Twelve years ago, Marian Halperin of Vineyard Haven began reading and copying the private journal of someone she didn’t know. Then she read and copied the letters he wrote far from home and the account book his father kept on the Island while he was away.

The beach is the place to be. July’s hot weather this summer beckons people to a place to jump into the ocean, sound or pond to cool off. Now there are a bunch of us who wear weird-looking long pants that zip off at the knees, long-sleeved shirts with a label that says “Buzz off” and sneakers or hiking boots on the beach. We don’t carry umbrellas or picnic baskets but sport binoculars around our necks and perhaps a spotting scope over our shoulders. We are birders or bird watchers.

By LYNNE IRONS

What’s up with the salmonella on tomatoes? I have several thoughts on the subject. Bear with me as they are somewhat disjointed. First of all, big farmers are plowing up their fields as the market is so bad and they are trying to get another crop of something else into the ground while there is still time.

Researcher Will Speak

About Osprey on Island

Rob Bierregaard began researching osprey on the Vineyard in 1969. Since then, he has been investigating the habits and migrations of these birds on the Island and beyond.

He will share his passion at a free lecture at the Oak Bluffs library on Tuesday, July 29, at 6:30 p.m.

Since June 2000, in collaboration with Mark Martell of The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota, Mr. Bierregaard has put satellite transmitters on osprey to track their travels.

Morning glory hallelujah!

Walt Whitman might have sung the praise of this flower since he noted that “a morning glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.”

Another famed poet, Henry David Thoreau, concurred. In his tribute he observed that this flower is “well named morning glory. Its broad, bell and trumpet-shaped flowers, faintly tinged with red, are like the dawn itself.”

By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL

The commercial striped bass season began this week with a whimper. The fishermen are out hunting for this highly prized fish, but their landings are off.

Striped bass are local and one of the few species that are plentiful and available at fish markets and restaurants to sell. Bluefish comes a close second as a local fish and are landed daily.

Friday, July 11: Sunny and warm. Tiger lilies and daylilies are in full bloom in a Vineyard Haven backyard. The sky is deep blue in the morning. Hazy sunshine in the afternoon. In Edgartown, sailboats return from a day of sailing in the afternoon.

Saturday, July 12: Calm morning on Nantucket Sound. More than 30 boats sit idle off Chappaquiddick awaiting the start of a race around the Island. Blue skies overhead and blue water beneath. A puff of wind fills spinnakers at the start. Hot. Partly cloudy night.

It’s nowhere near Halloween, and yet 16 masks took shape in the Old Sculpin Gallery in Edgartown on Friday. Children’s art classes have been an integral part of this gallery since its inception in 1954. The Old Sculpin is a nonprofit organization maintained by Martha’s Vineyard Art Association Inc. The building, which originally housed the boat building shed for the late Manuel Swartz Roberts, was bought by the Martha’s Vineyard Preservation Trust two years ago.

The gallery holds an array of art classes for children, teens and adults.

Lama Tsony is back at the Bodhi Path Buddhist Center of Martha’s Vineyard in West Tisbury for a weekend retreat series. Known for his experience, and appreciated for his warmth, wit and accessibility, Lama Tsony teaches throughout Europe and the U.S.

On Saturday and Sunday, July 19 and 20, and Saturday and Sunday July 26 and 27, the Bodhi Path will offer a weekend retreat series with Lama Tsony. The topic is Mind’s True Nature Through Calm Abiding and Insight Meditation. The sessions run 10 a.m. to noon and 2 to 4 p.m. each day.

Broadway could take a page from the Camp Jabberwocky rehearsal schedule. In the past couple of weeks, amid horseback rides, a Mad Max sail and fishing on the Skipper with a special lookout for the 18-foot shark in our waters, on the nights of July 15 and 16, the 30 campers and 28 counselors mounted a singing and dancing extravaganza that would have made Busby Berkeley proud.