Alpaca Open House

Belly full, tryptophan kicking in and making you so, so tired? Well, instead of snoozing in front of the same old, same old football game, head out to Island Alpaca’s Thanksgiving open house. The farm is open every day from Thursday, Nov. 25 through Sunday, Nov. 28.

Take a self-guided walking tour on the twenty acre spread, meet and greet the friendly alpaca in the viewing area and enjoy tasty treats and a cup of hot cider.

Scallop Shucking

Consider the scallop this Saturday at the West Tisbury Winter Farmers’ Market. In addition to the great produce and local goods served up at the market, this weekend enjoy a scallop demonstration and shucking contest.

Shucking check-in is at noon. The shells start to come off at 1 p.m.

There will also be a video showing of Gail Tipton’s A Scallop Story from Spawn to Harvest.

For details, call 508-360-4491.

I am the queen of justification. My latest is that I am leaving the cutting back of the perennial beds until the dead of winter.

Martha Stewart didn’t get the memo.

On her Web site, the domestic diva highlights porcelain berry as a “no maintenance plant with attractive fruits” and suggests that gardeners “grow it as a ground cover by letting it sprawl or train it as a climbing vine.”

Little Tin Horn is the name that Eric Cottle gave the bird that seems to be gracing everyone’s feeders this season. Nothing sounds more like those penny whistle tin horns than the red nuts — (the name bird-watchers give the red-breasted nuthatches).

Cable Future Forum

MVTV, in cooperation with the towns on Martha’s Vineyard, is seeking input on the future of cable service, community media and technology that will be available on the Island for the next 10 years. Comcast has submitted a request to have its cable franchise agreements renewed. As a part of the process of exploring the future cable communications needs of the Island there will be a series of focus groups.

Vineyard Nursing Association aides Lisa Larsen and Lena Vanderhoop have been nominated for special awards as part of the 40th annual Homecare Aide Celebration in Boston on Nov. 17.

Lisa Larsen was nominated for her exemplary service during Hurricane Earl, when she provided personal care to a medically fragile patient who was housed at a Red Cross shelter. Ms. Larsen has been working with the VNA for three years.

Buffeted by sharp northeast winds whipping off Nantucket Sound, marchers in the annual Island Veterans Day parade yesterday were met by a burst of bright sunshine as they headed up Lake avenue in Oak Bluffs toward Ocean Park. It was the first time anyone on the Island had seen sunshine in over a week.

Warm, golden rays broke through the slate-gray cloud cover as uniform-clad members of the honor guard struggled to hold their flags upright in the ferocious wind.

Security for prisoners on work release programs from the Edgartown house of correction is likely to be tightened up following an incident this week in which a prisoner caught a bus to visit a friend and girlfriend instead of going to work.

Quincy A. Young, who was serving a 30-month sentence for drug and firearms offenses, was allowed out on Sunday to attend a work program at the Farm Institute in Katama. He was supposed to catch a public bus to get there.

A state review of Dukes County has found the current county structure renders it unable to deliver “strong and cohesive management” and recommends Island leaders look to a new model, if they are serious about providing better regional services.

Instead of the current structure, it recommends a council of governments approach, under which the towns would wield much more direct influence.