EmptyCage: Windmills on the Edge

August 12, 2006

We took off early for us, around 12:30 pm. It was a long drive from Cavendish, on the north shore and just about the middle of the island, to the North Cape, the north westernmost point of the island. We went in search of the windmills and perhaps Elephant rock. The drive turned out to be about clouds and weather. I kept checking out the layered banks of clouds and telling Marcia to find a good place to pull over so I could get a photo-ideally w/o powerlines.

By the time we had lunch (nothing to write home about), it had started to rain. The drive was still fabulous. We finally reached the windmills in the rain. I headed for the edge anyway, but a clap of thunder prompted MDT to call me in. We toured the little museum and had a great time seeing what Elephant Rock used to look like, why it no longer looks like an elephant, how

windmills

work, and what a bicolored lobster looks like. By this time there was no more thunder and just a few drops of rain, so I headed out for a photoshoot of the amazing geological formations, the lighthouse,

and the windmills. There had to be some severe croping due to raindrops on the lens, but lots of shots came out just fine.

A word about the elephant and lighthouse, it takes a matter of a storm or two to wipe out significant chunks of earth. Therefore, there is little of the elephant left and the lighthouse has had to be moved back several times.

Here is a rock that shows how layers of sediment have made this coast. Some have been packed harder than others making for easy erosion of the soft packed rocks. Amazing that this soil used to be in our neighborhood.

Check out the seaweed. This tells me that the tide was out, and it comes back really high.

Check out the beach rocks. In each of these shots, there are shore birds. I have found at least one in each photo, but when I shot, there were two. Remember that you can click on the photo to enlarge it.