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These little flowers make me want to break out in rowdy song.

The originator of the raucous tune swimming around in my head was the band The Foundations, who found their inspiration in its diminutive yellow blooms. I know that you can’t help but sing loud; you know the words!

“Why do you build me up (Build me up)

Buttercup baby just to

let me down (Let me down)

And mess me around

Big Night Out

Big Night Out, the annual Montessori school fundraiser, is at Farm Neck golf course next Friday, May 14, from 7 to 11 p.m. There will be live and silent auctions, plus hors d’oevre and desserts from Rickard’s Bakery. Tickets available at the door and at ticketsmv.com.

Island van tour owner Ron Minkin can now count Chilmark among the towns on his route, after the selectmen approved his street license for the coming summer.

The approval stipulates that Mr. Minkin limit his Martha’s Vineyard Transport LLC fleet to 14-passenger vans, and that no tours run through Menemsha after 5 p.m., to avoid congestion from the swarm of visitors that come to enjoy the Menemsha sunsets.

Miles for Memories Walk

The annual Alzheimer’s Miles of Memories Walk steps off next Sunday, May 16, at noon, along the bike path from the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School to Dodger’s Hole and back. The walk is just under two and a half miles.

Heather Jardin has been diagnosed with cancer again, and her friends refuse to take a backseat in the effort to get her on the mend. Next Friday, May 14, the Portuguese American Club in Oak Bluffs will host a huge evening event of music and food.

They are calling it Help Heather Beat Cancer, and admission is $20. The band Mercy Beat run by Rick Padilla will play music. Special guests John O’Toole, Loira Burra and others will perform. All food will donated. There will be a silent auction. The event runs from 6 p.m. to midnight.

Every day it is open, some 350 people walk through the door of the West Tisbury Public Library. The library draws patrons in droves, not just from West Tisbury but from other Island towns as well. It boasts the largest on-Island collection by more than 5,000 pieces, and had an annual circulation of 149,000, far more than that of its closest follower, the Vineyard Haven Public Library, with a circulation of 111,000.

Bands Play On

The Seafood Shanty will have to keep the noise down this summer, the Edgartown selectmen decided Monday.

Responding to complaints from neighbors over the past five years, selectmen voted to require the harborfront restaurant to contain the volume of live music on the property.

JOHN S. ALLEY

508-693-2950

(alleys@vineyard.net)

The weekend weather was toasty warm. Saturday an Islandwide bike race was held under a bright blue sky and near record warmth. Sunday found us under the same blue sky but with milder temperatures. The orioles (birds that is) have returned to town. The late Emma Whiting had records to prove that they always return by May 12 and bird-watchers will keep a sharp eye out for them on Tuesday. The VTA buses began operating on their summer schedule last Saturday morning with additional weekend trips.