The big tent has been assembled and the organizers are scrambling to open the annual event that creates more excitement than a circus. It is the library’s annual book sale, which begins Wednesday, July 24, and takes place from 9 a.m to 3 p.m and each day through Monday, July 29. Books in every conceivable category, new and old, are collected all year by the thousands and snatched up by our eager, literate, perspicacious population. Music too. Leftover books are free on the last day.

A Sustainable Harvest is the subject of a panel discussion about the Island’s agriculture and aquaculture. It takes place Saturday, July 20 at the Agricultural Hall in West Tisbury, beginning at 4 p.m. The panel facilitator is Dr. Jessica Harris, historian and author of High on the Hog. Panelists are Simon Athearn, CEO of Morning Glory Farm, chef Betsy Carney, oyster farmer Dan Marino and Shelly Edmundson of the Martha’s Vineyard Fishermen’s Preservation Trust.

Don Sibley and Dan Meleney from the Island’s Bonsai Club will share information about the art of pinching and pruning small trees to recreate a miniature bit of nature, literally a zen thing. It is at the library, beginning at 1 p.m. on Saturday, July 20. Samples of club members’ creations are on display.

Learn to make art from beach trash (while doing a good deed) at the library, Friday, July 19, at 3 p.m.

Artists whose shows open Friday, July 19, at the Granary Gallery are Terry Crimmen, Heidi Lang and West Tisbury native Ken Vincent.

The Cup of Karma Project is a pleasant-sounding afternoon of stories told by Island farmers Jim Athearn, Kaila Allen-Posin and Kate Woods as well as beekeeper/baker Julie Vanderhoop and Cicilio Neto, owner of those photo-op oxen named Chilmark and Titanic. It will be held at the Agricultural Hall, Sunday, July 21, at 3 p.m

Vineyard native Chico Huff, legendary drummer Robby Ameen, with Joel Harrison on guitar and Jeremy Berlin at the keyboard will play a concert of Harrison’s original music and jazz tunes at the library Wednesday, July 24, at 4:30 p.m.

Ollie Becker’s film Great Ponds, about the hazards of over-population on the Island, as well as possible remedies, will be shown at the Grange Hall, Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. and again at 7:30 p.m.

If you are having visitors, are back from a trip, celebrating a birthday or anniversary, email me at maleywt@comcast.net, or phone me ­— I’m in the book.

I was outside at dusk when my eye caught a black bundle as big as a prize pumpkin that slowly drifted out from under the tool shed. The cluster was tight enough and far enough that I couldn’t be sure what I was seeing but it kept gliding across the flat lawn. Then I saw a flash of white as the mass began to break up a bit. Two tiny skunks broke off from the main clump, kicked up their heels and veered right toward an opening in another shed. The slightly diminished mass continued its slow drift across the yard, heading toward safety under the car. One by one, little skunks broke off like petals from a flower on a windy day. New babies, first outing, so endearing. So relieved we don’t have a dog.