Looking down at a map, Oak Bluffs looks like the mitten of Martha’s Vineyard, although contextually, looking at the whole Island it might occur to you that we look like the right one of two humps of a west-traveling camel. That’s descriptive but not as appealing.

Our coastline is changing and it’s easier to predict how it will look in the future than guessing how it looked after the glaciers formed the Island. We know that most of it was barren, and when the original people first settled in Ogkeshkuppe, our topography looked remarkably different from today.

The Farm Neck area settled by the original people was flat, protected by marshland inland of Sengekontacket Pond. You could see the Lagoon and Sengekontacket from the hilly crest lining County Road. Those views are now blocked by the oak trees that outgrow everything. North of Farm Neck, at the end of the golf course and around Wing Road was mostly farm land, much of it now also covered by oak trees.

Anne Hale’s Moraine to Marsh: A Field Guide to Martha’s Vineyard goes into some depth explaining why we’re known for woodlands instead of forests. Our light, quick draining soil doesn’t allow trees to reach the height needed to build an understory beneath their canopies for a forest to develop. Oak withstands the wind and salty air — and thrives while other hardwood trees do not. Over time, it is said, the oaks will cover the entire Island.

In 1835 we cut them down to build the city in the woods of our Camp Ground. As recently as the early 1870s, Lucy Vincent Smith would traipse through the woods where Ocean Park is today to see the moonrise and go Bluffing. We cut those woods down to help build Cottage City. In 1873 the Lagoon Heights development was mapped out to market 500 lots along the Lagoon in the area between Pennsylvania avenue and Barnes Road that, although hard to believe now, was barren.

In fact, one of the sale points of the lots was the promise of views across the Lagoon to Vineyard Haven and to downtown Oak Bluffs. It’s remarkable that while we clear cut the area of the four fingers of a mitten, the part of the palm that was barren is now covered by oak woodlands. Each year those oak trees pay us back upon their return in late May and June with a coverall of pollen that makes both of our black and white cars green. I wonder if all that green pollen enhances the growth of that verdant, vibrant, venal, vicious and virulent poison ivy — which is back with a vengeance along the bike paths. Take care.

My colleague Suzan Bellincampi, who writes the Vineyard Gazette’s All Outdoors column, has published Martha’s Vineyard: A Field Guide to Island Nature, an updated version of Anne Hale’s book. There’s a book release party for it on June 14 from 4 to 6 p.m. at Felix Neck, and I hope you will pick one up. If not there, then at one of our bookstores. Think of it as a TV Guide for outside.

Congratulations to East Chop’s Carroll and Myrna Allston whose daughter Carolyn got her masters in education from UMass in Boston, following her matching undergraduate degree from Hampton.

Our chic boutique On Kennebec is open, as is the new craft beer and whiskey bar, 20 By Nine (named for the dimensions of the Island). It is where the Side Car used to be. Ben DeForest nicknames his delicious nearby eatery, the Red Cat at Ken ‘N’ Beck, “9 X 9” — the size of its kitchen. Beetlebung coffee and cocktails opened over the weekend (wow!) and so did Ocean Day Spa, another new place on Circuit avenue. Beetlebung’s new logo is BBOB, another sign that the cool kids in Oak Bluffs have figured it out. Instead of T-shirt shops, these new establishments give longtime Island homeowners more reasons to come shop — and play.

The never-was laundromat no longer is, now transformed into a vacant lot on Uncas avenue, readying itself for our new bowling alley. You should stop for a look.

Vanessa the Farm Pond sea monster is back ... or is that the daughter? It’s officially summer.

Keep your foot on a rock.