Original Fresnel lens from the Gay Head lighthouse in Aquinnah on Martha’s Vineyard on display at the MV Museum. It was awesome to step inside this prism.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2020/10/10/rdp-saturday-prism/
Category Archives: Lighthouses
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/
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/
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.
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.
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.
Then to Aquinnah to see the Gay Head cliffs.
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 …
shot after I closed the camera … I’ve always kind of liked it… can’t do this with a digital camera …
After a long first day headed back to Edgartown but not before stopping at Sengekontacket Pond for the sunset…
Edgartown …
I love the Vineyard no matter what the season but there’s a quiet, ethereal beauty in the winter.
❤
Stitching The Vineyard…
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.
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).
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
❤
The Vineyard, Feb 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 wintery memory lane.
Picture of the Islander in dry dock from aboard the ferry, Eagle.
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 was no exception, cold as it was it was warm in my heart.
Let’s wander through Oak Bluffs a little … notice Christmas tree is still in the Bandstand …
went out to South Beach where there were lots of Christmas trees people had brought after the holidays… also drove out to Menemsha just to take a look around…
and then to Gay Head …
excerpt from travel journal : ‘it was cold on the cliffs. 26 degrees maybe…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 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 …
shot after I closed the camera … I’ve always kind of liked it… can’t do this with a digital camera …
After a long first day headed back to Edgartown for the night but not before stopping at Sengekontacket Pond for the sunset…
around and about Edgartown …
There was eating and relaxing but I also had a shopping mission ! My daughter Patty and her husband Mike were expecting their first baby and I, as soon to be grammy was determined to find an MV shirt for baby. I had already promised myself, and future grandchild that I would keep her/him in Vineyard t-shirts forever 🙂 (They found out the following month that the baby was a little girl).
Not too many shops open that carried baby things… not too many souvenir shirts available either. Here it was only 3 months before baby would arrive and this was my only chance to bring back a shirt from the Vineyard. On an off chance I walked into a store in Edgartown, I don’t even remember what they sold but tucked way off in a corner were… little people t-shirts. I wondered just how little those sizes would be.
I hit pay dirt… there was one baby t-shirt and I grabbed it. Ah, success and also the start of a still ongoing tradition.
Granddaughter Tiffany was the first to wear the shirt.. after her came grandson Tyler… when he outgrew it my daughter asked what she should do with it and I said I’d take it. Here it is today being modeled by my doll Molly.
There certainly wasn’t as much snow that February as the Vineyard has gotten this year but I got to enjoy a powdery dusting of it.
Our Cross Stitches …
My mother did these two counted cross stitches over 80 years ago.
Gay Head Lighthouse still had the lighthousekeepers house attached to it.
Only 4 lighthouses instead of 5 on the Vineyard map – do you know which one is missing?
My counted cross stitch of Gay Head lighthouse done in 2004.
My map done in 1993. Which lighthouse is missing on mine ?
(Edgartown lighthouse is missing on moms.. East Chop on mine)
The Gay Head Lighthouse …
The Gay Head Lighthouse has stood on the picturesque cliffs at the western most tip of Martha’s Vineyard since 1856. It is now only 45 feet from the edge of the eroding cliffs and is in danger of falling into the sea.
In 1799 a wooden lighthouse was built. In 1856 it was replaced with the current brick and sandstone lighthouse and fitted with Fresnel lenses.
The lenses were replaced by electrically generated lenses in 1952. The old lenses were given to the Martha’s Vineyard Museum in Edgartown.
This past weekend (Oct 13) I was on MV and decided to drive out to Aquinnah… and when I got there I saw these signs…
I’d never been inside the Gay Head lighthouse and was excited to be able to do so, and also help in a small way support the campaign to help raise the money to Save The Gay Head Lighthouse.
Come and join me for my tour inside the lighthouse…
Reached the first level and stepped outside…
These are the stunningly beautiful breathtaking views …
Final set of stairs and the view from the top …
What an awesome experience…
***To learn more about how to donate to Save The Gay Head Lighthouse CLICK HERE
**To read the history of the Gay Head Lighthouse CLICK HERE
Lost …
One of my favorite things to do on Martha’s Vineyard is to roam around with my camera and take pictures of whatever captures my attention. This trip I was decked out with my Nikon D60 and my handy-dandy Kodak Easy Share (which I’m never without).
Took some pictures Monday and some on Tuesday morning. Met with a dear friend on Tuesday afternoon to share coffee and to give her a gift I’d made for her. We took a few pictures of us and that evening at supper when I was checking my camera to see how the days pictures had come out, this is what I saw:
N-O-T-H-I-N-G
My picture card was blank. B-l-a-n-k. I took it out, shook it, blew on it, begged it to restore at least the pictures of my friend and me. It staunchly refused. I’m not a novice with a digital camera, I’ve had two Kodak’s and love them, I’m familiar with how they work and how to delete and NOT delete pictures. I wanted desperately to blame this malfunction on anyone but myself.. but I knew that it had to have been me somehow.
First thing next morning I went to the camera store in Vineyard Haven hoping they might find a way with their magical machines to find the pictures. They could not. Somehow the card got re-formatted and well, there went the pictures.
At least it happened the first day on the Vineyard as I was able to retrace some of my steps and retake some pictures, along with new ones of course.
Here are a few I’ll be using in upcoming posts.
You know, I’ve read where there’s some sort of magnetic force that surrounds the Vineyard and thus make it a perfect place for creativity. I’ve also read that Martha’s Vineyard sits on a separate tectonic plate from the United States. I’m wondering if either of these could have erased my pictures !!! Yes, I’m digging deep for something or someone to blame other than myself .
Wait a minute, wait just a minute… look what I found in the camera !! 🙂
Aquinnah (Gay Head) …
On the southwestern most edge of Martha’s Vineyard sits the town of Aquinnah which means ‘land beneath the cliffs’ or ‘land under the hill’. It was settled in 1669 and incorporated as Gay Head in 1870, in 1998 the town changed its name back to Aquinnah. Aquinnah is home to the native American tribe, the Wampanoag’s.
The Gay Head cliffs were registered as a National landmark in 1966. They were formed by the same glacier that formed the Vineyard some 20,000 years ago. The cliffs continue to be a source of geological and scientific information… not to mention a beautiful and awesome attraction. Fossil bones of camels, wild horses and whales as well as campfire remnants have been found in the cliffs.
Moshup Beach is the public beach beneath the cliffs. There is also the private Lucy Vincent which is for town residents and their guests, it is also a clothing optional beach. Moshup Beach was picked as one of the top 10 beaches in the US a few years ago.
Lighthouse and lightkeepers house 1960…and lighthouse 2006.
Views to the east ………………. and the west.
Any visit to the Vineyard should definitely include a trip out to Aquinnah. Spend the day at the beach or just go to see the cliffs and visit the charming shops and enjoy a bite to eat overlooking the sea and cliffs.
You might enjoy these posts I’ve done, just click on the links :
