It’s hard to believe another year has gone by and we are at the Agricultural Fair. This week always seems like the true end to summer — the last big push of activities, traffic and visitors before back-to-school shopping. Since I write this on Monday morning, I have only seen the beginning of fair preparations. The “carnies” have set up camp, the rides are not yet set up — they are still neatly folded on their tracks, and the locals are putting together the booths.

Once upon a time northern bobwhites were a common bird on Martha’s Vineyard. Their bob, bob, white calls were a welcome sound coming from the meadows and fields of the Vineyard. Bobwhites are native to the United States. There are 22 subspecies of bobwhite quail or Virginia quail (other names for bobwhite). The subspecies of bobwhite from Massachusetts and the Vineyard was paler, larger and heavier than those from points south. Now, however, all the New England and Vineyard populations of quail are composed of birds that have been introduced and are darker and smaller.

Dr. H.C.F. Meyer was a true believer. His passion was purple -- purple coneflower -- and it would be correct to say that he was the first commercial coneflower prophet.

Chilmark

Richard A. and Pamela G. Sauber purchased a Black Point Beach lot, Parcel 3 in Chilmark from Susan B. Whiting and William A. Oates Jr., trustees of the John W. M. Whiting Non-Exempt Family Fund, for $317,500 on August 10.

Lucy Beach LLC purchased 11 Azalea Lane in Chilmark form Azalea Lane LLC for $4,000,000 on August 10.

Oak Bluffs

Kenneth Link purchased 16 Hitchings Circle in Oak Bluffs from Nationstar Mortgage LLC for $289,900 on August 6.

Best of Boston Awards

Six establishments on the Vineyard won Best of Boston awards announced in the July 31 issue of Boston magazine.

Winners from the Vineyard were:

Best Bar: Brick Cellar at Atria

Best Brunch: Water Street at the Harbor View Hotel & Resort

Best Inn: Dockside Inn

Best Resort: Winnetu Oceanside Resort

Best Restaurant—General Excellence: State Road

Best New Restaurant: Martha’s Vineyard Chowder Company

Friday, August 10: Mostly cloudy. Warm and damp. Oak Bluffs waterfront is bustling with activity, boats, crowds, and cars. Clouds darken in the afternoon. Tornado warning is issued by the National Weather Service, in the midafternoon. Non observed. Rain falls well into the early evening, sometimes heavy.

Saturday, August 11: Mostly cloudy. Occasional periods of sunshine. Eight 12 metre sailboats race outside of Edgartown Harbor. Breezy. Racing is tight. South wind.

Robert E. Kinnecom quit drinking 50 years ago. Today, the 81-year-old Oak Bluffs resident is absolutely certain he is alive today because of it and the unlikely help of a few fairly famous Vineyarders.

“My grandfather was a drunk. He was a barber and lost everything he had,” Mr. Kinnecom said.

After reading a recent Gazette about Vineyard House recently, Mr. Kinnecom decided to speak publicly about his personal journey to sobriety.

The Holmes Hole Sailing Association continued its Thursday evening series of handicap sailboat racing from Vineyard Haven harbor with a 6 p.m. race on July 26. It was a warm summer evening with a north wind. Eleven boats posted for the start at red nun 6 outside of the Vineyard Haven breakwater for the triangular course

The American eel is in trouble. So says James Prosek, author of a widely- respected book on eels. Last week Mr. Prosek told the Vineyard Gazette that he thinks, “absolutely,” that the American eel should be listed as endangered.

Excerpted from Bountiful: A History of the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society and the Livestock Show and Fair, by Susan Klein, with photographs by Alan Brigish (Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society, 2012).

This excerpt is taken from chapter 9 which tells the story of the midway and how it came to play an integral part of the annual Island tradition.

“My favorite was the Scrambler! It was really fun!”

— Dylan Biggs, 7 years of age