BRAD WOODGER

508-627-4216

(ibwsgolf@aol.com)

This is an odd time of year on Chappy. For me, at least. Summer is still doing its thing, being all summery and such, but I feel a marked shift in the energy — a slowing down. There’s always a great lead up to summer here, then a brief peak, then a slow winding down. Like the Super Bowl, but with fewer ads.

Our neighbor Arnold was incarcerated over the weekend. His owners were preparing to depart Chappy for Boston when they noticed his fat, furry brown body was missing from the surrounds. Turns out he was doing some hard time at the pound. I’ve seen him since, but he doesn’t much want to speak of the experience.

Brother Kent has been visiting for the past couple of weeks, doing duty in the golf course clubhouse. Some days we have 10 to 12 people pass through the clubhouse doors so he’s been mighty busy between DVDs and small talk. He has other chores too, and approaches all tasks with such happy contentment that one could not ask for a better fraternal employee. And I now have company for my early morning coffees, aside from my feathered friends. I’m not sure that anyone has ever seen an exasperated bird, but I’m pretty sure that’s the look I get when I chat to them during their morning feeding. Same face really that my brother gets when he chats to me at a similar time.

My old friends Steve and Cathy Pogue’s daughter Molly (an Edgartown School sixth grader) has designed the T-shirt for the 5K Pennywise Path Run/Walk on Monday. September 2 to benefit the Edgartown Library. The first 100 registrants of this USATF certified event get a T-shirt. So hurry! Forms are available at the library or call 508-627-4221 for more information. Friends of the Library are the proud sponsors. I’ll go out on a limb here and say that I think libraries are good things — and as such, are worthy of our support. So get running.

I stopped by Slip Away Farm to inquire about cut flowers and had to walk past several rows of fruits and vegetables before I finally found Lily Walter in between the cherry tomatoes. I was given a handful of these delicious orbs and ate them on the spot despite my germ phobia (so deep is my trust and admiration of their product). The fact that there are rows upon rows of which to traverse to find the proprietress is a testament to the awesomeness of the Slip Awayers. The physical energy needed to create this wonder is enormous in itself, but add to this the mental energy needed as well, and one must be awestruck at this achievement. I don’t suppose to question whether Chappy folk under-appreciate their efforts, but I don’t believe that they can be appreciated too much. I think it’s akin to someone bringing Major League Baseball to my hometown of Pittsfield — if something phenomenal like this were to happen, it becomes incumbent on the residents to do everything they can — in words and deeds — to support it.

I know from experience however that a physical representation of one’s labor is not always enough to impress the initiated. I’m often asked what it is that I do all day and, when I point to the golf course, some people shrug their shoulders and ask “What else do you do ... after the mowing is done?” That’s the thing with working the land: it seems simple but is so intricate and complex. Lily showed me a horned caterpillar that was covered with parasitic wasp eggs while I munched on my tomatoes. Most people would quickly dispose of this unattractive interloper, but Lily knows enough not to disrupt nature’s plan. The wasps will take care of the voracious caterpillar better than anything she or any human could effect. Sometimes with nature it’s as much about what you don’t do as what you do.

Finally, kudos to all the North Neck wavers — proof that people really do read the Gazette town columns.