News and Events for Nantucket Island
Around ten this evening, my boon companion rests his heavy head on my knee. He knows nothing of the Bruins or the British Baking Show; he only knows the call of the wild. If I don’t move for him and his needs, he puts one paw up on that leg. If I somehow have failed to hear his silent cry, both legs come up along with eighty pounds of golden retriever to fill my lap.
With our changing climate, one impact we are currently experiencing is our island is becoming hospitable to new and different species. Warmer winters, fewer cold snaps, and hotter, drier summers are welcoming a suite of new species. As some species expand their ranges into new territories, they may have little effect on the surrounding ecosystem. Other species have the potential to cause ecological and economic harm – a true invasive. The Southern Pine Beetle (SPB) is our newest Nantucket visitor wreaking havoc and causing harm to our native pitch pine stands.
Nantucket Island is as beautiful during the Quiet Season as it is during the heyday of summer. Share your autumn, holiday, and winter photos by entering our 2024 Nantucket Photo Contest. To participate, email your high resolution photos of Nantucket that depict our island and island life to ackphotocontest@gmail.com. Enter […]
Nantucket Island—the community here, the pristine beaches, the drama of the sea—it has a way of capturing hearts and filling souls. For many who live here, it can be difficult to leave, even when life events, family, and work makes a departure seem practical. Islanders label this “getting sand in your shoes,” and Niles Parker responded to the call when he returned in 2022 to retake the helm at the Nantucket Historical Association as Gosnell Executive Director.
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, October 6-8, Artists Association of Nantucket (AAN) is hosting its annual Wet Paint Weekend, with many opportunities for the island community to meet AAN artists, see them at their easels, and participate in an auction of their works. “Wet Paint Weekend is truly a highlight of […]
It’s been almost a month since the awesome August Blues tournament ended, and my butt is still sore from getting beat out on the Gator Blue prize for the biggest bluefish. A fine young fisher named Gray Malitsky knocked me to the canvas and stood over me like a young Cassius Clay (aka Muhammad Ali) did to Sonny Liston, beating me with his 36.5 inch monster blue. In the weeks since my humiliating, soulcrushing, “…to the death! No, to the pain” style defeat, I have learned some things about Gray, this mysterious young champion. And what I’ve learned is far too great to not share with you all, so here goes.
Now that it is officially fall on Nantucket, we can start celebrating the “spooky season.” As I am writing this, fall has just begun. But autumn moves quickly on Nantucket. Throughout September we feel the “Second Summer” vibes. Early October can even have mild days. But then suddenly, the winds pick up, the rain falls, and decorative gourd season descends.
For more than three decades we’ve invited all who live on and visit the island to enter our annual Nantucket Photo Contest. Our readers enthusiastically participate: every year we receive hundreds of their favorite views of Nantucket. This year we had nearly as many photos of sunrises as of sunsets: […]
Photo by Allyson Bold
Summer often ends in a storm. One of the great whirling tempests of the Caribbean forms somewhere off the Azores and begins the slow dance across the warm Atlantic and around the Bermuda high. Those Who Know watch the glass and the Weather Channel to see how close and how far away the storm will pass. Then, when prudence and procrastination crash together at the boat ramp, summer gets towed away, shrink wrapped, and plopped onto a rack.
