TOM DRESSER

508-693-1050

(tomdresser@aol.com)

I’m back! Once again, Holly Nadler has skedaddled off to sunny California with her new bridegroom, Jack Shea, in tow, and yours truly will fill in her weekly column, to the best of my ability, for the next four weeks.

Last year we profiled several Oak Bluffs grande dames, saluting their dedication and contributions to the town. The year before we surveyed pizza parlors. We’ve queried town officials and waded through town history. This year we’re going back to the land, literally, to share highlights of land bank properties in Oak Bluffs.

But first, the news.

It’s been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon, as Garrison Keillor is wont to say. And very true on Island, with this week’s school vacation enticing families to bolt for warmer climes. Many children who ride my school bus have headed south, to Florida, Jamaica, Nevis and beyond. It’s the one big break between Christmas and springtime, and people want to get away. Notice the shops on Circuit avenue: closed up. Even Linda Jean’s shuttered its doors through the end of February, though Slice of Life has reopened its doors to enthusiastic diners.

Speaking of food, the Oak Bluffs Council on Aging on Wamsutta avenue offers daily coffee beginning at 8:30 a.m., and a Monday morning breakfast at 10 a.m. for a mere $2; just sign up with Rose Cogliano. For those seeking fuel assistance, Susan von Steiger wants to help. Call for an appointment at 508-693-4509. Her fact sheet makes the process work smoothly. And consider a trip to the Museum of Fine Arts on March 2 with the Tisbury Travel Club, where you can experience The Secrets of Tomb 10-A: Egypt 2000 BC.

The Rotary luncheon takes place Wednesdays at the Ocean View restaurant. On March 3, the guest speaker, author Susanna Sturgis, will discuss her new book, The Mud of the Place. Luncheon charge is $18.

And speaking of books, we want to congratulate Susan Wilson on the release of One Good Dog, available March 2. Check out the glowing reviews in last week’s Gazette and Martha’s Vineyard Times by Holly Nadler and Jack Shea, respectively.

Moving to movies, Movie Night at the Oak Bluffs library continues this Thursday, March 4, at 6 p.m. It stars Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana in a romantic drama involving time travel, rated PG-13. Admission, popcorn and beverages are free. Library personnel are pleased by the popular Saturday morning chess and scrabble groups. On February 27, a round-robin chess tournament is planned with Charles, Ed, Dick, Nick, Ben, Wayne, Bruce and Tom. Do drop by.

And now for the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey used to say.

I thought we would take a brief tour of the several land bank properties in Oak Bluffs, sites which offer a quiet refuge from our busy lives, as well as protection from development. They belong to us, the townspeople. This week we preview Farm Pond and Featherstone.

The land bank purchased property along the western shore of Farm Pond as an “outdoor laboratory” for students at the nearby Oak Bluffs School in 1992. A trail runs from South Circuit avenue through the woods to the school and beyond to Trade Wind Fields Preserve. One of my favorite bicycle rides with Joyce is across the wooden walkway, along the winding trail to the school. An additional parcel to this 27-acre property is on the south side of the pond, on Beach Road, with a short walkway in.

For six years I worked as office manager at Featherstone Center for the Arts. It is a perfect locale for an art center, nestled within land bank property. Old farm buildings have been reconstituted as studios and galleries, and the surrounding fields leased out to farmers with cows off Barnes Road and veggies beyond the art center. Most exciting for me is the network of ancient ways which bisect the property, linking the land to the Southern Woodlands and Weahtaqua Springs. Featherstone has been a land bank property since 1996.

And finally, some personal notes:

Stepson Christopher Jones engaged in a little romance this month. His Finnish girlfriend, Raisa Kettunen, arrived at Logan airport for a week-long visit. On Monday, Feb.1, Christopher proposed, Raisa accepted, and they were the first Oak Bluffs couple to file marriage intentions in 2010. On Friday, Feb. 5, the lovebirds were married at the home of the groom’s father, Bill and Barbara Jones. It was a perfect ceremony, short, sweet and significant. Assistant town clerk Laura Johnston, in her role as a justice of the peace, performed the ceremony. The next day, Raisa flew back to Finland; Christopher will join her and they’ll set up house in Helsinki.

My daughter Jill lives in New Orleans. In the waning hours of the Super Bowl game, I texted her: “Where are you?” She wrote back: “In heaven.”

As Walter Cronkite used to say, “And that’s the way it is.”