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Columnists
Ocean Views
Summer beasts
Kim Gaffett
Tue, Jul 3
Category:
Ocean Views
Fireflies, moths, butterflies, beetles, mantids, dragonflies and damselflies are summer’s beautiful beasts. July is the month of long twilight, short nights, and warm still mornings — the perfect time to observe some of nature’s most fantastic winged creatures. The life cycle of any of the island’s...
June fog
Kim Gaffett
Sat, May 26
Category:
Ocean Views
Water is a phenomenal substance. It is believed that where water does not exist life does not exist. Consider the hunt for signs of water in our solar system — Mars for instance — in hopes of divining evidence of once-upon-a-time life. Water is a shape-changer; between ice and steam there is dew,...
Tiny May flowers
Kim Gaffett
Tue, May 1
Category:
Ocean Views
There are many signs that herald the arrival of spring. One of the most noted is the sudden bursting forth of flowers in May. Blooming shrubs and trees such as shad, apple, azalea, beach plum, or horse chestnut immediately come to mind. Perhaps it will be the brilliance of dandelion, hawkweed,...
Ocean Views: Marine animals and the sound of spring rolling in
Kim Gaffett
Wed, Apr 4
Category:
Ocean Views
Although there is great promise of warmth and new life in April, the month can be cold, grey and bony: a month with an exoskeleton. But April also beckons for beach walks, a time when almost anything can be found at the island’s edge. The shoreline can be wide and flat at low tide, or narrow and...
Malleable and resolute: Clay is the 'bedrock' of Block Island
Kim Gaffett
Sun, Feb 26
Category:
Ocean Views
It can be pounded and extruded, hand-built or thrown, excavated to create cozy nests, or become wind- and rain-sculpted hoodoos. Clay is Block Island’s “bedrock.” In its simplest form, clay is a substance made of very small particles of minerals such as aluminum silicate. Much smaller in grain size...
What are you doing over February Vacation?
Kim Gaffett
Mon, Feb 13
Category:
Ocean Views
If your week of winter wandering will be based on the “Bermud a of the North” — Block Island, that is — consider joining one of the following free Ocean View Foundation programs. Monday, February 20: Great Backyard Bird Count — a Block Island Tutorial The Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is a four-...
Ocean Views: Wax myrtle, myrtle warbler
Kim Gaffett
Wed, Feb 1
Category:
Ocean Views
Grey is the color of February. But look closely; it can be a stunning grey. Charcoal grey trunks of shad, blotched with ash-grey lichens, almost luminescent in late-afternoon light. Stone walls, uncluttered by vines and leaves, weight hill and dale with intricate granite-grey tatted edges. Incoming...
January cod
Kim Gaffett
Thu, Jan 19
Category:
Ocean Views
Steakers, tobies, tongues and cheeks: January is — was — the month for cod fishing. As most know, Block Island fishermen hunted inshore. They fished the seasons, and winter was the season of codfish. In the days when “boats were made of wood, and men were made of steel,” island fishermen would go...
Snowflakes 0: American Crows 331, and counting
Kim Gaffett
Wed, Jan 4
Category:
Ocean Views
The weather proved too warm for snowflakes, flurries or feathered. Although a hearty group looked high and low for snow buntings (or Snowflakes) and snowbirds (or slate-colored juncos) none were seen as we swirled and drifted around Block Island during the eleventh annual OVF Community Bird Census...
Chasing snowflakes
Kim Gaffett
Mon, Dec 26
Category:
Ocean Views
For a scant two hours on the morning of December 18 the quiet Block Island air was adrift with lightly tumbling snowflakes; the season’s first – and hopefully not only – snow flurry. In the shadows and shelters of north-facing objects one could find a few unmelted flakes wedged between still-green...
Hoary frost and December nights
Kim Gaffett
Mon, Dec 12
Category:
Ocean Views
A morning stroll in 60 degree weather takes me by the smooth-as-ice “duck pond” on Old Town Road. I note, as a few mallards slip into the surface — seemingly buoyant both above and below the watery lens — that this wide-edged soup bowl in the landscape is full to the brim, and beyond. And I am...
November fishing
Kim Gaffett
Tue, Nov 1
Category:
Ocean Views
Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.
– H.D. Thoreau Block Island is covered and surrounded by piscine environments, and November is the perfect time for fishing – if not necessarily catching. I suspect that nothing quiets the soul or...
Full Manisses Moon
Kim Gaffett
Wed, Sep 28
Category:
Ocean Views
October is a month of reacquaintances and stunning beauty. Exhibit no. 1: It has been nearly a year since we’ve had the pleasure of greeting our old friend Northern Blazing Star (
Liatris borealis
). This lovely plant (both rare and native) thrives in some of the island’s most austere...
Full Sand Moon
Kim Gaffett
Wed, Aug 10
Category:
Ocean Views
It is the season of sandcastles and hot-footing it across black sand. The dog days of summer when bodies can find their own form in warm soothing sand. We may take it for granted but the sandy shores of Block Island form a complex and dynamic buffer between stable land and the animated sea. In a...
Roseate Moon
Kim Gaffett
Wed, Jun 1
Category:
Ocean Views
Juneberry, beach plum, chokeberry, chokecherry, blackberry, multiflora, pasture, rugosa, Dorothy Perkins: roses all. The first days of June on Block Island are laden with any number of wild flowering plants of the rose family (rosaceae). Beach plum’s long, thick stems of small white flowers are...
Horsefoot Moon
Kim Gaffett
Thu, May 19
Category:
Ocean Views
Horsefoots are plodding out of the sea; drawn by new and full moon ebb tides, they have been doing this for 350 million years. One of earth’s oldest creatures, horseshoe crabs are truly fascinating. And now is the time to start a season of observations. Horseshoe crabs (not a true crab, but rather...
Rocks, stones and erratics: the 'bedrock' of life
Kim Gaffett
Mon, Apr 11
Category:
Ocean Views
Rocks, stones and erratics: the “bedrock” of life Garnet, quartz, mica, pyrite – stones, rocks, erratic boulders: the substrate upon which all Block Island life exists. Block Island’s geology offers several allegories. As a terminal moraine (a debris field of materials relocated here by moving and...
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Island Buzz
History Happening Here
Posted By
Block Island Historical Society
1/15
*** Annual Meeting September 20th 11am Program 11:30 am Please join us on zoom ** Thank you for your interest in the Block...
This weeks Nature Conservancy Schedule
Posted By
The Block Island Times
1/15
Check out this weeks Nature Conservancy Schedule at https:// www.natureblockisland.org
Solstice Senior Living at Groton has New Offers Available
Posted By
Solstice Senior Living
1/15
New year. New hope. New you! Embrace your life to the fullest this year at Solstice Senior Living at Groton. Visit our...
Still Looking for a Summer Rental?
Posted By
Sullivan Sotheby's International Realty
1/15
Sullivan Sotheby’s International Realty has some great options, if your still searching for that perfect Summer Rental. We...
TimberTech by AZEK
Posted By
Riverhead Building Supply
1/14
Riverhead Building Supply offers TimberTech by AZEK Building Products. Click here for the latest collections and styles...
Antique Maps and Vintage Photographs
Posted By
Block Island Historical Society
1/13
The Block Island Historical Society has a great selection of antique maps; vintage photographs; unique posters & prints...
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Island Religion
PART 3 HAVE TO? WANT TO?
Posted By
Block Island Christian Fellowship
1/14
PART 3 HAVE TO? WANT TO? What was the protocol for giving financially during the time Christ lived on the earth? CHAPTER 4...
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