Although Jack Frost is nipping at my nose, it is the thought of chestnuts roasting on an open fire that is really getting me in the holiday mood. Thank you Mel Torme and Nat King Cole!

By LYNNE IRONS

I devoted a good deal of time last Saturday to cutting the bittersweet from the deer fencing around my vegetable garden. It is so ambitious and is threatening to bring down the fence with its weight. Here is a case of do what I say and not what I do. I should have bagged it for the landfill or burned it but, no! I just cut and dropped, assuring me of having to contend with it next year. I guess one could refer to the practice as job security.

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Explore Your Dreams by Acting them Out. By John Lipsky. Larson Publications, 208 pages. Softcover, $16.95.

DREAMING TOGETHER: Explore Your Dreams by Acting them Out. By John Lipsky. Larson Publications, 208 pages. Softcover, $16.95.

Prize-winning playwright, director, and professor of drama at Boston University, Jon Lipsky has been pioneering for decades in the field of dream theater. Now he has written an important and delicious new book, Dreaming Together, which sheds abundant light on what happens inside us at night when our eyes are shut.

Announcing Ava

Laura and Daniel Townes of Edgartown announce the birth of a daughter, Ava Spencer Townes, born on Nov. 28, at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Ava weighed seven pounds, ten ounces.

A two-week shotgun hunting season for deer opened on Monday, and state public safety and wildlife officials report a strong turnout of hunters and large number of deer being taken.

Hunting is allowed from a half hour before sunrise to a half hour after sunset, and continues through Saturday, Dec. 13.

As of yesterday afternoon 95 deer had been checked in at the station at the Manuel F. Correllus State Forest. Hunters have checked in 68 deer at the Wampanoag Tribe headquarters in Aquinnah. An additional eight were taken during archery season in November.

Deployed Overseas

Army National Guard Sgt. Christopher C. Willis has been mobilized and activated for deployment overseas to a forward operating base in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Sgt. Willis graduated from Martha Vineyard Regional High School in 1999. The sergeant, a military policeman with 10 years of military service, is normally assigned to the 772nd Military Police Company in Taunton.

Temperature: Precip.

Day Max. Min. Inches.

Fº Fº

Nov. 27 47 31 .02

Nov. 28 46 30 Trace

Nov. 29 54 30 .04

Nov. 30 45 25 .00

Dec. 1 56 37 .87

Dec. 2 59 43 Trace

Dec. 3 50 28 .00

Dec. 4 52 36 Trace

Water temperature in Edgartown harbor: 48º F.

Island-designed items worth well over $1,000 comprise the prize in a raffle to benefit the Island Food Pantry. This collection has been handmade by Vineyarders who are part of the Artisans Gift Gallery at 18 State Road, Vineyard Haven, the former home of the Belushi Pisano Gallery. The kick-off for the fundraiser will be the Artisans Gift Gallery’s grand opening party on Saturday, Dec. 6 from 2 to 6 p.m.

MARGARET KNIGHT

508-627-8894

(margaret02539@yahoo.com)

As we approach the darkest time of the year — when we’re ready for dinner at 4:30, and bed a little later — the Chappaquiddick Community Center has some social events planned to keep us cheerful, our bellies full, and in touch with our neighbors.