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

Gray December Day

Martha Ball

Fri, Dec 2

Category:

Island Notes

Yes, it’s still November as I write but I am tired of gray November and when this is in print it will be December. There was no need to take a photograph, scrolling through my absurdly large number of photos on my phone, many duplicates I should delete, I notice multiple shots from locations such...
Boatman of Edgartown

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Dec 2

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

When vehicles line up on Simpsons Lane to get on the Chappy Ferry in Edgartown, the head of the queue begins next to a building called the Old Sculpin Gallery. When returning to Edgartown from the island of Chappaquiddick, vehicles make a left turn and pass right by said gallery where there is a...
From the archives

Martha Ball

Fri, Nov 25

Category:

Island Notes

At Thanksgiving I like to pull out old photos and in my search often come across something more. The text is from Telco News, in October 1961, a cover feature story on Block Island’s lone telephone man, Mary’s beloved husband, John Donnelly, who came for a few years when the microwave was new and...
Nouns, verbs and grub

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Nov 18

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

“Hey Brian, I’ll be hungry in one hour. Hit me will ya, please?” I shout to Brian Holder. “Hot or cold, Joey?” he asks. “Your call, brother,” I say. “It’s all you. I’ve got too much stuff rattling around in my head.” “Gotcha,” he says. When I go to write a...
Flag of Color

Martha Ball

Fri, Nov 18

Category:

Island Notes

It was the grass that caught my attention, richly green, nearly springtime verdant, freshly washed from the overnight rain, sparkling in the afternoon sun. Then I saw the sun dog, a fragment of a rainbow, caught in the white cloud over the battered spruce tree. I knew it was unlikely I’d be able to...
Notes From a Naturalist: Season shifting

Kim Gaffett

Mon, Nov 14

Category:

Ocean Views

If you have followed these Ocean Views over the last year you will recall, or have observed, that I’ve been taken with the notion that the prime unit of time is a season. Generally, we are all familiar with a pattern that divides the year into spring, summer, autumn and winter; and of late I’ve...
Raspberry harvest – fall 2022

John Willis

Mon, Nov 14

Category:

Tails from Beacon Hollow Farm

As the Thanksgiving season approaches us and with winter close behind, we think of the harvest. There is a certain amount of solace in the harvest whether it be apples, flowers, hay or berries. Something that you have planted, nurtured and cultivated is always something to admire. I have had red...
Dune town, redux

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Nov 11

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

When we study some history we learn that locales define themselves within the confines of supply and demand economics. If people were digging in to settle somewhere, then they would need to develop some industry to fire up an economy and create some goods and services - whip up some supply and...
Four-star family

Martha Ball

Fri, Nov 11

Category:

Island Notes

The text in this photo of a photo of a clipping in a scrapbook opens: “BLOCK ISLAND has only one four-star family. Its members are the sons of Mrs. Anna Partridge Ball and the late Nicholas Ball. . .” As it is “this week’s” Four-Star Family, I presume it was a regular feature of the Providence...
Dune town

Fri, Nov 4

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

The salty and sandy piece of terrain that lies between the Point Judith Lighthouse and as far west as the Thames River in New London, was and is constantly in motion. Sand moves below and above the water and like rust this natural process never sleeps. Hundreds of years ago there were Native...
October Fog

Martha Ball

Fri, Oct 28

Category:

Island Notes

Years ago, I was often surprised when I flipped back through the electronic files of my columns and found what seemed unusual weather in fact to have been the norm year after year, weather that was annoying more than dramatically bad. It was the muggies of mid-August one year, the fog next, the...
A Block Island tour

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Oct 21

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

May the reading of these pages give inspiring thought of American survival on an island frontier where self-sufficient settlers, dependent on their own independence, bequeathed that spirit to their descendants. What a heritage! Maizie’s books find us. For various reasons they get written...
The wide blue sea

Martha Ball

Fri, Oct 21

Category:

Island Notes

The ocean surrounding our little island changes minute to minute and hour to hour and day by day. The shore we see so easily, the gently-curved arm of the east beach, doesn’t need a storm to alter its face, just a shifted summer breeze or changing current of a tide. The shore we can see so easily,...
Ted Turner, outlier

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Oct 14

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

In 1977, a character named Robert E. “Ted” Turner was the skipper of the 12-meter racing yacht Courageous, as she competed for the America’s Cup off Newport, Rhode Island. (I’m writing this column 150 meters from where the boats were docked at Bannister’s Wharf.) Turner is an interesting guy who...
October Blue

Martha Ball

Fri, Oct 14

Category:

Island Notes

It has been a beautiful day, the best of a few truly glorious October days. The sun is setting too early, taking with it the warmth but I am loath to close the door until I must. Autumn is settled, it seems, and I hesitate, drawn by the sound of the crickets outside. The night is soft, filled with...
Sailing with “The Old Man”

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Oct 7

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

I used to be a First trip Cadet, and I knew quite a lot. Then I became a Third Mate and I knew Everything. Then I upgraded to second Mate, and then soon realized I was not as clever as I thought. Once promoted to Chief Officer, I knew I had much to learn. Then I became Captain and I...
Over the ocean, beyond the clouds

Martha Ball

Fri, Oct 7

Category:

Island Notes

Often, I stop by the Town Hall to pick up papers the content of which still lacks the impact when read from a screen, to check some bit of history that inevitably leads into another and another and when was the east end of the airport extended folds over to some obscure water rights to Fresh Pond...
Windless, maybe?

Fri, Sep 30

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

We have had a very uneventful summer along the south coast and Block Island since June. No wind, nor rain and only hot, soggy and muggy weather has hovered above our heads. Furthermore, in the month of August 2022 there was not one named hurricane. However, there was a tropical storm named Alex...
With Rebecca as Witness

Fri, Sep 30

Category:

Island Notes

We are on the edge of October, the sky is blindingly blue, the goldenrods are in a multitude of stages, from long gone to blazing yellow, red berries are becoming increasingly visible as leaves burnish and crinkle. A few hours later the southern sky is a parfait of soft pinks against a fading...
Wreck of the Green Arrow and a Lost Dog

John Willis

Fri, Sep 23

Category:

Tails from Beacon Hollow Farm

It was a cold, clear December morning on Block Island, the year 1996. At the morning coffee group at that time at Bethany’s Airport Diner, talk of a night wreck below the bluffs just around the bend from the Southeast Light to the east was in discussion. Apparently a well-equipped fishing dragger...
Horses and tractors

Martha Ball

Fri, Sep 23

Category:

Island Notes

Summer, by its final milepost, the Autumnal Equinox, ends tomorrow night, in the dark, a bit after nine, a time three months ago there was light lingering in the sky. Slowly, at first imperceptibly, then with increasing speed, the days have shortened since then. It was a while ago, now, I looked at...
History in plain view

Martha Ball

Fri, Sep 16

Category:

Island Notes

It is the middle of September, the sun has made that turn it should not until until after the equinox, and is setting after 7. It seems a tad earlier on the eastern side where the earliest sun strikes the cliffs and beaches and east-facing windows. We tumble, now, down the black slide that suddenly...
Celeritas

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Sep 9

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

Back in the days of flip phones, 20-pound laptops, and pagers, Interstate Navigation - The Block Island Ferry ran a boat called the M/V Nelseco out of Fort Adams in Newport, Rhode Island. I was the guy who was sent to Newport to try and drum up business for the summer ferryboat run. The...
Two years, three summers, a lifetime

Martha Ball

Fri, Sep 9

Category:

Island Notes

Two, two-and-a-half years ago, really, we were on the edge of the pandemic. Despite the forecasts of the global experts we were, in March of 2020, still hopeful we would somehow slip through it if we were really, really careful. And we did because we were, it seemed, until the fall of that year...
Early morning rain

Martha Ball

Fri, Sep 2

Category:

Island Notes

It was almost dark tonight when Autumn started barking her most excited “someone is here, someone is here!” bark. I saw headlights, then the shape of a big black box turning into the barn-less barnyard — not unlike the treeless Orchard or the pig-less Pig Lot — and thought impossibly her dog food...
Bulkheads, docks, and boats

J.V. Houlihan

Sat, Aug 27

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

When I’m not in Galilee working at the Block Island Ferry docks, I’m usually in Newport Harbor messing around in my sailboat; I’ve been doing this drill for 20 years. About 18 years ago I met a dock master in the harbor by the name of Mark Holden. Mark came of age in Portsmouth and Newport as a...
On Monday it rained

Martha Ball

Fri, Aug 26

Category:

Island Notes

Monday rain was forecast, in ever-diminishing percentages, but rain nonetheless which was falling in the morning, not in a deluge but enough to make me think of lowering windows. I was careful to take the little rain jacket that can fold into its own pocket and keeps out as much rain as a heavy...
A Rantum Scooting Flaneur

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Aug 19

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

The French term Flaneur basically translates to: a loafer, a stroller, an observer. It’s a simple word loaded with context; however it best describes a person who wanders around with no particular purpose, agenda or destination. Similarly, an old Yankee term I’m also fond of is based on...
By the monument

Martha Ball

Fri, Aug 19

Category:

Island Notes

The water by the monument was up to the rip-rap below it this afternoon. There used to be a deeper strip of land there and a little beach below it. In 1993, before technology and electronic communication had taken so much from our day-to-day conversations, a contingent from the Army Corps of...
Home EV Charging

Cindy Davis

Fri, Aug 19

Category:

The Solar Report

One of the greatest concerns potential owners have regarding the purchase of an electric vehicle (EV), is charging the battery. The question of how, where, and for how long to charge an EV are readily answered, and should not deter potential EV owners. A detailed description of the science behind...
Standby, redux

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Aug 12

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

In 2016, I wrote a column called Standby . It was a fun observational piece about what goes on in the black hole of the parking lot where I work in the summertime. (I’m in the front parking lot in the winter where George Lyons and Ray Gardner work the summer schedule.) The piece I wrote...
A Matter of Attitude

Martha Ball

Fri, Aug 12

Category:

Island Notes

Last night the power went out. I am not sure when it happened. It was nearly dark when I came home from helping serve another dinner cooked by other people to the delightfully grateful, endlessly polite international students who come up the hill once a week for food at Harbor Church. I had stopped...
- THE SOLAR REPORT -

Wade Ortel

Fri, Aug 5

Category:

The Solar Report

Last October I accepted the position as program director of the Solar Initiative (tSI). I have had the pleasure of working with a wide array of individuals, making strides towards the common goal of reducing the consumption of fossil fuels on Block Island. To this end, tSI has offered and continues...
Two Rhody sailors meet at Fort Adams

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Aug 5

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

A few columns ago I wrote about the 2022 Newport Bermuda Race, and focused on three fast-moving foiling boats: Argo , Ultim Emotion 2 , and Malama . These rigs are impressive and are part of the new paradigm shift in ocean racing. I thought that I wrote a decent and...
Finding Gratitude

Martha Ball

Fri, Aug 5

Category:

Island Notes

Years ago now, a doctor friend in the city (doesn’t that sound posh, at least more than my sixth cousin or first cousin six times removed, depending upon which one of us is drawing the chart) started sending me dire predictions of the pandemic just creeping into this part of the country, complete...
Date Night in the time of a pandemic

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Jul 29

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

It is no mystery that people need some semblance of order and normality in their daily lives, in order to offset the chaos rattling around in their heads as a result of an amorphous, baffling, and truncated world narrative. On any given day over past several years, we all needed to reboot, reset,...
Not Exceeding Three Percent

Martha Ball

Fri, Jul 29

Category:

Island Notes

It is hot outside but lovely and breezy here down the Neck. The house is cooled by a cross-breeze but Autumn wants to go out and lie in the cooler shade of the trees in the yard. She is under house arrest, I hope under the last full day of the dreaded cone. The nice vet in Westerly called last week...
- THE SOLAR REPORT -

Wade Ortel

Fri, Jul 22

Category:

The Solar Report

In previous articles, I presented a technical overview of the refrigeration cycle. However, even with this background, it can be difficult to recognize the vast utility of this technology, especially in the context of domestic heating. For the purpose of effective cooling, either in order to keep...
Writer to writer, with Amanda M. Fairbanks

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Jul 22

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

The one thing that all writers share, regardless of what topic they are inking up pages for, is that the blank page is whispering a dare to said writers. The page is daring this cruncher of the eight parts of speech to make something readable and commendable. The blank void wants and wants and...
A single photograph

Martha Ball

Fri, Jul 22

Category:

Island Notes

Twenty some years ago, when the Carolinas were suffering horrific hurricanes, terrible flooding, devastation of pig farm lagoons, which rolled into widespread death of whole flocks of domesticated turkeys, it happened that I was officiating at a wedding with guests from that part of the country. I...
A little beach background

Martha Ball

Fri, Jul 15

Category:

Island Notes

Perhaps, for the bathing beach, the true Golden Age – so far – began in the early 1950s. At the start of that decade the wheels were turning for the new pavilion, a modern structure to complement the airport construction that marked a mid-century looking to the future. Air traffic was increasing...
Newport to Bermuda or Bust

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Jul 15

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

In 2019 I was sailing Reverie north past Hammersmith Farm in 12 to 15 knots of east-south-east wind. As I casually looked over my left shoulder I saw the trimaran Argo zipping by me going an easy 12 knots; the boat nor her crew appeared to be breathing heavy because they were...
- THE SOLAR REPORT -

Wade Ortel

Sat, Jul 9

Category:

The Solar Report

In this week’s article, I would like to take a brief respite from the regularly scheduled educational content and technical treatises offered here. Instead, I will provide an exciting public service announcement regarding one of the Solar Initiative’s most popular subsidies. I also wish to take a...
The last first day of summer

Martha Ball

Fri, Jul 8

Category:

Island Notes

Two nights after the Monday Fourth of July, fireworks are still exploding off the beach. My dog is still snoozing through them after a perfunctory “woof” or two. The same dog that barks at the boat passing off to the east or a great silver bird catching the sun high above us. She cannot go out and...
Geezy Sailor, Redux

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Jul 1

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

In my last batch of nouns and verbs and prodigious modifiers, I crunched out a column on the quick because I was off duty and wanted to put the spurs to my sailboat because of a good forecast. Moreover, I’d just ordered an Audible book titled “Bleak House,” which is a nine-hundred-page monster by...
Buffalo Springfield

Martha Ball

Fri, Jul 1

Category:

Island Notes

The Fourth of July has always been the first real holiday of summer. Memorial Day opened the door when I was growing up, but our lives went quickly back to school and places around us gradually opened up for the season. More than anything, I remember going to the Old Harbor Dock, Payne’s New Harbor...
Dump Days

Martha Ball

Fri, Jun 24

Category:

Island Notes

On a Sunday at mid-day, any Sunday, any time of year, it is odd to find the Neck Road so empty one can stop and take a photo without pulling over, without waiting for at least one vehicle to pass. Even in winter it is dump day. It was back when the dump was a casual operation, when refuse was less...
A brief overview of the refrigeration cycle

Wade Ortel

Fri, Jun 24

Category:

The Solar Report

In my last article, I offered an introduction to the operating principles of refrigeration. Let’s continue where we left off. I believe a closer examination of the thermodynamic cycle and the construction of the applicable components will offer greater utility for consumers who want a deeper...
The Geezy Sailor

By J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Jun 17

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

As we stack decades we all realize that on a good day life is a humbling thing. As we age stuff happens on a daily basis, and we are constantly reminded of how limited we are in moving our bodies into contorted positions as we once did - when we were ahem, young. For example, in my 40s, and 50s, I...
Patterns

Martha Ball

Fri, Jun 17

Category:

Island Notes

My peonies were late to open this year. It has been a cool spring but other people on the island had them in glorious bloom while I had the single plant by the door graced by multiple buds that seemed so tightly clenched I could only think “white knuckle.” There were three plants from sometime in...

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

12/6

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

Posted By

Riverhead Building Supply

12/1

Riverhead Building Supply offers TimberTech by AZEK Building Products. Click here for the latest collections and styles...
Christmas at Highland Farm

Posted By

Highland Farm Inc.

11/20

Highland Farm supplies all the holiday magic you and your family will need this season! We have beautiful cut Balsam and...
FALL SALE! 20% OFF

Posted By

Highland Farm Inc.

10/27

Highland Farm’s Fall sale has begun! 20% off all trees, shrubs, annuals, perennials, statuary, and lawn ornaments! ***Sale...
Spring 2022 Update

Posted By

Highland Farm Inc.

10/14

Hello all! We are now open for the season, call today to get your orders in! A rriving daily; New inventory of Trees and...
New! Views! 1262 Grace Cove Rd

Posted By

Ballard Hall Sales Group

10/13

Located high on the bluffs of Graces Cove, this exceptional post and beam home is nestled on 4.7 acres and surely considered...

Receive our weekly email-letters!

Email Address

Email Type

Weekly Features-letter
Weekly News-letter
Breaking News

Tweets by BITimes

Real Estate

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!...
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...
2,900,000
West Side Road - Panoramic Views
Sullivan Sotheby's International Realty

Breathtaking, panoramic views of the Great Salt Pond, Block Island Sound to the North Lighthouse...
5,500
Lila Delman is now taking reservations for your Block Island Vacation. www.LilaDelman.com We make it easy with an online lease and payment by credit card. Email us at BIRentals@LilaDelman.com

Lila Delman Real Estate is now taking reservations for your Block Island vacation. Take a look at...
1,675,000
353 High Street, Block Island, RI 02807
Lila Delman Real Estate

A short walk from the bustling town center stands a one-of-a-kind Block Island home built by...
1,225,000
1657 Pilot Hill Road

A year round getaway is the best way to describe this three bedroom three bath home. One can relax...
1,750,000
SOLD 3-Family Home off Old Town Road
Ballard Hall Sales Group

SOLD JUNE 2022: Circa 1880, traditional in style, but converted into three apartments, this...
1,675,000
1079 Corn Neck Road, Block Island, RI 02807
Lila Delman Real Estate

Make this popular Corn Neck location your own, memories made at the beach last a lifetime! Ocean...

More Listings>>

Island Religion

PART 7 TESTIMONY

Posted By

Block Island Christian Fellowship

12/6

PART 7 TESTIMONY What Should Determine the Way a Believer Should Think, Speak, and Act? Should Christians follow societal...
PART 6 TESTIMONY

Posted By

Block Island Christian Fellowship

11/29

PART 6 TESTIMONY Should a Christian Follow Societal Norms Concerning Sexual Behavior? There are probably many examples of...
PART 5 TESTIMONY

Posted By

Block Island Christian Fellowship

11/22

PART 5 TESTIMONY What Does It Mean to Love One Another with God’s Love? GOD’S SPECIFIC PLAN Now that we know what God’s...

About Us
Advertise
Contact Us
Site Policy

© 2022 BlockIslandTimes.com