MARGARET KNIGHT

508-627-8894

(margaret02539@yahoo.com)

Winter always seems a better season when I can get outside and enjoy some winter sports. With the changeable weather of the winters we’ve been having recently, one needs to snatch the moment of sport because whatever weather manifestation there is might not last.

Katherine Arrives

Dianne and Gerret C. Conover of Edgartown announce the birth of their second daughter, Katherine Alexa Conover, born Dec. 5 at the Falmouth Hospital. She weighed 7 pounds 13 ounces and is welcomed by her big sister Caroline. The grandparents are Paula and Gerret D. Conover of Edgartown, Sheila and Paul Lister of Falmouth and Ellen and Charles McCluskey of Vineyard Haven.

By LYNNE IRONS

My chickens have not given me an egg in almost a month. I have a small flock — one elderly rooster, 11 assorted hens and three teenagers who are too young to begin producing. Hens lay according to the light and since I refuse to force the issue and add a light to the coop, I shall have to wait. I have taken note lately and observed that they went in to roost at 4:29 p.m. on the solstice, but by the Saturday after Christmas bedtime was 4:32 p.m. Almost imperceptibly, the days are lengthening.

Phyllis Vecchia will be holding a winter creative drama workshop for four-and-a-half to ten-year-olds at the Oak Bluffs School. Classes will be held on Thursday afternoons from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m. beginning on Thursday Jan. 22 and continuing until March 19.

Las Vegas is not in my near future or recent past, but I did win big with an auspicious invitation to a special new year’s day dinner. It is not lucky that I got the invitation, although I am thankful to have attended a meal of fortunate foods.

In my house, we generally eat for love, but at this meal, I ate for luck. There is a slew (or maybe a stew) of new year’s dos and don’ts when it comes to the components of the first meal of the year.

Whoa, Vineyard birders have quite a challenge ahead of them. The Nantucket Christmas Bird Count was conducted last weekend and the unofficial total was 134 species! Ouch — we are going to have to work long and hard to match or hopefully beat that total. We are definitely at the mercy of the weather, so let’s hope Mother Nature is good to us.

In Paul Schneider’s 2001 book, The Enduring Shore, there is a photo of Menemsha, courtesy of the Martha’s Vineyard Historical Society, from the silent film, Annabel Lee.

In this serialized novel set on the Vineyard in real time, a native Islander (“Call me Becca”) returns home after years in Manhattan to help her eccentric Uncle Abe keep his landscaping business, Pequot, afloat. Abe loathes Richard Moby, chief of the off-Island landscaping business Broadway. He is irrationally convinced that Moby wants to destroy Abe personally, and Island-based nursery businesses in general.

Dear P:

My granddaughter Shealyn Smyth attended the West Tisbury story time recently. She loved the other children in the group, sat quietly while the story was read and appreciated the friendly atmosphere. At two, she’s already a book-happy person.

Tonight, Jan. 2, at 7 p.m., MVTV will air a half-hour video special about the winter session of the Adult and Community Education Program (ACE MV) titled Learn and Grow — ACE MV Adult Education. The program was created by BZ Riger.