Ellen, aka Lefty, Leverenz e-mailed me and attached two photos of downy woodpeckers that she had seen at her Chilmark feeders. She did so because the bellies of the birds visiting her feeders were not that lovely stark white we normally expect on these little woodpeckers. Instead the bellies of these birds were a dirty tannish color. Several days later I visited Larry Hepler and Alice Early at their Quansoo home and they mentioned that they had some dirty-bellied birds as well. I was able to see an Early-Hepler woodpecker and it had the usual black and white back but a decidedly tan belly.

New legislation will be filed in the state house this month making way for a state recreational saltwater fishing license. State Representative Tim Madden said he plans to cosponsor the legislation and that is a good idea for all local fishermen.

“The federal government is mandating that there be a recreational saltwater license. This one, a state version is better, because it keeps the money here,” Mr. Madden said.

Friday, June 5: Rain. Rosa rugosa flowers decorate the edge of the Beach Road in Vineyard Haven. Rhododendrons are in full bloom all around the Vineyard, from Polly Hill Arboretum to Chappaquiddick. Rain showers in the evening, some are heavy.

Saturday, June 6: Overcast breezy morning. A catboat tries to beat the current in Edgartown harbor. Overhead, clouds start to break. The wind lightens in the afternoon. Light breeze in afternoon. Blue skies in the late afternoon.

Food Distribution

The Serving Hands Food Distribution will be distributing food this summer. The service will be open on the Friday following the second Wednesday of the month (Friday, June 12, July 10 and August 14). For details, call Betty Burton 508-693-5339 or e-mail burtonsundman@hotmail.com.

Oak Bluffs Safety Day

The Oak Bluffs Police Department will host Public Safety Day on Saturday, June 13, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Waban Park in Oak Bluffs, on Sea View avenue.

Besides a wide range of free food provided by local merchants, this community policing family event allows community members to meet public safety professionals and view their exhibits and equipment.

The 31st annual Arts and Society Bloomsday Celebration — of music and drama based on the text of James Joyce — will be performed Tuesday, June 16, at the Katharine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven. Curtain time is 8 p.m.

Noepe is the Wampanoag word for the Island of Martha’s Vineyard, and it is 25-year-old West Tisbury resident Colin Ruel’s aim that the name will soon become synonymous with his start-up music production company, Noepe Productions.

The group of children sat whittling pieces of wood that had been split from a log. Hot coals had been used to burn a hollow into each block, and the children were paring away the excess wood to turn the block into a spoon. Squatting in front of them was Saskia Vanderhoop, who runs this remarkable program called Sassafras. She had brought in a bag of bright green boiled leaves, and passed it around for everyone to taste some. I couldn’t believe it when she told us it was milkweed! Boiled in two changes of water, it was mild as spinach but almost meaty in texture and flavor.

In the history of the hawkers, hucksters and visionaries who knew how to turn a buck off of the middle-class mania for leisure and travel that emerged at the tail end of the American 19th century, Joseph Chamberlain has a firm, if overlooked place.

Sitting down for a lunch break at a windowside table at Waterside Market in Vineyard Haven, Ricardo Khan leaned in comfortably and said with a laugh, “You’ll have to do the talking, I’ve got to eat!” His eyes brim with good humor; this is a man at ease with himself and the world around him. Small personal tales spill easily into the conversation, unsurprising for a playwright and director who has dedicated his life to the art of gathering individual stories and weaving them into narratives that speak to an audience from the stage.