The Zen of Award Winning

The lavish book of photography and essays, Martha’s Vineyard – Now & Zen, has been selected the bronze medal winner of the 2011 Indie Excellence Award in the category of Northeast Regional Publications.

This, the book’s second national award, celebrates the highest achievements in independent press and self-publishing.

Art, Art Everywhere

To be an art lover on Martha’s Vineyard during Memorial Day weekend is to be awash in color, hue, style and substance. Take a stroll almost anywhere on the Island and the sounds of art appreciation, not to mention wine and snacks, will lure you in for a bounty of riches. But why take a chance on missing out on any one artist? Check out the list below and start your motor running.

Some might say one is blessed just riding a bike. Nothing but the wind and sky and open road to call home. But, hey, everyone can use a bit of extra blessing when out there on two wheels.

This Saturday, May 28, beginning at 10 a.m. the second annual blessing of the bikes takes place at the Edgartown Federated Church at 45 South Summer street.

The Rev. Dr. Jerry Fritz, an avid cyclist when not in the pulpit preaching the word, will preside.

Free Yoga

Gettigear is getting it going this weekend with a special Memorial Day Vinyasa inspired yoga class from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. at 29 Main street in Edgartown. The class meets on Saturday and Sunday, May 28 and 29 and is free.

The store specializes in athletic apparel for women so perhaps let your attention drift during Ujjayi breathing, we won’t tell, and check out the latest designs from Zobha.

Class size is limited so e-mail to reserve your spot at gettigear@gmail.com.

Cottage Museum Opens

The Martha’s Vineyard Camp Meeting Association’s Cottage Museum and Gift Shop at 1 Trinity Park in Oak Bluffs is open for the season, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 1 to 4 p.m. on Sundays.

Lighthouse Open

The Edgartown Lighthouse will be open Saturday, Sunday and Monday this weekend from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission to the lighthouse is $5 for adults and $4 for children under 12.

Regular hours begin Saturday, June 4. For more information, visit the Web site mvmuseum.org.

The lighthouse is closed for inclement weather.

There are bells for alarms, for church services, for the striking of noon. There are dinner bells, at least somewhere one still hopes, and school bells and maybe even bells when angels get their wings.

Two Island businesses have this week been awarded $2,500 grants by the Martha’s Vineyard Women’s Network.

Holly Bellebuono, director of Vineyard Herbs, Teas & Apothecary, and the Martha’s Vineyard Arts and Culture Collaborative chaired by Featherstone executive director Ann Smith, received the second annual awards by the women’s business group. The official presentation of the grants will be made Tuesday, May 17, at the network’s final meeting of the 2010-2011 year featuring best-selling author Liz Murray.

Award Easy to Digest

FOUNDING GARDENERS: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation. By Andrea Wulf. Knopf, March 29, 2011. 352 pages. $30, hardcover.

At first glance this book, with its lovely old-style sketches of such flowers as Rhododendron maximum and Kalmia angustifolia, gives you the notion it would make the ideal gift for someone who knows her forsythia from Scotch broom. But the moment you start reading Founding Gardeners by Andrea Wulf (Knopf, $30), you realize something groundbreaking is going on — pun intended.