First Snow 2017 and a Drive Up-island

A drive up-island with Becky yesterday afternoon yielded these gems (enhanced, of course, by the company of my dear friend as well as a spontaneous visit around the woodstove at Fran's house).


January woods


All that remains of the original Herring Creek Farm barn and out-buildings


Edgartown's Great Plains


Last year's sunflowers - tired and bent, but full of life; bearing seeds for next year's crop.


Menemsha shack, destined to be inherited by bittersweet vines


It's still Christmas until at least Epiphany, maybe longer in this outpost


Sunset reflection


Reds and blues stand out amidst the gray and white, with the red-white-and-blue flying nearby


Menemsha mermaid


Across the creek on Lobsterville's shore

People and Colors, June 3

My friend Becky came over tonight and we went for a walk, with our cameras, downtown. Honestly, I'm so tired of passing person after person on the sidewalk who stares straight ahead, silently. From now on, no matter what, I'm saying hello. Come on, people - what is this, Zombie land?




"Wow, Do you always wear colors like these? What's the occasion? Are you a Buddhist?" "No, this is just what I do. I'm from Boston, here on business."














Mike is here on vacation, staying at his family's Campground cottage, and was determined to catch a scup for supper. A Church of God pastor, Mike's pastoral work involves teaching inner city teenagers to read, kids who are part of the fallout of the collapsed economy. Mike's been on sabbatical for the past four months. "I miss my kids".


"I will make you fishers of men."

Meet Mya

Mya Wild Smith was born on Thursday, January 14, 2011 at the Martha's Vineyard Hospital to Julia and Ryan Smith, and joins almost-2 1/2 year-old big sister, Hailey Elizabeth.

Mya and Hailey complete four generations of friendship between Mya's family and mine, a rare and precious occurrence in this age of families being spread from here to kingdom come. Mya's great-grandma Dorothy Wild and my mother were friends; Mya's grandmother, Becky Wild Baxter and I have been good friends for years; our children have been friends since babyhood, and now our grandchildren will be friends. Becky's brother, Mike, and my brother, John, knew each other too, enjoying a summer friendship in the 1950's that revolved around cars - John's '52 robins' egg blue Ford, and the Wild family Oldsmobile.

These photos follow the tradition that was begun in 1974 when Becky came up from Florida to meet my new born son, Adam, when he was four days old and took pictures and brushed my hair - sorely needed and the best hair brushing I've ever had.  We've been doing it back and forth ever since then. Well, not the hair brushing part. 





Hailey and her new sister, Mya.