Lambert's Cove Beach in Off-Season Renews the Soul
Clearing the final dune barefoot with the fine sand of Lambert's Cove ahead.
Clearing the final dune barefoot with the fine sand of Lambert's Cove ahead.
Off-season brings the plein air painters out.
Off-season brings the plein air painters out.
North shore slopes down to water's edge scattering boulders on its way.
North shore slopes down to water's edge scattering boulders on its way.
Cliffs of Makonikey rise to the east.
Cliffs of Makonikey rise to the east.
To the west, Paul's Point.
To the west, Paul's Point.
Alone with his thoughts.
Alone with his thoughts.
James Pond.
James Pond.
Seasonal colors highlight pond edges.
Seasonal colors highlight pond edges.
There is something timeless — and therefore reassuring — with a Vineyard beach on a sunny October day. No matter how many times you have made the short journey to Lambert’s Cove Beach, it is a visceral moment when you arrive at the top of the dunes. Feet sink into flour-like sand while you take in the spectrum of the view: rustling beach grasses, Paul’s Point, James Pond, and a few boulders.
“I just loved sitting still,” the narrator of Barbara Kingsolver’s book, The Bean Tree, says at one point; and that’s the way it is at the beach. In the off-season, the beach is a powerful restorative; one leaves regretfully, but renewed.