For more than a week, we were away from our new home in the Cateechee mill village church. We were off on an adventure to Martha's Vineyard. Our mission was to bring my artwork, including The Lace Forest, to an invitational exhibition at Featherstone Gallery and to help install the entire show. Of course, this didn't require every minute. We had plenty of time to explore the island. It was fabulous!
On another day, we ventured to Great Rock Bight Preserve. For most of the time, we were totally alone watching seals play in the distance and exploring the seaweed and rocks along the coastline.
... and the rocks were amazing in their variety of colors.
For some reason, I never snapped a photo of the cute little cabin in which we were staying ... but I did get this shot of the turkey who visited nearly very morning for breakfast. She had two chicks with her but they were camera shy (or I was too shy to get near them while Mama turkey was so close!)
Although Steve and I are not "foodies" and rarely take pictures of exotic dishes ordered in restaurants, we were elated with the seafood selections. Of course we were! Steve loves to cook too. We bought bluefish at this Vineyard Haven store. Bluefish, a colder water species, is almost never available in South Carolina.
We didn't buy a whole lobster ... but ...
... we did go to Larsen's Fish Market in Chilmark, the southwestern part of the island.
Steve had an excellent lobster roll. I opted for the best marinated calamari salad ever!
We visited both craft breweries on the island and had pizza at Offshore Brewing in Oak Bluffs. Mostly, we ate outside our cabin!
On another day, we went to Polly Hill Arboretum. It was fabulous ... and again ... despite the crowds in the historic towns, there were very few people around. We felt close to nature and the reasons why Martha's Vineyard was a place of refuge in the 19th century. It was away from summer heat in the big cities. It was beautiful and lush with a rolling terrain and sandy beaches.
The flowering trees were amazing.
We walked through a blooming Dogwood Alley.
We were struck by the beauty of magnolia blossoms that were beyond their prime ...
... but also by those just opened. We have a magnolia tree at the church but it isn't the same species and most of our blossoms are much higher off the ground making photos like these nearly impossible.
Yet the flowers that impressed me most were the hydrangea. They were EVERYWHERE. They were beside the art galleries we visited. They were in front of the shops we went to. They were at the flea market we visited (which was more of an artist market ... where I tried on a sterling and shell bracelet with a $718 price tag! Not the sort of flea market I assumed!) The hydrangea weren't all deep blue or even the same species. Some were bright pink. Some purple. Some brilliant white with lime green. It was lovely to be on Martha's Vineyard while the hydrangea were blooming.
1 comment:
All of these fun experiences were icing on the cake!
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