MV Obsession

My obsession with Martha's Vineyard.. phototography..genealogy and life in general and this and that…


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Lens-Artists Challenge #218 – Over The Hill…

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Lens-Artists Challenge #190 – Close and Closer…

Gay Head Lighthouse, Martha’s Vineyard from one side and walking around to the other side I looked closer and there was my daughter.
I didn’t realize that shown in the window behind the bike were my daughter and our friend until I looked closer.
Sailing home from Martha’s Vineyard if you look closer out the window of the ferry Island Home you can see West Chop lighthouse.
Not a fly on the wall but on a window of the Gay Head Lighthouse, Martha’s Vineyard.
Metropolitan Museum of Art – New York City


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RDP Monday: GLASS…

I love glass so this has been a fun blog post to put together. I’ve tried to keep the number of photos down 🙂

This photo is inside the Gay Head lighthouse on Martha’s Vineyard, it shows the expanse of glass and the glass of the lenses on the light.

Also on Martha’s Vineyard, window at the entrance to the Tabernacle, window at top of stairs and dewy barn window early in the morning.

Shattered glass…

Miscellaneous…

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2021/04/12/rdp-monday-glass/


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2020 Photo Challenge #21…

This week’s assignment – Use strong backlighting (i.e. shooting towards the light source, but do not look directly at the sun) to create a contre-jour image where the subject becomes a silhouette, OR shoot the light through flowers or leaves creating a transparent effect.

My choices are:

https://nowathome.wordpress.com/2020/05/24/2020-photo-challenge-21/


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Photo For The Week Challenge: Circular…

 My choice for circular is the Gay Head Lighthouse in the town of Aquinnah on Martha’s Vineyard.  Five years ago the lighthouse was only 46 feet from the edge of the cliffs and was moved to a new location approximately 180 feet from the edge.  On May 27, 2015 the preparation for the actual move began.  The move was was completed on May 30, 2015 and the lighthouse reopened that August.

The pictures below show a circle of stones where the lighthouse had been before the move.

Inside the Gay Head lighthouse.

 

 

https://nowathome.wordpress.com/2020/05/12/photo-for-the-week-67-circular/

 


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Martha’s Vineyard Trip February, 1989…

February 1989 was the first time back to the Vineyard in winter since I was a child.  Following are excerpts from my travel log about that trip and also pictures taken with a non-digital camera… which does have relevance in this post.    So come join me in a trip down a cold, snowy very wintry memory lane.

Picture of the Islander in dry dock in Woods Hole from aboard the ferry, Eagle.

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One of my favorite places is the Campground in Oak Bluffs. I love the gingerbread cottages but most of all I really really love the Tabernacle… every time I’m on the Vineyard I take a few moments…or hour… and sit quietly there and enjoy just being. Winter is no exception and cold as it was it was warm in my heart.

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Let’s wander through Oak Bluffs a little … notice Christmas tree is still in the Bandstand.

Christmas trees along the dunes at South Beach/Katama where they are brought after the holidays.

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Then to Aquinnah to see the Gay Head cliffs.

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excerpt from travel journal :  ‘it was cold on the cliffs, maybe 26 degrees…but off I went to see them anyway.  Down the road I traipsed over the dunes and onto the beach… what a sight.  Thousands of rocks all shapes and sizes, and there in the distance… the cliffs… I was very excited.  Took some shots and scurried back to the warm car.  Noticed camera had opened a bit, closed it and didn’t think much about it.  After lunch in Edgartown I rode out to the ‘bend in the road beach’ to take some pictures and noticed that the picture counter on the camera said #1 !!!!  When I had gotten in the car in the morning it had said #16 !!!  Something was wrong.   I turned around and headed for the camera shop.  Everything seems to be okay with the camera but maybe it got too cold and lost its memory and reverted to #1… or perhaps when the camera opened just that little bit it caused it to revert !!  At any rate I’m having what was in the camera developed.’

The following day I picked up my photos and not only were they all fine, there was this one…. actually, these two…

shot of the cliffs taken before camera opened …

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shot after I closed the camera … I’ve always kind of liked it… can’t do this with a digital camera …

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After a long first day headed back to Edgartown but not before stopping at Sengekontacket Pond for the sunset…

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Edgartown …

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I love the Vineyard no matter what the season but there’s a quiet, ethereal beauty in the winter.

 


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Stitching The Vineyard…

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This is my wall of Vineyard counted cross stitch projects. The Vineyard map in the upper left hand corner was the first one in 1993. Tisbury in the bottom middle was the last one in 2011. There were other non-MV projects done in between the Vineyard ones and I also did eight more of the Vineyard maps during that time too.

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These are not the only Vineyard counted cross stitches I’ve done though. The one closest to my heart is the Tabernacle designed especially for me by my daughter Deb. (please excuse the glare).

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The Tabernacle is my favorite place on the Vineyard for many reasons and so this picture means more to me than I can ever put into words.

This is my counted cross stitch masterpiece. My daughter Deb took a photograph of the Tabernacle… blew it up to an 8×10 and charted it by hand on graph paper. There might have been computer programs for that but this was the early 1990’s and she didn’t have one and I’m not sure we even had a computer!. She also bought the material and my daughter Patty bought the threads and that was my Christmas gift that year. All I had to do was sew it. People always ask how long it takes to do projects so I kept track. Over the course of 3 months I sewed a total of 138 hours… every inch of the picture is counted cross stitches… even all the blue sky… and there seemed like endless amounts of that. After it was finished we took it, along with the original 5×7 photograph and had it framed. For a couple of years I just wasn’t happy with the frame though so when I had my other MV counted cross stitches framed I gave this picture a new one. I also added a little plaque at the bottom that says The Tabernacle, Oak Bluffs – Martha’s Vineyard.

But I had said I couldn’t do it… ever… I would never be able to do counted cross stitch. Too hard. Too boring. I had too many excuses. Then my daughter Deb saw the counted cross stitch of the map of Martha’s Vineyard and the rest is history. We figured if I was ever to do counted cross stitching surely something Vineyard related would get me started. She even said that if I hated doing it she’d finish the map for me. Sounded like a good deal and so I began. One X after another… counting, counting every single stitch… but then it started looking like MV and I was pretty impressed and proud of myself.

We even got written up in the Vineyard Gazette… June 21, 1996

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