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Island Notes

Ghosts of coffee hours past, part II

Martha Ball

Wed, Jul 13

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Island Notes

I left off last week on the verge of realizing, last spring, that the Harbor Church was in coffee-maker crisis. For the uninitiated, it need be understood, this treatise is about things that should be simple: not ornate samovars or complicated cappuccino machines, just plain 40-cup percolators. The...
Ghosts of coffee hours past, part I

Martha Ball

Thu, Jul 7

Category:

Island Notes

It began with Tercentenary Punch. It will end there. Roll Call at the Harbor Baptist Church is widely known as a harvest dinner. It has been a touchstone of the calendar for over a century. Today, still, there is the calling of the roll of members, not as it was in the beginning as a part of a day...
The First Full Day of Summer

Martha Ball

Wed, Jun 29

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Island Notes

The solstice came on a fair wind, the softest of breezes from the southwest. The first full day of summer brought rain and sun and rain, again. The temperature wavered between cool and warm, comfortable and on the edge of humid. It was never truly hot and the pavement did not billow steam as it can...
Red Moon for New England

Martha Ball

Sat, Jun 18

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Island Notes

The moon is a great silver disc — showing just a bit of a face — hanging in the eastern sky. I think it looks slightly misshapen but I think it is less a very sharp eye and more the knowledge that it was technically full a few hours ago, during the daylight of early afternoon, that makes it so...
Mute lightning

Martha Ball

Thu, Jun 2

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Island Notes

This morning I saw a snapper ambling up the lane, moving, as they do, with an odd rolling gait. It wasn’t a large turtle, but it had a huge head, stretching out over the shorn grass. They appear every now and then, and I wonder where they are headed — it is a fair distance to a pond that will last...
Groundhog Retreat

Martha

Thu, May 19

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Island Notes

The sun is shining. It poured last night, it rained this morning, there is more rain forecast for later today and for tomorrow and the day following as well. The ground was dry, the roads were dusty, the little vernal ponds almost summer dry. We needed the rain, we tell each other. All these days...
Independence Day

Martha Ball

Thu, May 5

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Island Notes

It is May Fourth and it is my duty to remind all that this date is Rhode Island Independence Day. The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, the smallest state with the longest name, was also the first of the colonies to declare independence from the crown as well as the last to ratify...
Next Week It Will Be May

Martha Ball

Tue, May 3

Category:

Island Notes

It wasn’t before there were houses, simply before there were so many, 1970 when we were closer than we realized to the encroaching world. There were a few places where fields were burned in late winter and grew brightly green in the spring. The walls around them were clearer than even the most...
Nod to Nature

Martha Ball

Thu, Apr 28

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Island Notes

At the top of the seventh the Red Sox are ahead. A lot can go wrong between now and the end of the game. They are not doing as badly as I imagined, they’ve won 5 games and have lost 11. Amazingly, they are not at the bottom, the rock bottom, of the standings, inched out by the Mets who stand at 5-...
Muskrats & Mallards

Martha Ball

Fri, Apr 22

Category:

Island Notes

My mother put on the Today show school mornings; we did not have to leave the house until the local news and weather brief that came on at 8:25 had concluded. One day in April 1961 they were broadcasting not from New York but from South Carolina. A re-enactment of the firing on Fort Sumter had...
You can't go wrong when . . .

Martha

Thu, Apr 14

Category:

Island Notes

You head for the steeple. Sage advice, it was, from my cousin the mariner, he still so belonging to the world of deepwater he will not park close to the supermarket door. He acknowledges only that his wife has gently questioned the rationale of this “anchoring out” hold-over from his sea-faring...

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