JOHN S. ALLEY

508-693-2950

(alleys@vineyard.net)

Today is the beginning of a long holiday weekend and skating on Parsonage Pond is in full gear. Ice also covered most of the Mill Pond, Ice House and Uncle Seth’s as well but skating is recommended only on Parsonage Pond.

The large elm tree about 150 years old in front of Judge Davis’s house on State Road has been removed because it succumbed to Dutch elm disease. Last fall Allen had an older elm removed near the farm barn for the same reason.

Marian Irving, of Old County Road, announced the marriage of her daughter, Susan, to Mike Alexis last Saturday afternoon. The marriage was celebrated at the First Congregational Church in New Castle, N.H. A reception followed at the Wentworth Hotel in Portsmouth. Family members and friends attended from as far away as the island of Ibiza (off the coast of Spain), and London, England as well as many people from the West and the East Coasts. Marian’s twin granddaughters, Nichole and Chloe, attended the bride and their brother, Scott, was an usher. The bride and bridegroom are both graduates of Tufts University and will live in Charlestown. Susan is involved in software programming and sales, while Mike is an independent contractor pursuing the development of wind turbines.

Bob and Barbara Day, of Willow Tree Hollow, returned home Monday after a wonderful Christmas-New Year’s cruise with their daughter, Catha, son in law, Dave Carlson, their three children and 33 other members of the Carlson family, They traveled from Santiago and Valparaiso, Chile, through the Magellan Strait, to Uruguay, and Buenos Aires, going ashore at several ports along the way. They especially enjoyed seeing Patagonia, the friendly penguins in Puerto Madryn, Argentina, and listening to the shipboard lectures about the early settlement of the countries. Barbara reports that it was a wonderful trip.

Perry Garfinkel, of Dancing Hill in Christiantown, returned last month from five months stay in India doing research work for his new book. He is making a winter cameo appearance, not at his usual digs off Music street (courtesy of Mark Mazer) but at the Rabinowitz house. He’ll be here into February, and then he will return to India to finish up interviews and travel for the book, and to attend the wedding of a Raj princess in Udaipur, Rajasthan. He’ll discuss his book, Third Eye on India, at the library on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. Then, on Jan. 22, for those who love to travel and want to write about their trips, he’s teaching an all-day travel writing workshop at his Christiantown Road house. The fee of $150 includes lunch and a wine-and-cheese mixer at the end of the day. For more information, call him at 508-693-9305, or e-mail him at perrygarfinkel@aol.com.

Town clerk Tara Whiting has not finished mailing the annual census forms to all of you, but when you receive it please fill it out and return it if you haven’t done so already, in the enclosed postage paid envelope. This is important because it will allow the board of registrars to keep your name on the voting list. For those of you that own a dog, now is the time to license them for the year and you can do that when you return the census envelope or stop by the town hall and purchase a dog tag. She also reports that she has nomination papers in her office. The deadline to file for the annual election ballot is March 10 at 5 p.m.

Judy Hall, of Pond Road and Oklahoma City, reports that her husband, Malcolm, has been busy planning their vegetable garden and has started growing plants indoors in their Oklahoma City home to bring to the Vineyard. He is growing two different types of okra plants this year so he can transplant them immediately upon arrival. Malcolm reports that Judy just returned from Bethany Beach, Delaware where she attended the annual Carmen Miranda midwinter art festival last week.

Ken Goldberg reports that the Fiber Folks gathering will take place on Sunday at the Agricultural Hall, on Panhandle Road, from 1 to 4 p.m. They will be held the second Sunday of each month through May. So bring your knitting, spinning, rug hooking, quilting, or any handiwork. Join them for an afternoon of friendship and fiber.

Colleen Morris, over at the library, reports that she is busier than usual for this time of the year. Tomorrow she will conduct a snow people craft class from 1 to 4 p.m. and next Saturday at 4 p.m. will be the beginning of the winter concert series featuring Taffy McCarthy and Bob Johnston.

Happy birthday to John Mancuso, Mary Orcutt, Tanya Larsen and Astrea Young today; Angela Burbank, Richard Lee and Butch Downs tomorrow; Paul Jackson, Jane Rossi, and Sibel Suman on Sunday; Dr. Judith Fisher, Dan Serusa, Wendy Benedetto and Calixte Monast on Monday; Eleanor Dale Neubert, Chris Fielder, Inez Janger and Hannah Maxner on Tuesday; Debra Swanson, Roy Hope, Andy Estrella, Michael Shea, Roy Hope, Liz Branch and Patti Lynn on Wednesday; and Lee McCormick, Jena Wingood, Paul Strauss, Carl Tack, Joann Schwager, Alan Ganapol, and Nancy Cabot on Thursday. Belated birthday wishes to Linda Baughman.

Well, that is all of the social news for this week’s edition. Colleen reports that tomorrow we will have reached the half way point in National Oatmeal Month. Have a great week.