I am happy in the winter. I love the slowed pace, don’t mind the snow, and appreciate the time indoors to regroup. However, the icy working conditions are too much.

It was warm and foggy all day, but the 51st annual Christmas Bird Count held on Jan. 2 was a great success. There were 77 observers — 48 in the field divided into 11 teams, each covering a different part of the Island, and 29 more at home watching their bird feeders.

Petrified as it was, scared would not be the best way to describe it.

Shiny, smooth and colorful would do for the piece of petrified wood that was dredged up by an Island scalloper recently. And fascinating, too, would be another appropriate adjective to add after this sizable chunk of weathered wood was uncovered and its history unraveled.

Zumba Adds Curves

Curves and Zumba Fitness have developed a 30-minute class that mixes the dance moves of Zumba with the strength training of Curves for one workout. Curves of Vineyard Haven invites Islanders to try it free for a week.

All ages, fitness levels and dance abilities can participate. During the 30-minute class, participants work out on each strength machine for one minute, when music cues them to move to the center of the circuit where a licensed Zumba instructor teaches simple, modified Zumba moves.

Home Accoutrements

Island builders, architects and interior designers are invited to a reception on Jan. 20 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Julie Robinson Interiors in Vineyard Haven.

The reception will feature Vineyard artists and craftspeople featured in the Sourcebook of Architectural and Design Elements Handcrafted on Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.

Eat, Bid and Help Hockey

The annual Vineyard hockey dinner and auction will take place Friday, Jan. 21 at the Harbor View Hotel.

The event will include a silent and live auction with a range of items up for bid including Red Sox tickets, Nascar tickets, one week in Florida, a one night stay at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge and a clambake for eight.

Doors open at 6 p.m. for the silent auction, dinner begins at 7 p.m. and the live auction gets under way at 8 p.m.

Tickets for the dinner cost $35.

The Oak Bluffs School announces the honor roll for the first trimester, fall 2010.

Eighth grade high honors go to: Mia Arenburg, Bailey Csapo-Moreis, Josie Iadicicco, Emily Kleinhenz, Noah Kleinhenz, Gordon Moore, Madeleine Moore, Kelsey Moreis, Charlotte Potter, Samantha Potter, Ellen Reagan, Katherine Reid, Sabrina Reppert, Russell Shapiro and Jackson Yuen.

The Aquinnah shellfish committee will review residency rules for commercial scallop licenses following the discovery that the current rules are unclear and possibly contradictory.

At the regular selectmen’s meeting Tuesday night the committee requested a meeting with the selectmen in the next month to review the rules.

A 26-year-old Edgartown woman was airlifted to Massachusetts General Hospital on Monday afternoon following an unusual single-car crash on the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road across from the regional high school.

While other towns are scrambling to make ends meet, West Tisbury continues pushing ahead with capital project plans to upgrade its town buildings. The latest is an effort to replace the tiny police station headquarters on Mill Pond. After reviewing a number of possible sites, the West Tisbury police station siting committee has recommended the town locate the new station on the town property in North Tisbury that houses the town public safety building, including a fire station.