I received several gifts for Mother's Day this year: flowers from No. 1 son, chocolate turtles from DH, and a lighthouse photo from No. 2 son! The flowers soon faded, and I ate the candy, but the last gift lives on!Because of copyright reasons, I usually am unable to show the original photo or photos from which I develop a lighthouse design for needlepoint. But in this case, the photographer was my son, who took a day trip from Boston to Martha's Vineyard with some friends last month. Living with me and my lighthouses for so many years, he knew exactly what I'd be looking for in a photo. What he and his friends hadn't counted on was the weather the day of the trip--overcast and somewhat foggy. Not exactly ideal conditions for tromping around the Vineyard, but the day proved to be perfect for me! His photo of East Chop lighthouse will give me an excellent opportunity to try my hand at needle-blending a foggy sky!
In 1646, the term "East Chop" was first used by Thomas Mayhew, the governor of Martha's Vineyard, in reference to the "eastermost chop of Holmes Hole." The word "chop" was an English term for the entrance to a channel; the name "Holmes Hole" was officially changed to Vineyard Haven in 1871.
The present lighthouse, a 40-foot cylindrical cast iron tower, was constructed in 1878. Originally painted white, it was re-painted a reddish-brown in the 1880s, giving it the nickname the "Chocolate Lighthouse." It returned to its white marking sometime in the first quarter of the 1900s. The lighthouse's characteristic flashing green light was automated in 1934, and the original Fresnel lens was replaced by a modern optic in 1984. The land surrounding the lighthouse was sold by the Coast Guard in 1957 to the town of Oak Bluffs for use as a park.
I'll need to stitch some of the white tower first before attacking the sky, so stay tuned!
3 comments:
Anne,
That is a beautiful lighthouse.
I do wish these people would add flowers as it would make things so much more interesting for us stitchers and not a bird in sight either :-(
Pierrette =^..^=
What a gorgeous photo - your son is, indeed, a treasure to be so intuitive about what you need for a design. I like the simplicity of it, and that small bit of white fence - elegant! I think the fog and the lack of color enhances it. Now - get to work stitching, please. I need entertainment. I feel so inferior, as I've only been putting beads on cactus while you and Jan produce art.
Anne,
What a super job you did on the painting of this lighthouse! It's going to be fun to see how you do the sky on this one. I can't figure out how you will do the fog. Don't keep up in the "fog" for long on this one. I know it will be just perfect when you get it done.
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