I have often wondered how one justifies the $50,000-plus tuition fee of a private high school. It was out of our range 20 years ago when our kids were teenagers. And then, just when I’m praising myself for all that money saved, Bill Dennehy walks rapidly past our house with his determined step and iPod ringing in his ears.

Did you miss me last week? I was so overwhelmed with driving Nonna back to the Island for the summer as well as my two dogs and one cat, that I was too exhausted to file a column on time. We had partied so hard at Nonna’s farewell party on her porch in White Plains that we were a day behind schedule.

I have a new friend. He is a turtle. I think we get along because we see ourselves in each other. Like me, he is a procrastinator. Without fail he begins his trek across the ninth fairway of my golf course only after he hears the oncoming hum of my mower. I imagine him at home with best intentions to “this time” begin his journey to the swamp before the advent of my intrusive mowing, but each time finds himself only heading out the door once it is a bit too late. He crosses the hundred or so yards that bisect my back and forth mowing in about 30 minutes; his top speed is slower than most others’ lower gears (again, a reminder of myself).

Every morning Rosileia Mandelli wakes up to bird song. Actually, bird symphony might be a better description for the trilling and twittering that emanates from her kitchen in the early hours of the day.

Alongside family portraits and vacation photos, six bird cages hang on the kitchen and living room walls of her Oak Bluffs home. Adriano, her husband of 13 years, has raised and bred canaries since he was a boy growing up in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, the westernmost city in the state of Paraná.

Island first responders fielded a 10 member team for a Boston Strong First Responders workout marathon last weekend at Gillette Stadium. The 26-hour endurance event was a fundraiser for The One Fund Boston, which aids victims of the Boston Marathon bombings.

At 6:45 a.m. on a Saturday
morning near the Poucha Pond salt marsh at Chappaquiddick, a few fishermen lined the shores and a handful of binocular-bearing biologists and birders walked through the dunes. Otherwise, the land was bare of human activity.

But in the sky a bird with deep black and bright white striped wings swooped nearby. The binoculars went up.

“That’s a willet,” said Luanne Johnson, director of the nonprofit BiodiversityWorks dedicated to wildlife research, monitoring and mentoring.

The Old Sculpin Gallery begins their summer season with a new manager, Jennifer Kowal, fresh out of a museum studies masters program at Johns Hopkins. Ms. Kowal, a native of Canterbury, Connecticut, began her post in April.

The previous manager, Kat Cope, resigned last winter as her own artistic career has begun to consume more of her time. The manager position is an “extremely demanding job,” which is suited to a young person, said Sara Aibel, president of the board of directors of the Martha’s Vineyard Art Association, which is housed at the gallery.

Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs begins its 2013 season on Sunday, June 30, with a slate of visiting preachers, some returning for their second or third visit and others preaching here for their first time.

Thirty artists and thirty members of the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club are combining their talents to produce a double dose of beauty this weekend. The artists will create paintings while garden club members will create floral arrangements that capture the artist’s work. The result is Bloomin’ Art 2013, an event modeled after the Museum of Fine Art in Boston’s Art in Bloom show, an annual celebration of floral arrangements inspired by the museum’s masterpieces.

Aquinnah celebrates the Fourth of July with its 10th annual children’s parade. Floats, antique cars, face painting, music, buried treasure on the beach and town officials will all be part of the festivities.

The parade starts at 11 a.m. sharp at the top of Old South Road.