Mary Oliver
The wind wags its many tails. And in the evening the piled firewood shifts a little, longing to be on its way. —Mary Oliver
October 4, 2013
Run, Don’t Walk to Save Gay Head Light
On Sunday morning the town of Aquinnah hosts a 10K run, the first of its kind in the area. The race is part of the Save the Gay Head Lighthouse campaign. Aquinnah police are asking residents of Moshup Trail and State Road to use extra caution when exiting their driveways. Read more ….
Star-Crossed Pairs
Skies overhead are full of bright stars, and from time to time the moon and planets are visible, too. On occasion there is something special about the arrangement, like when things appear in pairs. This Monday night a thin crescent moon appears right next to the bright planet Venus. The two are in the southwestern…
Aquinnah Seeks Islandwide Aid to Save Gay Head Light
Seeking Islandwide support for the relocation of the historic Gay Head Light, the town of Aquinnah will ask the five other Vineyard towns to commit to spending Community Preservation Act money next year to help pay for the move.
Police Identify Body Washed Ashore
A Framingham man found dead near Lake Tashmoo last week either jumped or fell from a Steamship Authority ferry, police said. Francis G. Elms, 74, of Framingham, was found fully clothed in the ocean west of the Lake Tashmoo opening by a caretaker on the morning of Sept. 25, according to state police Sgt. Jeffrey…
Stop & Shop Review Reopens With Changes to Expansion Plans
Plans for a large expansion and renovation of the Vineyard Haven Stop & Shop, which have raised concerns about a range of issues from aesthetics to traffic, had a slightly different look when they came before the Martha’s Vineyard Commission again Thursday night.
Saltwater Heroes Challenge Helps Veterans Find Peace on the Water
The sun had just climbed above Squibnocket ridge when Lieut. Nathan Rimpf and Senior Airman Emanuel Thompson spotted their first catch of the day. “Birds,” Mr. Rimpf and Mr. Thompson said simultaneously with the quiet confidence of pros. With a slight nod of the head, the two surmised that a large school of fish weren’t…
So Many Sunny Days, September Is Driest in 67 Years
It is incredibly dry. How dry? Last month was the driest September on the Vineyard in 67 years of record keeping. Foliage is turning brown. Lawns are amber and leaves and grass crunch underfoot. Fire has become a concern. Yesterday, while responding to a mid-day small brush fire in the woods near Sweetened Water Farm…
Tax Changes Boost Tisbury Revenues
As the summer season comes to a close, revenue from two new taxes in Tisbury is helping to boost town finances. Town administrator John (Jay) Grande presented summer totals from an occupancy tax increase and a new meals tax during the selectmen’s meeting Tuesday. The occupancy tax increased from four to six per cent, leading…
Oak Bluffs Bar Assault Heads to Superior Court
The fall sitting of the Dukes County superior court begins next Monday at the Edgartown courthouse. The Hon. Cornelius J. Moriarty 2nd, an associate justice of the superior court, will preside over the session. A new grand jury convenes on Monday. Several civil trials are on the schedule. The schedule is light on criminal matters,…
Rez Williams Named Creative Living Honoree
Rez Williams, the renowned Vineyard artist and conservationist, will receive this year’s Creative Living Award, the Permanent Endowment Fund for Martha’s Vineyard announced this week. “He has painted landscapes and portraits, but is best known for his paintings of hulking fishing trawlers using a vibrant palette and sure, determined brushstrokes,” the fund said in a…
Saving the Gay Head Light, Rallying the Cause
Stand on the north shore of the Vineyard at any point as the sun begins to set and look to the west. As the last light of day floods the land and sea, in the distance you will see the silhouette of the lighthouse, a lonely sentinel standing on a promontory of land at the…
Cottage City Pride
With its historic carousel, best-of-the-Vineyard pizza and fried clams and Victorian seaside charm that is rooted in an earlier century, Oak Bluffs is proud to be different. This is the town of diversity, where African Americans populate the summer community, and the town of affordability, where many year-round middle class Islanders make their homes. It…
Clear Eyes, Full Heart, Safe Tackles; Youth Football Takes Off
Before the fall football season started Lou Paciello was a bit worried about numbers. Mr. Paciello had joined with several other parents to help re-establish a youth football program on the Island, but he didn’t know how many players to expect at practice. It’s barely a month into the new season, but youth football has…
Junior Derby Delight
About 37 years ago my dad took my son to fish in the junior derby. In a photograph of my son standing on the pier fishing, there’s another boy standing on a piling fishing. These two Camp Ground boys met that day and became forever friends.
Shellfish Caution
I remember a saying: Don’t eat oysters in months without an “r” in them.
And the Reader’s Digest Family Health Guide/Medical Encyclopedia, copyright 1970, says, “Mussels, clams, and certain other shellfish are dangerous during some seasons of the year.
Abundance of Community
This letter is to thank my many amazing friends and the Martha’s Vineyard community for their ongoing help and support before and after my beloved husband of 56 years, Sheldon Hackney died on Sept. 12 after a long struggle with ALS.
A Visit From an Angel
Editor’s Note: Donald Mitchell, a lifelong Vineyarder, died last week at the age of 87. The following letter from him arrived at the Gazette office this week, more than one month after it was mailed, due to a post office error.
Gun Sense
In the aftermath of the Navy yard shootings, we see and hear the same accusations where innocent law-abiding people are made the problem, and, in typical knee-jerk fashion, must be dealt with by punitive legislation as the immediate solution.
Myopic Story
As Martha’s Vineyard residents for over 30 years and now living here half of the year, we had to respond to Danielle Pergament’s recent myopic article in The New York Times. She paints a rather clubby and selective picture of the Island and misses a bunch of noteworthy locals.
So Much Kindness
I appreciate the prayers and kindness shown to me and my family during my daughter’s illness. So happy to be back on-Island. So grateful. The following by Naomi Shihab Nye, from The Words Under the Words: Selected Poems, captures perfectly my sentiment at this time.
Julie Olson, Laine Scott Wed
Julie Olson and Laine Scott of Edgartown were married in a small ceremony in an Edgartown park off Main street on Sept. 30. The bride is the farm manager at the Farm Institute in Katama and the groom works at the Grey Barn Farm and Dairy in Chilmark. Julie is the daughter of Joanne and…
Welcome Milo
Kelley DeBettencourt and Ezra Agnew of Vineyard Haven announce the birth of a son, Milo Everett DeBettencourt Agnew, born on Oct. 1 at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Milo weighed 8 pounds, 6 ounces at birth.
Fall for Arts Endeavors for Rise in Economy
If you were looking to take the pulse of the Island arts community this week, the Harbor View Hotel was the place to be. A large group of Island arts leaders and planners convened there Tuesday to listen to a presentation by Lyz Crane, director of partnerships and special projects at ArtPlace America.
Sometimes It Takes a Woman’s Touch Under the Hood
Andrea Dello Russo just replaced her first-ever head gasket. Now she drains the fluids and prepares to install the thermostat.
“You see how the color is like cappuccino milk? It’s because when the head gasket leaks, all kinds of stuff gets mixed in,” she says. “This should just be oil draining out of here, but…
State Officials’ Stroll Targets Oak Bluffs Revitalization Plan
It’s not unusual to see a group of people traveling the streets of Oak Bluffs together, to see them stop in the middle of a Circuit avenue sidewalk and gaze up at a historic building, or stand next to the Tabernacle and take in the quiet calm of the Camp Ground. But the group touring…
Family Alzheimer’s Movie Touches Deep
In 2008 Pamela White began writing a book about her mother, Marian Steele who had died in 2001 of Alzheimers Disease. The project was both a tribute to the beloved matriarch of the family and to a celebrated artist. However, early in the project Pamela began having memory difficulties of her own and at the…
Please Adopt Us
Always put the good news first. The best way to begin this week’s column is to announce some happy adoptions. Mickey the Mouse, Boston, the Egyptian Mau cat, and Roo the little kitten, all went to new homes this week. Mickey, in his cage of many colors, went to a Magic Kingdom of his own.…
West Tisbury Town Column: Oct. 4
The weekend weather was delightful. A smattering of pumpkins, mums and Halloween displays are beginning to appear around town. We now have an early sunset and cooler temperatures and memories of a September that slipped by before you knew it.
Aboveground Records Will Close
After nearly 20 years in business, Aboveground Records, the landmark indie Island record store that has had a following among people of all ages, plans to close its doors. On Wednesday morning this week Aboveground founder and owner Michael Barnes announced a closing date for the beloved store at the Triangle in Edgartown by posting…
Oak Bluffs Town Column: Oct. 4
In 1641 when the Great Harbor Township founding Martha’s Vineyard was granted by King Charles, Edgartown’s East Chop neighborhood was included and remained part of that town until 1880 when consternation over taxation led to our secession and incorporation as Cottage City.
Vineyard Haven Town Column: Oct. 4
Sorry to have missed you last week. I was under the weather, which sounds ridiculous because this weather has been too incredibly beautiful to be under. Some of you seasonals and vacationers who have come or stayed later than usual now know our secret: this is the very best time of year on storybook Island.
Printing and Sharing the Metaphors of Her Life
Althea Freeman-Miller looks to plants to describe her journey as an artist. A morning glory represents her childhood on the Vineyard, a black-eyed Susan the person she was in college, and a tree her future. Metaphor extends to her family, too, but it isn’t confined to botany. An iris and an anchor symbolize her mother,…
Edgartown Town Column: Oct. 4
The weather has been so nice. The temperature is warm, the sky is blue, the leaves are starting to show their bright colors and everyone is happy. Brides who have been planning their weddings have been very happy and the fishermen have been happy. Now, I hate to spoil all the happiness but we need…
Rain, Rain, You Went Away
Will it ever rain again? It’s been over a month without anything amounting to much. Don’t get me wrong. The days could not be more perfect. Clear and crisp in the mornings with abundant sunshine all day certainly raises the spirits.
Aquinnah Town Column: Oct. 4
The weather continues to be in the 60s and 70s, with beautiful calm autumn days. Many people are still swimming at the beaches while dodging day-time derby fishermen. We all wish the weather will hold like this for awhile.
Chilmark Town Column: Oct. 4
Chilmark is gliding seamlessly through this unseasonable fall weather. No wind, lots of sun and still very few fall colors in the greenery. The sides of the road are full of yellow and purple wild flowers, lush green growth and the usual flocks of turkeys, always on their way to the other side of the…
Mark of Distinction
A warbler seen in the Phillips Preserve and a thrush spotted in the Gay Head Moraine are members of groups of birds I have always had trouble distinguishing between. The Connecticut warbler is one of three warblers that are tough to separate. The other two are the Nashville warbler and the mourning warbler. The MacGillivray’s…
As The Dragon Flies
It would be difficult to create a better superhero.
The green darner dragonfly should have its own comic strip, book and movie deal. Its qualities are similar to those of all of the best crusaders: speed, size, strength and a dash of mystery.
Chappy Town Column: Oct. 4
Big news week here! In deference to the federal government’s recent shut-down, Chappy has also suspended all government activities. All employees have been furloughed until further notice. This will hit the seagulls particularly hard as they depend on their weekly paycheck for dropping mollusks on the hoods of Mercedes.
Down But Not Out, Island Oystering Is Still Good Business
As I joined the line waiting to enter the meeting room, I greeted and joked with some of the oyster growers in a manner customary among close friends. Like old friends coming together at a funeral, our jolly small talk denied the seriousness of the occasion.
Letters to Jackie Remembered
In the days and weeks following the president’s assassination, Jacqueline Kennedy received more than 800,000 condolence letters from all over the world. On Wednesday, Oct. 9, at 7:30 p.m. the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center in Vineyard Haven will screen a documentary that includes actors reading 20 of these letters accompanied by archival footage and Kennedy…
Pennsylvania Man Incarcerated for Island Thefts
A Pennsylvania man charged with stealing more than $85,000 worth of jewelry and other items during a series of August home break-ins was sentenced last week to serve 18 months in a house of correction. Damien N. Derose, 28, of Doylestown, Pa., pleaded guilty Sept. 27 in Edgartown district court to eight counts of breaking…
Save Time for Last Dance
You have another shot at dancing the night away at the one and only family disco party — the Family Dance-O-Rama. The dance party is on Sunday, Oct. 6 from 4 to 6 p.m. at Flatbread in Edgartown. Pair your pepperoni pizza with a little hustle and join DJ Shizz for some family fun. Admission…
All Island Choral Festival Returns
Better warm up those vocal chords because an Island tradition is on its way. The All Island Choral Festival is at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 17, at the Performing Arts Center next to the regional high school. Roberta Kirn will be working with student musicians preparing them for the event.
Art of Chocolate Is Delicious Treat
Whatever your favorite — milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate or semi-sweet — the Art of Chocolate Festival will have a treat for you. The 10th annual Art of Chocolate Festival kicks off with a preview party outside under the tent at Featherstone on Friday evening, Oct. 11, from 6 to 8 p.m.
Usher in Fall With Yoga on Chappy
An autumn yoga retreat sounds like just the thing to help prepare for the changing seasons. Amanda Cohen offers a yoga retreat at the Chappaquiddick Community Center on Oct. 12 and 13 from 9 to 11 a.m. on both days. She will move the two groups through breathing techniques and postures to help usher in…
Reservation Walk
Join the land bank staff and take a guided walk of Three Ponds Reservation on Chappaquiddick on Sunday, Oct. 6 at 1 p.m. Meet at the Brine’s Pond trailhead at the Chappquiddick Community Center off Chappaquiddick Road and don’t forget your boots.
It Takes a Village for Baby Screening
Island mom Sarah Waldman is organizing a screening of the award-winning film Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin and the Farm Midwives on Thursday, Oct. 17 at Edgartown Cinemas. The film captures a spirited group of women who teach themselves how to deliver babies in a 1970s commune.
For Those Who Wandered and Those Who Stayed, Irish Gather Again
The Irish have been scattered to the four corners of the earth since 1607 when the defeated Earls fled to Spain hoping to return to fight another day with the English armies overwhelming their country. By the 1680s, France had become their destination of choice, and all Irish children learn the story of Patrick Sarsfield…
Island Dinner Series
For the months of October and November the Beach Plum Inn is offering an Island Dinner Series, which translates to a special meal featuring a menu sourced from different farms every Thursday night.
Wild Harvest
From the Vineyard Gazette edition of October 15, 1943:
Tuesday was Cranberry Day at Gay Head, and it is no exaggeration to say that virtually the entire population turned out for the annual visit to the wild cranberry bogs which has been the practice of the people of this place for untold generations.
Kids Ready the Reels, Oak Bluffs Fishing Pier Nears Completion
When he was a young boy, Peter Herrmann loved to fish off the Steamship wharf in Oak Bluffs. Before the first boat, and after the ferry stopped running for the winter, Mr. Herrmann and his friends would climb over the fence, fishing rods in hand.
Edgartown Approves Town Hall Repairs, Police Contract
The town hall will get a facelift and Chappaquiddick a new fire truck as the Edgartown board of selectmen Monday approved bids for both projects during a brief meeting. The town awarded a $540,000 bid to renovate the exterior of town hall to the Paul J. Rogan Company Inc. of Braintree. It was the sole…
Memories of Pop Still Line the Dashboard
The following poem is by Warren Woessner, a birding enthusiast and bard who wanders the shorelines of the Island.
Women of the Year Honored for Community Contributions
One stimulates the imaginations of young and old. The second brings care to the uninsured. The third feeds schoolchildren with the fruits and wisdom of the earth. All are invested in the well-being of the Island community. Together, they serve the hearts, souls and bodies of Islanders in their daily work, said Women Empowered board…
Chappy Moves One Step Closer to Comcast Service
Chappaquiddick residents are a step closer to getting cable service, with more than the required number of residents signing preliminary agreements with Comcast. Under a long-negotiated agreement between the town of Edgartown and Comcast, 270 Chappaquiddick residents had to sign commitment letters indicating their interest in getting cable service by October 1.
Festival Celebrates All Things Local
On Saturday, Oct. 5, the Living Local Harvest Festival kicks into full swing with day-long events at the Agricultural Hall in West Tisbury. The festival is from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and then from 6 to 10 p.m. is the community potluck with a dance afterwards featuring music by the Flying Elbows.
