Ode to Tangier

Cute little houses everywhere

Drying clothes and underwear in clean, fresh air

Citizens with strong beliefs

Waterside epicurean relief

Boats that most write off as dead

Crabs underwater, crabs how they shed overhead

(Nowhere left to place the dead.)

Boats point like arrows, dumped from their quiver

Boats on the water, boats that deliver

Boats in the yard,
Buckets on the posts

Homes just like Mathews,
Homes filled with ghosts

Floodwaters rising

Watermen barely thriving

Cute little houses everywhere

What's not to love about Tangier?

In an effort to get this blog back on track (where that track is headed, CBW's not sure nobody's really sure), and in honor of Thursday, let's share three things.  Shall we?  

1.  The above ode to Dr. Seuss Tangier Island was written in about five minutes last night after a long day at work.

2.  I need to spend some time taking new pictures here in the county this weekend.

3.   Chesapeake Bay Daughter got her braces off last week.  For the first time in two years, she can eat corn on the cob! (We get excited over seemingly small things such as this.  It's one of the benefits of living in a place like Tangier Mathews.  You make your own fun.)

Now it's your turn to please share three things.  Whatever you want.  Anything at all. If you can't think of anything, tell me three places you hope to visit in your lifetime.  Hopefully Tangier Island in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay is on that list.

Transportation on Tangier

As I mentioned last week, only the mailman and a few other designated folks own cars on Tangier Island.  Everyone else gets around by foot, boat, golf cart or bicycle.

Bicycles are everywhere.

In every possible color.

You don't see bikes chained down to anything.  They're just left at the point the rider needed to get off.  What would be the point of locking bicycles?  Who's going to steal them and where would they go?  Overboard?

The bike above sports the inclement weather attachment, also known as a plastic bag.

By the way, the folks on Tangier are exceedingly patriotic.  House after house has a flag or something red, white and blue in the yard.  The yards are almost always surrounded by a picket, chain-link or other sort of fence. If good fences make good neighbors, it's a community love fest on Tangier.

This was my favorite bike of all.  

Click here for another informative article about Tangier.

Tangier Island. Yes. Still.

Just when you thought I was done with Tangier Island, I'm not!

With over 400 photographs and no time to synthesize them, I merely tossed up a few token shots last week without realizing what was left over.

There is actually at least another week's worth that are decent enough to share here.

This works out well for me since I've not had a chance to get out and about here in Mathews to take photos.

I love this boat in spite of (or perhaps because of) the fact that it's seen better days.

Is there enough room in this contraption for all the passengers listed?

Mathews or Tangier?  

I spy a bow that matches the first photo in today's post.

Please believe me when I say that at some point I'll return to normal--whatever that is--and will focus on photos and stories relating to Mathews.

However, the past several weeks I've been wanting to escape from stories relating to life here. Things have been slightly chaotic. We've been short-staffed at work meaning longer hours and higher levels of stress; a local teen was killed in an auto accident; a dear, dear friend from high school passed away; and a few more challenges have presented themselves.

All things considered, though, I can't complain, really. It's all about perspective. Life is good, I just haven't had a whole lot of time to devote to this crazy blog little hobby of mine known as a blog.

Until I make the time to sit down and write everything that's swirling in my addled brain, I'll at least share more pictures from the Tangier trip.

What is going on in your world? Any unexpected challenges? Any winning lottery numbers? Anything exciting?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

p.s. Middle Sister's birthday was this weekend.  Click here for my mother's celebratory blog post.

Juxtaposition

Happy Friday.  Have a great weekend.

Scenes from Tangier IV

Lacking dotted lines, solid lines, lines at all or shoulders, 

the roads on Tangier are loaded with charm.

I think this is the mailman. With a bike in the back, not mail.
Regardless, this is one of the few vehicles you'll see on the island.

Golf carts are like cars on Tangier. 

If you're not traveling by golf cart, you're pedaling a bicycle.

Or hoofin' it.
Believe it or not, this a road.
Not a footbridge.

Intersection of Long Ridge and West Ridge.
(In case you overlook the waist-high road signs.)

 

Speed limit or maximum pulse rate?

More Tangier photos forthcoming.