PFLAG of Martha’s Vineyard — Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays — will host an important and informative talk for the general public on family law issues related to gay, lesbian and transgender couples and families at 4 p.m. on March 15 at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Martha’s Vineyard in Vineyard Haven.

High school senior Rebecca Swartwood sits casually on an artist’s stool, remarkably poised and well-spoken. She exudes an inner confidence, without the bravado often associated with youth. She brims with enthusiasm at the life she sees ahead of her, with art an integral but not overriding part of a well-considered career path.

Only slow food will do for this bird.

Faster prey would fly, run or otherwise get away before it became a vulture’s meal. Vultures like their food not just slow, but stopped cold (and dead too.) Fresh kill is good, but, in a pinch, the vulture can eat meat that has begun to rot. Luckily (or, thanks to adaptation), the vulture won’t get sick.

Although spring is in the air, the recent snow still makes birders dream of different habitats and warmer weather. Travel out of the country is becoming dearer and air travel is about as irritating as it gets. So perhaps a road trip to Florida is an option. The image that comes to mind for most folks when I mention Florida is Disney/Epcot, Miami or Cape Canaveral. There is much more to Florida than those areas and the birding is spectacular, even in Miami and Cape Canaveral.

By LYNNE IRONS

I have been wracking my brain to come up with a garden topic this week. Should I stay with some sort of winter theme or get fully into the gear-up for spring?

I think I’ll take on credit cards instead.

Here is my best shot at a segue. I use my credit cards for the gardening business: ordering seeds, plugs, and bare-rooted perennials in mid-winter and paying them off in the summer when the money starts rolling in.

Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School will sponsor an Italian Dinner Night in the culinary arts dining room from 6 to 9 p.m. Monday, March 10. The dinner will benefit the school store student staff field trip to Orlando, Fla.

The Visiting Nurse Service of Martha’s Vineyard Community Services will present a Healthy Lifestyles Program for the Entire Family on Saturday, March 15.

The program will be held between 9 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. in the Southside Conference Center at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, Oak Bluffs.

Sponsored by nurse service and the boards of health of Chilmark, Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, Tisbury, and West Tisbury, the goal of the program is to promote a healthy lifestyle that can result in the reduction in the development of chronic illness.

Deborah Ratcliff notified the Gazette this week that she heard pinkletinks at her home in Oak Bluffs on Tuesday night. Spring cannot be far behind. Edgartown voters are reminded they have a special town meeting that begins at 7 p.m. on Thursday night. Chilmark voters are reminded their special town meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. on Monday night.

With the rising cost of everything from salaries to health insurance premiums coupled with slowing commercial and residential growth, elected leaders in all six Islands towns will likely face especially tough decisions this budget season as they begin to draft their financial blueprints for the coming fiscal year.

A fatal accident aboard the schooner Alabama during a day sail out of Vineyard Haven in the summer of 2006 involved no violation of U.S. Coast Guard regulations, a report by Coast Guard investigators has found.