Skip to main content area

Visitor Info
Dining
Transportation
Getting Married?
News
B.I. Wind Farm
Opinion
Columnists
Features
Community
Announcements

Enter your keywords

BIT SubMain Menu

Home
Classifieds
e-Edition
Subscribe
Login

You are here

Columnists

Stages of Spring

Martha Ball

Fri, May 20

Category:

Island Notes

Every year I try to take a photograph of the lilac at the corner of the dooryard, and every year I have varying degrees of failure. The wind is always blowing, the sun is never quite right, the blooms are never as lush as they appear to the naked eye. They are, on the other hand, great examples of...
Bad actors, acting!

J. V. Houlihan

Fri, May 20

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

“Okay, Joey we’re doing a panning shot of you and Jo Anne walking into the barn while she struggles,” said Pete. “Then you’re going to tie her up and sing ‘Tip Toe Through the Tulips,’ to her. She’ll look frightened as you’re trying to calm her down with the song. Ya got that?” “Yup,” I said. “Will...
Everyone knows it's Windy

Martha Ball

Fri, May 13

Category:

Island Notes

Yes, it is a line from a song, a very old song, from the 1960s. It was cute and catchy and did not make a whole lot of sense. Unlike some of those tunes there is no “oh, that’s what they were saying” revelation when I read the lyrics. No, it’s just Windy. It’s been windy, the hard, lasting wind...
Hope

Martha Ball

Fri, May 6

Category:

Island Notes

It is Rhode Island Independence Day, a fact I feel obligated to share every May 4. I am greatly chagrined these words will not be printed until well after this date, as I am writing of it only after the fact. It did not fall off my calendar in the usual way of dates forgotten, rather this late-...
2022 Block Island electric vehicle subsidies available

Wade Ortel

Fri, Apr 29

Category:

The Solar Report

Transportation accounts for more than a quarter of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. By switching from vehicles powered by gasoline to those powered by electricity, each of us can make a significant change in our personal environmental impact. The adoption of EVs today, along with the...
Mist over New England

Martha Ball

Fri, Apr 29

Category:

Island Notes

I was, as usual, half-listening to the news, and not watching at all. It was almost 7:30 and had been on for quite a while, recycling some bits of local events and human disasters that have become the staple of newscasts, no matter how distant, and a blurb or two about the machinations of Hollywood...
The Zen of E-Biking, maybe

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Apr 22

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

Let’s get something straight right from the rip, here. I’m not a Zen kind of guy so don’t get all alpha- stated and mediative on me. Moreover, I’m not a Yoga-Gumby guy, either. I’m just not that guy; I guess I just like to see the word Zen in front of a noun. For example, if you plug the word Zen...
After the Storm

Martha Ball

Fri, Apr 22

Category:

Island Notes

Easter Sunday on Block Island was beautiful, sunny, not too warm, with a dip of short-lived clouds in the afternoon before a golden end. Monday, I looked out and saw the egret closer to the house than I’d ever seen it, walking down the lane just beneath my dining room window. It is usually right...
Celebrate Earth Day – help plant beachgrass

Kim Gaffett

Fri, Apr 15

Category:

Ocean Views

It’s time to plant beach grass! The last time the island marshaled a beachgrass planting brigade it was 2019. Because of Covid restrictions, gathering for grass planting was curtailed in 2020 and 2021. Weather-wise we are at the end of the beachgrass planting season, and we are all systems go. On...
THOUGHTS FOR THE SEASON

Fri, Apr 15

Category:

Columnists, Features, Community, Religious Services

Easter 2022 Dear island friends and visitors: “He is not here.” It does not sound like a theological declaration. It sounds more like a receptionist stating the CEO is not in. Yet, when one is working through the impossible and unbelievable, theological profundities are inadequate. Describing an...
Thanks and celebration

Martha Ball

Fri, Apr 15

Category:

Island Notes

A few times I have opened the door from the hall to the open entry and heard a flurry of wings, birds in a nest location scouting or building mode I presumed. It is not an issue, as long as they stay out of my way. And my bookcase when all the doors are open. It is a bit of a haven for them down...
From noisy and smelly to quiet and clean:

Wade Ortel

Fri, Apr 15

Category:

The Solar Report

On Block Island, the reassuring call of the spring peeper marks the arrival of spring. However, another, less pleasing sound is soon to follow: the inexorable drone of lawn mowers and other petroleum-powered equipment. While we have been dulled to this veritable aural assault, it is, unfortunately...
First on; First off

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Apr 8

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

Rather than write about how gobsmacked I was at 0500 on a freezing cold Monday morning before going to load a ferryboat after seeing an Oscars’ clip of a guy smacking a gobsmacked guy over an insult to a guy’s wife in front of millions of people worldwide, and upstaging what could’ve been a fun...
Old Yaller

John Willis

Fri, Apr 8

Category:

Tails from Beacon Hollow Farm

Living on a farm no matter how small or large and living with animals is a great feature of life if you are lucky enough to manage it. Observing Mother Nature is at its best watching free-range ducks, chickens, goats, cats and the rest, fenced in but with plenty of open space. Hens are providing us...
More than a wildflower

Martha Ball

Fri, Apr 8

Category:

Island Notes

The building should look familiar, it is the old Odd Fellows Hall, today its anchor business a café of the same name. This piece should have been in March, for Women’s History month but it is rainy and gray in April, it feels like March. When the Ragged Sailor Gallery, the creation of Eileen Lee...
Your mileage may vary:

Wade Ortel

Thu, Apr 7

Category:

The Solar Report

While an internal combustion engine vehicle can be refueled rapidly and universally at any gas station, the state of EV charging is stratified, and recharging times vary. EV charging typically falls into three major categories, referred to as levels 1, 2, and 3. It is important to emphasize that...
Lapland and springtime nods

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Apr 1

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

My wife got it in her sights to see Lapland in late February; as she roamed the Arctic Circle she spied: reindeer, the northern lights, the IceHotel. (Yup, people sleep on a bed of ice in a hotel made of ice - I guess there is a market for everything. They sleep on furs and in a sleeping bag. Ahem...
April too soon

Martha Ball

Fri, Apr 1

Category:

Island Notes

It has seemed overall a milder winter than many. We had one big snow, but it was cleared quickly and what was left was gone in the fast-arriving rainy mild. The wind has been great, it has felt the last two winters it was even more omnipresent than before if that is possible. So I am somewhat...
Block Island Seal Count:

Kim Gaffett

Sat, Mar 26

Category:

Ocean Views

On Tuesday, March 15, 25 volunteers surveyed nearly 100 percent of the island’s perimeter in an effort to get a count of seals in the area at this “peak” season for wintering seals. This effort was in coordination with Save The Bay’s annual bay-wide seal count, which surveys all possible seal haul-...
Red Roof, Blue Sky

Martha Ball

Fri, Mar 25

Category:

Island Notes

One day last summer or early fall someone came into the photography gallery on the corner with an old photo. They’d been sent to me - not to the gallery - as a last-ditch effort in identifying the location in the faded shot. It was taken from somewhere on High Street they thought and following that...
Energy independence and renewables

Wade Ortel

Thu, Mar 24

Category:

The Solar Report

Most cogent arguments for the adoption of renewable energy technology hinge on the far-reaching environmental benefits of such actions. However, demand side electrification coupled with an energy generation mix that heavily favors renewables would also be a boon for achieving energy independence...
Cranes, Concrete, Wood and Steel

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Mar 18

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

“Concrete and steel go together like chocolate and peanut butter.” —Bill Rose, President of Block Island Concrete Co. Sometimes words and observations can come out of a person’s mouth and grab me so fast that I need to ask them to please repeat them. I just can’t process certain stuff that fast...
The end of winter

Martha Ball

Fri, Mar 18

Category:

Island Notes

It is winter, still, by the calendar. The vernal equinox comes early, in late morning on the twentieth of March, a whole week after we have “sprung ahead” I feel obligated to note. The world makes less and less sense. It is the end of winter, the last of the days we can see what will be hidden by...
In Tribute to the People of Ukraine and to their President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Nancy Greenaway

Fri, Mar 18

Category:

Columnists

Lost in debris of Ukrainian genocide, we search for fragments of hope and find them in faces of children and teddy bears pressed against windows of trains and buses, in elders, fingers pointing, scolding Russian soldiers face-to-face, teetering across river-soaked, wooden planks, pushed in shopping...
The Ides of March: Tree Swallows, Spring Peepers, Peak Seal ...etc.

Kim Gaffett

Sun, Mar 13

Category:

Ocean Views

Beware the ides of March – not! With all due respect to Shakespeare: celebrate the ides of March – the first full moon in a new year. Sparing the reader a long, complicated treatise on ancient calendars, let’s just accept the premise that the only good reason to keep a calendar is to track seasons...
The Green Van

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Mar 11

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

It had bald tires, it ran on about four cylinders and was an eyesore. The van was modified for Ernie Woolf, a guy I surfed with in Point Judith, Rhode Island. He was about 6-foot 4-inches, and wanted to stand upright in this rig to put on his wetsuit so he cut a 3 by 3foot hole in the roof, framed...
Among the Lobster Pots

Martha Ball

Fri, Mar 11

Category:

Island Notes

Sunday, it was gray when I left the Harbor Church after worship. By the time I reached the Seaside I had either driven down into the fog or it had deepened: the Surf was clouded by gray. Turning down the Neck Road it was a wall, none of that rolling-in business, just a wall, so dense I pulled over...
Batteries: Only as strong as the weakest link

Wade Ortel

Thu, Mar 10

Category:

The Solar Report

The electrical potential or voltage of a battery is dictated by its chemistry. There is a specific range of operating voltages over which each type of chemical cell operates. For example, the nominal voltage of a lead-acid battery cell is approximately 2 volts. Common lead-acid batteries, such as...
April Illusion

Martha Ball

Fri, Mar 4

Category:

Island Notes

Thirty years ago there was a snowstorm on the vernal equinox. I remember it well, I was transitioning from a typewriter to a computer with a word processor and misfiled the piece I had written and had to re-write it. Which, because it was all new, I could recall and still do, opening with putting...
Shifting years, gears and ears

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Feb 25

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

On 25 March, I’ll be shuffling into my 72nd trip around the sun and being the adaptable kind of guy that I am - ahem, do we actually have a choice? – I have come to embrace rather than despise the technology of the digital age. These extraordinary and life-enhancing changes are inevitable as the...
Sunday, 6:03 p.m.

Martha Ball

Fri, Feb 25

Category:

Island Notes

Sunday, 6:03 p.m. The time of the photo, taken on February 20. Sunsets have their own glory on the east side of the island and in middling-toward-late February it is the aftermath, the light lingering so much after the sky would have been dark in December that is such a balm to the soul. We are...
February Bird Questions and Answers

Kim Gaffett

Sun, Feb 20

Category:

Ocean Views

Have you heard red-wing blackbirds trilling yet? Maybe you are wondering: are there more northern cardinals around than usual? Or, maybe you’ve seen a purple sandpiper and are curious about why it’s called “purple”, when its orangey-ochre colored feet and legs are so striking? Ahhhh, February, so...
Mr. Cricket

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Feb 18

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

Life can take care of things if we let it; we need to simply get out of the way and let it do what it’s going to do. When we get older we finally figure this stuff out because we’ve all learned through our life’s experience that if we set up an expectation and things don’t go as we planned, then we...
By virtue of inefficiency

Wade Ortel

Fri, Feb 18

Category:

The Solar Report

Internal combustion engines, such as those found powering gasoline or diesel-fueled vehicles, generate a lot of waste heat. Of the energy yielded by combustion, a larger portion is lost to the surroundings as heat than is available to propel the vehicle. While limited efficiency is certainly a...
Climbing temperature

Martha Ball

Fri, Feb 18

Category:

Island Notes

Earlier, around mid-morning, I stood washing dishes, looking out over the snow-dappled field. It looked like winter, the good winter of clear, sunny skies and the remnants of a storm. It was not the rare, perfect snow fallen in the calm, a gentle blanket on the land that could last days in sub-...
Hidden in Plain Sight

Martha Ball

Fri, Feb 11

Category:

Island Notes

A photo of the west side of Front Street from roughly 1900 shows an iteration of many of the buildings that stand there today, seeming to be neatly aligned, their facades a wall facing the newly constructed harbor, from the National to the Seaside. The street, such as it was, did not move, the...
Skip the oil change

Wade Ortel

Thu, Feb 10

Category:

The Solar Report

For more than a century, the internal combustion engine has reigned supreme in the automotive industry. Consumers and mechanics alike have become accustomed to the maintenance regimen for this type of powertrain. While decades of engineering progress and refinement have resulted in a significant...
Cool vs. Style

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Feb 4

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

When I was about 17, I would ride my Schwinn Varsity ten-speed to the East Side of Providence and visit Thayer Street. It was a totally different place from my hometown with lots of college-town characters and local color where I’d scope the scene and check out the cute Brown University and RISD...
Many more knew our name

Martha Ball

Fri, Feb 4

Category:

Island Notes

Tonight it is mild, the snow turned to fog, billowing off the roads and rising from the land. “Haze” is the condition given on the lazy (pre-loaded, lazy for me) app on my phone. It is disconcerting, out of time and place, although even as I write the words I find myself wondering how far back I’d...
February’s sense of place and anticipation:

Kim Gaffett

Sat, Jan 29

Category:

Ocean Views

With the advent of February, we have the first winter month when both sunrise and sunset are working to extend the day at both ends. As we start the month, sunrise is once again before 7 a.m.; and, as February closes, sunset at 5:35 p.m. is a full hour later than early January. We are leaving the...
Habit

Martha Ball

Fri, Jan 28

Category:

Island Notes

As I have often related, there were wooden cartons on the boat on February Saturdays in the late 1960s. It was the Sprigg Carroll, the little vessel that plied the waters between here and Galilee, carrying everything from mail to groceries and, yes, the kitchen sink. My mother and I were coming...
A brief history of horsepower

Wade Ortel

Thu, Jan 27

Category:

The Solar Report

While today it may appear both a strange and outdated measure, the horsepower (hp) originates from a practical historical problem. In much the same manner as other thermodynamic units, terms and sign conventions, the horsepower traces its roots back to the early industrial period and the advent of...
The Kitten

John Willis

Wed, Jan 26

Category:

Tails from Beacon Hollow Farm

The farm at Beacon Hollow is a refuge for all animals big and small, and made up of essentially farm animals that were born and raised here or near here. Then we have “drop offs” that come in and others that might wander away to the sounds of nature such as roosters. There are eight to 10 resident...
Ice on the grass

Martha Ball

Fri, Jan 21

Category:

Island Notes

It is January and the weather is reflecting the calendar and mirroring years past, days of intense cold sandwiched between mild, horrid wind exacerbating the cold, giving the weather people their beloved wind-chill factor drama. They seem, the Channel 10 folk —and I’ve no reason to believe the rest...
Jon Campbell: True Wit; True Grit

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Jan 21

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

What propels you along is not the outcome. If you have any maturity, you lose interest in the outcome. You just want to do what you do as evocatively as you can. —Tom McGuane In 1975 I met a guy named Jon Campbell, who I ended up in a band with that played Irish music. The minute I met...
Winter Visitors

Martha Ball

Fri, Jan 14

Category:

Island Notes

We didn’t have a lot when I was little, not many of us did. And we lived out here, in the middle of nowhere, it seems in retrospect. So, my mother used what we had to entertain me, in those early years of clear memory, when school started with the first grade and my only sibling was a convenient,...
Watt’s a Watt-Hour?

Wade Ortel

Thu, Jan 13

Category:

The Solar Report

“I lifted 25 degrees Fahrenheit at the gym today.” The above apocryphal statement is utter nonsense. This conclusion is not reached by contesting whether the speaker did, in fact, lift 25 of something at the gym today, but because it is obvious that they did not lift any quantity of degrees...
It takes a community...

Kim Gaffett

Sun, Jan 9

Category:

Ocean Views

The 2021 Community Bird Count held on December 26 was astounding in many ways. First, the weather was not ideal; it seemed a bit too cloudy and breezy to encourage bird activity. At first glance the day seemed unremarkable: the sky was blue-gray and mostly cloudy, the wind was northwest –at times...
Godspeed, Sailor

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Jan 7

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

One day my wife Cindy came home from work and said something regarding a man she was helping with the work she does as a family caregiver. What she said got my wheels turning on the quick step; hers had been already turning - they always are in regards to practicality, wants and needs. “I don’t...
The age of speed

Martha Ball

Fri, Jan 7

Category:

Island Notes

It was cold yesterday morning, 19 when I first checked the temperature, but sunny and bright for the first time in many, many days. Today, it seemed colder and I was surprised to see a reading of 52 — which until I die will be, in Salty Brine’s voice, a “warm” temperature for a winter’s day. A bit...

Pages

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
…
next ›
last »

Island Buzz

This weeks Nature Conservancy Schedule

Posted By

The Block Island Times

5/22

Check out this weeks Nature Conservancy Schedule at https:// www.natureblockisland.org
TimberTech by AZEK

Posted By

Riverhead Building Supply

5/19

Riverhead Building Supply offers TimberTech by AZEK Building Products. Click here for the latest collections and styles...
Highland Farm’s Greenhouses are in Full Swing

Posted By

Highland Farm Inc.

5/14

Spring is here to stay, and our greenhouses at Highland Farm have been bustling with activity! They are all set up now and...
Holiday Haven on Center Road

Posted By

Ballard Hall Sales Group

5/13

The opportunity to own a property like "Holiday Haven" does not happen very often. Built in 1884 by legendary Island...
NEW! Views Over the Bluffs!

Posted By

Ballard Hall Sales Group

5/13

Enjoy beautiful views of the Atlantic Ocean from this waterfront 2.47-acre property located off Mohegan Trail, just a short...
Spring 2022 Update

Posted By

Highland Farm Inc.

5/12

Hello all! We are now open for the season, call today to get your orders in! A rriving daily; New inventory of Trees and...

Receive our weekly email-letters!

Email Address

Email Type

Weekly Features-letter
Weekly News-letter
Breaking News

Tweets by BITimes

Real Estate

1,995,000
284 Spring Street, Block Island, RI 02807
Lila Delman Real Estate

A trinity on Spring Street, remarkable views, a notable property, and an eventful location. Perched...
364,500
Business For Sale!
Ballard Hall Sales Group

It’s 6:15 am and the iconic Old Post Office Bagel Shop is preparing for another successful day!...
3,975,000
13.6 Acres Panoramic Views
Sullivan Sotheby's International Realty

One-of-a-kind 13.6 acre parcel under permanent conservation protection. Building site is one of the...
3,650,000
1357 Black Rock Road, Block Island, RI 02807
Lila Delman Real Estate

You may believe that you are on the shores of Ireland, but this home sits in the very private,...
550,000
1456 Payne Road, Block Island, RI 02807
Lila Delman Real Estate

Lot 58-2 of "The Plains" sub-division is located off of Payne Road with easy access off of Payne...
1,895,000
SOLD! 430 Payne Road
Ballard Hall Sales Group

SOLD: Experience both privacy and convenience from this peaceful 2.1 acre property located just 1.4...
3,200,000
SOLD! Views from Beacon Hill!
Ballard Hall Sales Group

SOLD: Enjoy panoramic ocean and sunset views from this custom built, vacation style home! Privately...
2,885,000
SOLD! Beautiful Contemporary with Views!
Ballard Hall Sales Group

SOLD! Located on the second highest point on the island, overlooking the Southeast Light, this...

More Listings>>

Island Religion

PART 8 THE CHURCH OF GOD OR CHURCH OF MAN

Posted By

Block Island Christian Fellowship

5/18

PART 8 THE CHURCH OF GOD OR CHURCH OF MAN 7 WHAT CONSTITUTES UNGODLY TEACHINGS AND CHARACTER? Sometimes it’s not enough to...
PART 7 THE CHURCH OF GOD OR CHURCH OF MAN

Posted By

Block Island Christian Fellowship

5/11

PART 7 THE CHURCH OF GOD OR CHURCH OF MAN 6 WHAT ARE THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF A PASTOR? So, when looking for a pastor, is...
PART 6 THE CHURCH OF GOD OR CHURCH OF MAN

Posted By

Block Island Christian Fellowship

5/5

PART 6 THE CHURCH OF GOD OR CHURCH OF MAN 5 IN WHAT MANNER IS SOMEONE ORDAINED TO THE OFFICE OF PASTOR? If a Christian is...

About Us
Advertise
Contact Us
Site Policy

© 2022 BlockIslandTimes.com