“All walking is discovery. On foot we take the time to see things whole.” – Hal Borland “Let’s take a walk”, or, “I’m going for a walk”: these two oft-said phrases are not about a mode of transportation, or about getting from point A to point B. Usually, taking a walk is not about the destination...

September is the last hoorah of yellow. Yellow is a color of spring. But, look broadly and you will find yellow in September. Goldenrod, of course, makes a strong showing in mid-September. If you count amber and copper to be in the family of yellow, then the seed spikes of beach grass and Spartina...

“It’s such a beautiful place — unspoiled — and this project captures that.” That’s what glass blowing artisan Eben Horton said about Block Island and its relationship to his Glass Float Project. The project involves Horton’s production of hundreds of glass floats, or sphere-shaped ornaments,...

Everyone is invited to celebrate Block Island’s treasure, the Great Salt Pond, on August 13 with over 11 events, from 11 island organizations, showcasing its variety and importance. You can catch aquatic wildlife in the pond with The Nature Conservancy, or walk the marshes with the Ocean View...

My life so far has been twists and turns. Working in financial services for 20 years, I now find myself back at my roots, my true nature as a geologist turned environmental activist. A fortuitous turn happened two summers ago when Chris Littlefield agreed to take me on as a volunteer at The Nature...

1. THE NORTH LIGHT is the fourth lighthouse built on Sandy Point. The first, finished in 1829, was washed away in a few years. A second light began operation in 1837, but was not visible to ships due to the shifting sands. The government built a third light near the end of the Point in 1857 and...

For the past 13 summers on Block Island, the majority of my time here has been spent at my home away from home, the Block Island Club. Located on the northeastern side of the Great Salt Pond, the club was a place for me to further my passion for sailing, expand my (short-lived) interest in tennis,...

It’s never hard to convince me to go on a bird walk at Andy’s Way with Kim Gaffett, director of the Ocean View Foundation, whether it is a Crazy as a Coot meet-up or another OVF activity, it’s always fun and informative. I’ve done a few and will likely do many more. They are almost always at low...

The beauty of Block Island can be as arresting as a siren’s call: rolling hills, salty air, the resplendent smell of Rosa rugosa. It’s no surprise then how...

On the island with three friends in the house, I was looking for something interesting to do at night during their visits besides the usual drinks with dinner or a movie, and while I was thinking, I happened to focus on a postcard lying on the dining room table in a large pile of recent mail. Maybe...

On winter mornings when even the sun has difficulty deciding whether it should rise, almost nothing stirs on Block Island, not man nor beast nor machine. On our road, unless the transfer station is open, Howie’s yellow school bus is often the first and only vehicle to pass by my house until mid...

I’ll always remember the first striped bass I caught while surfcasting on Block Island. It took place in 1985 when my wife Karolyn and I visited the island together. I had gone into Twin Maples Bait & Tackle to seek advice on where to fish. Shop proprietor, the late Mac Swienton, gave me sound...

I first met Leonard Perfido last spring after he and his wife Ruth returned from a Great Ape Encounter tour in Africa. Like them, I am intrigued by the works of gorilla researcher Dian Fossey and chimpanzee researcher Jane Goodall, but unlike them, I have never entertained the notion of trekking to...

The winter has seen the explosion of snowy owls in the Arctic and a subsequent migration to the lower 48 states in search of food. Snowy owls have been showing up in places that have never seen a snowy owl before. These magnificent birds started to appear all over the United States right around...

Last week I fell in love with a book about the power of walking. “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed is the story of her trek over the Pacific Crest Trail from southern California through Oregon. Though I have never trekked over mountains for long distances in great hardship, I do love to take walks and have...

Joe Sprague has been farming and raising cattle for many years. “I grew up with cows,” he says. “The only thing that’s always been in my life, all 56 years of it, is cows.” Many island denizens know Sprague—he might have dug the foundation for their new house or garage, or brought over a load of...

While writers in big cities in the 1800s wrote wistfully of their imagined utopias, Block Islanders were living in one. Some of the 1,500 men, women and children here sustained themselves from the sea, some from the land, and many from both. The island’s farming statistics in 1885 listed 19 kinds...