#cedar island

[longreads]

Architecture and Blackberries: The Art of Longform Narratives - Longreads

As host of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, Brendan O’Meara is no stranger to talking about the art and craft of storytelling. In this craft-focused excerpt, we’re digging into Episode 340, in which he interviewed Atavist editor Jonah Ogles and freelance writer J.B. MacKinnon about his work on the latest issue of The Atavist. The seduction […]

“I was kind of pitching this story as The Perfect Storm meets ‘Consider the Lobster,’ David Foster Wallace’s famous essay about lobsters and whether we should eat them. That story starts out as this delightful jaunty travelogue to a lobster festival in Maine, and then it turns into a harrowing, Peter Singer-like essay on animal welfare.

I thought this one had similar potential, because the narrative is incredible. It’s hard to explain how so few cattle survived this swim, when a whole herd of them and horses was washed into the water; how do just three cattle survive this swim, if it didn’t come down in some way to their individual willpower, their conscious desire to stay alive? And if individual cattle have these kinds of capacities, then something more complicated is staring back at us in the meat aisle of the grocery store than I think many of us have considered.”

In this excerpt from The Creative Nonfiction Podcast with Brendan O’Meara, J.B. MacKinnon discusses his @atavist feature, “True Grit,” the astonishing story of the Cedar Island cows who survived a hurricane.

[k4yc13]

turtle room 🐢🚿🌱

[oakstreet]

Some views of my 5 Star Island, Cedar! If you’d like to add me, my friend code is 3056-6116-0143! Let’s be friends!

[matt-molloy]

"Guardians of the Galaxy"

The Milky Way over two Martello towers. The tower in the foreground is at Fort Henry, and the one in the distance is on Cedar Island in the St. Lawrence River. This was a tricky shot to get because it was very windy at the time, and the bright lights on the foreground with dark sky beyond made it necessary to shoot HDR to get a decent exposure all around.

[pulloversandturnovers]

My parents took me sunset chasing last night...😊

[longreads]

Heroes of the Hurricane - Longreads

When a storm surge swept dozens of wild horses and cattle from the coast of North Carolina, no one expected there to be survivors. Then hoofprints appeared in the sand.

“There is no such thing as a truly wild cow. While Cedar Island’s cattle range more or less freely, the technical term for them is feral—they are the descendants of escapees from domestication. The island’s mustangs are feral, too, but while visitors often come to Cedar Island solely in hopes of seeing the Banker horses, as the area’s herds are known, next to no one makes a special trip to photograph the “sea cows.”

The cows are striking to look at, though. While they vary in color, many have a bleached-blonde coat, blending in with the pale sand and the glare of the sun on Cedar Island’s hammerhead northern cape, where both cattle and horses roam. Tourists are happy to see the cows, just not as happy as they are to see the horses. Here and across America, a mustang—mane flowing, hooves pounding the earth—is an embodiment of beauty and freedom. Cows are not.

For Cedar Islanders, the cows are part of what makes their home distinctive, a fond and familiar part of the community and its history. In fact, the cattle have been on the island far longer than the mustangs, who were transferred from the more famous Shackleford Banks herd three decades ago. But the relationship people on the island have with horses is different than the one they have with cows, in much the same way it is for people nearly everywhere.”

This month, our sister site @atavist is featuring J.B. MacKinnon's remarkable, heartwarming story about the Cedar Island cows who survived Hurricane Dorian. Read an excerpt here.

[k4yc13]

kiki’s delivery service post office 📦💌📬

only loosely inspired by miyazaki, since kiki the cat herself seems to be! i just wish there was an actual post office in ac again...

[k4yc13]

felicity’s beachside laundromat 🐈🌴🍑