she rides

She can start, and she can stop. And she reminds me that I said I would buy her a bike once she could ride one. I guess it's time! Posing here with Mom and Nano, the motorcycle man.Oh, and Isaac's Robo.

go away

It's not all beach plum and shadbush here, just so you know. There are a lot of leaks and not just inside—the sky seems to have one too.

when she is good

I post this to remind myself that it is not always rainy and cold in Block Island, as it has been for two days and is meant to be for five more. Sometimes it's a litttle bit of heaven.

what is this thing?

I found it at the dump, and I love it, whatever it is. I don't think I can bear to part with it, so I guess it will be making the trip to the Goose with me.

green green grass of home

There is nothing like a newly mown lawn to make every thing look under control.
This is an illusion.
Nothing is under control. I took a giant load of trash from under the house to the dump today, including a garbage can full of kindling infected with acrobat ants. Well, at least that's one thing that won't be blowing around the yard tonight. It's already howling, but meant to reach 60 mph.
And so, dear  prospective houseguests: Bring work clothes. There will be yard cleanup, screens and windows to wash, painting to do (if it ever stops raining or winding) and then there are the doors, the porch swing and &.
Thanks for stopping by!

silver days

In the dump

In the former dump

It's been foggy a lot of the time, but that has not stopped islanders from being in a frenzy. The tourists are coming! Off with the old, in with the new. Truckloads of supplies coming over and truckloads of trash going off.
  Every spring, I have a new crop of broken glass underneath my house—our pond used to be a bottle dump for the town back in the day. And this spring I found a silver spoon, too.

promo pic

For reasons I can't really even explain to myself, I am compelled to post this picture of my brother Ben with one of his groups. Can you guess the era?

open

The seafood shack was open, and the customers were ready and waiting. The patient patrol bird did not get any of my (very expensive) lobster roll, but I convinced the  next table to give him some fries.
  And then I got in my truck full of papergoods and African drums and cleaning supplies and half of IKEA and Home Depot and came to Block Island to offload and wonder where the heck I am going to fit all this stuff. Because Open.

one big happy family

Before the Bar Mitzvah, Hannah and fam

Before the bar mitzvah, Douglas and fam

When the fire alarm went off at Temple Israel, mixed fam

Should anyone be curious about the interrelationships of these intrafamily pic, i will be happy to elucidate.

the varmitsfa

This is a kid who doesn't know that much about religion, but she seems to know phonetics.

And there will be quite a bit of family that she does know. Including me.

busting out

 Spring! I usually miss it everywhere I live, but I hit it in NYC this week. Tender greens and glorious blues, tulip reds and cherry pinks. I'm happy!

sea note

I'm in NY now, but there are these traces of attempts at capturing the fog and the brilliance of the day. Meanwhile, I'm still snarfling and must to bed./

to the shore

Vacation was already in the air as they waited for their flight to Cancun. The bathing suits and sandals were packed and there was nothing left to do except relax and look forward to using them.
I haven't been taking pix this week. The view from my bedroom window of surfers' waves is sterling, but I have grown a bit bored with it. I guess I'm mending!

goose redux

Really after

Like, last I saw

Barring another flood, this is after for now.

A year ago tomorrow, the Eleven Point River wiped out the town of Thomasville, Mo. (Hannah had a horrendous car accident the same day, but that's her story to tell.) So we know that April is flood season, as it has been since I bought my little piece of rural America ten years ago.  But that was a  flood and a half. You can revisit it here.
   Hopefully the Goose will be spared this spring, because Changping has decided to spend her  vacation there. Well, there and at Graceland. The plan is to meet up in New York and road trip to Mo on the 9th or 10th June. Thence to Memphis for a few days before she has to be back to Boston on the 23rd.
   Changping is a city girl and I think she will be horrified by T'ville and the Goose and the local cuisine. So friends in Missouri, we have to show her a good time. Otherwise I'm doomed to spending longer in Memphis than I care to.

bed rest

There are worse days and places to be in bed with a cold. It's rainy and chilly outside, and the fireplace is on inside. The sound of the rain pounding on the roof is pleasant, and it's toasty under the duvet.
And in more Block Island news, this article in, Coastal Living, a former Time Inc title and now?
Also, Block Island friends have finally put their house in DC for sale. Fully renovated: see it here.

miss sparkle eyes

 A few things happened. Got the water turned on at CSC. Had Hannah et all. Unfortunately, as I turned on the dishwasher after dinner for ten, the drain hose popped open and water went all over the floor. The phone didn't work, of course, nor the Internet, but hey we have a workaround hotspot now. Water co (below) arrived to turn on the water TO the new house. Remains to find someone to tun on the water IN the house. But the DSL there is working! Please note the new "garage" next door, which is like Johnny's big barn in miniature.
   And we had three glorious days, when it actually got too hot for the propane stove. Carpenter came by and said he couldn't get to my leaky windows. And I am down for the count with a horrid cold like the one I had all December. In bed today. Hope Miss Sparkle Eyes doesn't get the gradoo.

home again

brooklyn, again

 Yes, this is the Brooklyn Bridge, headed towards Brooklyn. Just want to put that on the record, since I get so many complaints. Yes, I had a ride. Ed kindly came to fetch me (and some hundred volumes of books I was offloading).

 After lunch at Ed's usual place, I wanted to go for local color. He said there was a former Korean nail salon that had doubled as a house of prostitution and was now a bar/restaurant. The new owner had decided to own the heritage.
  And how! We were escorted to the back room, a boudoir with black satin seating and a bed. What the heck, Ed's foot needs elevating anyway. Everyone else who walked into the back room backed out hastily, except the bartender who was happy to shimmer in with shrimp and, um, cocktails.

stormy weather

After listening to the bullets of rain and the lightening and the sirens and the crashes, probably of trash cans blowing into cars, all night, and the blat of flooding alert warnings on my phone, and the word that the Block Island ferry was cancelled for the second day, I changed my NYC-PVD train reservation to Wednesday and went back to bed. And when Lynn Brown sent this pic of the seas on the mainland, where she is stuck at the moment, it was certainly clear why the boat isn't running.

not all work

The last meetings are today, and we leave tomorrow ayem. But don't be thinking that all we do is go to banks and lawyer's offices. Yesterday we went to La Gruta, a hot springs paradise where you can eat, drink and swim in pools of varying degrees—the hottest being in a dome with skylights. I am told that the gringas of San Miguel used to have nude swims there under the full moon. Perhaps they still do. All I know it is has been 20 years since my mother went! We kept our suits on, however, as did everyone else. At ne point it rained, and it was amazing to see the steam rise off the pools.