Edgartown Yacht Club

Boat houses - vestiges of old Edgartown.

Evening squid fishing off of Sandy Fisher's work barge.

Okay - this was actually grabbed from a West Tisbury field on one of the rare times I've used my car (I think I've been on the same tank of gas for three months).

Men at work on Sandy Fisher's work barge - some kind of winching/hoisting thing going on here, featuring Sandy and Tracy, with the ever-present Dennie J. looking on. 

Former boat houses, converted into summer beach cottages while retaining the old Edgartown vibe. 

Albion. The best part of getting out and about via bicycle is connecting with people.  I found Albion fishing for squid off of the town wharf. 

Irises, After the Rain

Irises, offspring from my grandmother's garden, still going strong, ninety years or so later. Some were transplanted to Plantingfield Way (whence they may have come, from my great-grandmother's garden, originally), and some of those were brought back here to Main Street, back to my grandmother's garden (resurrected a few years ago, now my garden) - my childhood home, my present home. The beat goes on.






My backyard, from an upstairs window. My grandparents' (Herbert and Mabel Boylston) victory garden was six-times the size of my vegetable garden - encompassing most of the area you see here, extending to the back corner (long before there were trees back there) - and included a plum tree, a pear tree, a cherry tree (I lived in that tree as a kid) blackberry bushes, vegetables, annuals, and perennials - including the ancestors of my irises, along with poppies, Shasta daisies, and bachelor buttons. 

My grandmother's Japanese irises.