Nancy Gardella >

508-693-3308

(vhavenvgazette@yahoo.com)

I have had the pleasure these past two weeks of being invited to two wonderful dinner parties given by my friend and chef par excellence, Ana Maria Cecilio. The first was a goodbye party for her childhood friend who is returning to Brazil. What fun we had! Great food, music and dancing. The second was her birthday party on Presidents’ Day last Monday, this time a more intimate dinner with five friends and her beautiful daughter, Keissila. Ana had enough food to feed our troops overseas. I must say, all the meats were delicious and the cake was to die for, but probably my favorite dish is salpicao, a Brazilan salad made with ham, chicken, green olives, peas, potato sticks and just about anything you want to put in there. Aside from her birthday, it was also Ana’s celebration of her one year swearing in for citizenship. Thank you, Ana, I’m so glad you’re in America.

Apologies to one-year-old Beau Eric Linderson, son of Michelle O’Donnell and Paul Linderson and grandson of Marc and Robin O’Donnell. In my last column I wished him a happy birthday for Feb. 2 when in fact, last year he couldn’t wait to get here and arrived on Feb.1, 2009. Sorry, Beau!

Another baby we need to welcome to the world is Martha Dunham’s new grandson, Connor David West Dunham. Connor is the son of Jeremy Dunham and Melanie West. He was born at Brigham and Women’s Hospital on Thursday, Feb. 4 at 2:38 p.m. He weighed in at seven pounds, seven ounces and was 20 inches long. Parents and child are doing great and should be back on the Island by now. Congratulations.

I missed deadline last week and felt terrible about it as there were so many important birthdays to announce. Here they are: for Feb. 12, Hannah Van Osten, Sandy Pratt, Sukhi Bahal and Nat Benjamin; for Feb. 13, Chloe Nolan, Brenda Campbell, Linda Dickson, Kristen Daly, Fiona Catherine Mayhew and Tom Buchert; on Valentine’s Day the celebrants were Ray Whitaker, Alan Hirschberg, Sam Bungey, Gayle Stiller, Tim Clark and Linda O’Leary; on Feb. 15 birthday honors went to Grace Burton-Sundman, Heliliani Mendes Souza and Ana Maria Cecilio; on Feb. 16 it was Mary Lee Gerber, Father Nagle, Chelsea Rose King and Stephen Kaufman; on Feb. 17, Jill LaPiana and Colin Kennedy celebrated; and on Feb. 18 Charlotte Strople and my favorite bartender, Paul Howes, shared the day.

Betty Burton wants you to know that Herb Foster will speak at the Tuesday evening library lecture series next Tuesday, Feb. 23, at 7 p.m.. All events at the library are free.

Guinevere Higgins, a 1999 regional high school graduate, will make a presentation and take questions after the film, Coal Country, at 10 a.m. tomorrow morning at the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School. The film and presentation are free; donations are welcome for the charter school’s science lab project. The film reveals the truth about how energy is produced, and we get to meet working miners in Appalachia. It has been called “a balanced, sober look at the reality of coal, both the good news and the bad . . .” I’ll see you there.

Lizanne Donegan and Brian Doherty celebrate their wedding anniversary today.

The birthday bandwagon pulls along Chris Paffendorf, Michael James Moore, Justin Keough and Bob Gordineer today; tomorrow is a party for Warren West, Laura Artru, Michael Dowling, and Benjamin Davey; Feb. 21 is for Marie Boas, Michael Cecilio, James Holenko and Nisa Kontje; Feb. 23 is shared by David Gardella and Reid MacPherson; and on Feb. 25 Rosie Piccione takes the cake. Many happy returns.