In 1040 AD a Danish king by the name of Harthacnut took control of the English throne through a massive display of military force. He then sustained his power as king by re-instituting an oppressive war tax, called the “heregeld.” The heregeld drove England into poverty and, when towns around the country began to revolt against the tax, he ordered his vassals to destroy these towns and murder their own people.

With two hours to go until parade time, the sun shone on the lines of brightly-decorated floats that filled the parking lot of the Edgartown School Thursday afternoon. Their occupants, which included members of organizations from across the Island, milled about. When the time came to begin, the parade started with a bang — literally.

After several days of inching forward along a deep, wide sandy trench, a Chappaquiddick home arrived late Tuesday at its new location farther away from a rapidly eroding bluff.

It’s been less than a year since emergency actions began to save the Wasque home of Richard and Jennifer Schifter. The key part of the project came this week with the move of the 8,300-square-foot main house.

On a misty, windy morning in April 2007 Chris Kennedy, Martha’s Vineyard superintendent for The Trustees of Reservations, had just returned from the part of South Beach in Edgartown known as Norton Point.
The night before Katama Bay had filled to overflowing by the flood of an astronomical high tide, topped off by the overwash and storm surge of a Patriots’ Day gale.

Wake up at 6 a.m., head to hair, makeup and wardrobe, and you’re off to the beach.

Sounds like a typical summer on the Vineyard, right?

That was the regular routine for the cast of The Vineyard, a reality show set to premiere on ABC Family on July 23.

The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank is reporting another year of relatively flat revenue, with one notable exception: a mid-year bump in income thanks to uncertainty in the federal government.

In December concern about pending tax changes because of the so-called fiscal cliff led to a flurry of transactions and a sizable windfall for the land bank.

Early summer fog blew across the moors at Wasque Reservation last Saturday morning, a soft blanket of dampness settling over tiny, salt-blasted wildflowers. All was quiet. A short distance away was the place where fishermen once stood famously shoulder to shoulder, casting deep into the rip tides for blues. But few fishermen come to this spot anymore. What was once a wide sandy beach is now a sheer cliff in a land that has been under assault by a relentless ocean for the past six years.

I want to take a couple of moments before we go on with the service and share with you some current thoughts of mine, after so many years of so many thoughts on the subject of marriage which received a lot of press in most parts of the country this last week. As most of you know, this ruling on DOMA affects Michael and me at a very deep and personal level.

With great sadness today I learned that my good friend and supporter through all my years as an energy advocate, Randy Udall, has died. He was hiking on a trail in Wyoming and had been expected home about a week ago. They found him yesterday, lying on his side on the trail. Randy loved the outdoors, often hiked and I remember him once telling me about hiking in the snow and making a cave in the snow in which to sleep. For an Easterner, that was hard for me to fathom.