PETER WELLS

508-627-4216

(peter@chappyferry.net)

David Plumb’s family has asked that donations in memory of David go to Mytoi Garden. David loved the garden and visited every week that he was on Chappy. The Plumb family has given the fountain near the entrance to the garden and his grandchildren gave the heaths and heathers on the serpentine path for his 90th birthday. This fall, three cut-leaf Japanese maples will be planted in David’s memory. Make your check out to The Trustees of Reservations, write “Mytoi” on the memo line and drop in the mail slot marked Mytoi donations at the Mytoi gatehouse.

Make sure that you check out the list of tours that The Trustees has planned. They range from Explore the Shore to Family Hike Night. See their website or visit any of the gatehouses for up-to-date information.

Unless you’ve been invited to Lady Gaga’s for dinner, the place to be tonight is the Chappy Community Center. Starting at 5:30 p.m. see a special showing of Jane Goodall’s film My Life With Chimpanzees. Refreshments and art activities will be provided after the movie. Free for all ages.

The CCC will be a busy place on Saturday. Don’t miss out on the chance to get rid of your old household chemicals, stains, oil paints, small amounts of bad gas and used motor oil. Motor oil disposal fee is $1 per gallon. You can drop these hazardous materials off at the CCC on Saturday, July 20, between 7 and 8:30 a.m. sharp. This collection is sponsored by the CIA Water Committee and coincides with the Household Hazardous Waste Collection at the Edgartown Transfer Station held from 9 a.m. to noon. So save yourself the trip into town, get up a little earlier and bring your bad stuff to the CCC, where it will be loaded into a pickup truck and taken over for you. For years now Pimpney Mouse Farm has been providing the truck. This year it has turned that honor over to Mike Kidder. Water-based paints and tires will not be accepted. You’ve waited all year for this!

The CCC Annual Community Fair is also on Saturday. From 11:30 a.m. until 2 p.m. you can feast on barbecue and baked goods, look through the summer reads at the book sale, play games and participate in or witness the world famous Chappy dog show hosted this year by Nancy Slate. In order to recognize the unique qualities and abilities of every dog and owner, additional awards categories have been created. The fair is open to the entire Chappy community, but if you aren’t a member of the CCC yet you can join up while you’re there. There are lots of fun volunteer opportunities at the Fair. Call Lynn at 508-627-8222.

You probably think that you already know all that there is to know about the Biology and Behavior of Coastal River Otters here on the islands. Don’t kid yourself. Be at the CCC Monday night, July 22, at 7 p.m. and let Luanne Johnson and Liz Baldwin fill you in on the real deal with these very cute but very sharp-toothed critters who live right amongst us.

Tuesday, July 23, is children’s movie night. We don’t know yet what the movie will be, but that’s not the most important detail of children’s movie night — the popcorn is what matters most. Bring your own drinks. Show starts at 6:30 p.m. Check the chalkboard on the porch for an update on the movie title.

The Chappy Book Club has been reading Pearl Buck’s classic, The Good Earth. Ellen Sole will lead the discussion at the CCC on Wednesday, July 24, at 10 a.m. This book was a bestseller and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. Pearl Buck, raised in China, was the daughter of Presbyterian missionaries and won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1938.

Speaking of Ellen — you wouldn’t know it to look at her, but she just celebrated her 61st birthday. She reveled this secret to me the other day while sitting on the bench at the ferry surrounded by birthday flowers. When I first came upon this scene I said to Ellen, “What has Clark done that requires so many apology bouquets?” It turns out that he was in the clear at least up to that point in time and was planning on taking the birthday girl out to dinner as well.

Keep in mind that every Wednesday from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. on the porch of the CCC you can drop in on the Farmers’ Market and Craft Sale. This is a great chance to get very local food and crafts. Veteran farmers’ market participant Collins Heavener of Slip Away Farm says: “This is by far the best farmers market and craft sale on the planet. And I’ve been to a lot of these, so trust me, I know what I’m talking about. Ours is so much more relaxed than the one in West Tisbury and you get to skip the trip all the way up there.”

The second annual Cemetery Walk is scheduled for Wednesday, July 24. The suggested donation is $10, with all proceeds going to support the CCC. Meet cemetery board member and historian Liz Villard at 6 p.m. and head out on a captivating tour of the burial grounds of Chappaquiddick. You will discover the history of Chappy while listening to charming stories of some of Chappy’s most fascinating residents. You won’t

have time afterward for supper so just go straight in to the ice cream social which runs from 7 to 8:30 p.m.

Marvene and Bob O’Rourke are back from Washington, D.C. where they welcomed their newest grandchild into the world on June 29. Amani Winslow Wongue made her appearance after a mere seven minutes in the delivery room, weighing in at 8 pounds, 1 ounce. Her big sister Maya, mother, Brenna, and father, Francois, are enjoying a month together in D.C. before dad has to return to Burundi and the ladies get to come to Chappy for August. Then it’s back home to Burundi for the whole gang with grandmother, Marvene, along as well to lend a hand. I hope that she will get in plenty of baby holding time. Amani means peace in Swahili and her grandmother says that she is indeed a peaceful little soul.

Do you need to get the little kids out of the house? Come to Casual Playgroup for newborn to 4 year olds at the CCC on Tuesdays from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. and Fridays 10 to 11 a.m. Activities include story time, music, games and crafts. This is a great way for moms and dads to catch up with old friends while making new ones. You can trade notes on parental exhaustion and see for yourself that your child may actually be pretty well-behaved compared to some of the other kids.

A few days ago I happened to overhear a request come over the radio from the Dukes County Communications Center to the Edgartown police to look into a report of sharks close to shore at South Beach. Police cruiser Echo 17 (Echo being the call sign for Edgartown police cruisers) was in the vicinity and took up the task. Standard operating procedure requires that if the communications center has not heard back from the responding officer after a short period of time, they need to check in with him or her to make sure everything is okay. Under ordinary circumstances it will be a quick, “Echo 17 are you all set?” This time however there was an addition to the usual query, “Echo 17 are you all set or are you going to need a bigger cruiser?”