On Wednesday, August 13, at 7:30 p.m. the Polly Hill Arboretum welcomes Ellie Altman as guest speaker for the 11th annual David H. Smith Memorial Lecture. Her lecture, Gardening Earth’s Green Mantle, focuses on land stewardship practices that foster a healthier and more beautiful world for all living things. She expands the definition of gardening to embrace conservation concerns: ecological restoration, land development, agriculture, and habitat protection to inspire the adoption of a land ethic.

Cottage Park is a quiet 250-foot-long sidewalk lying just past the Circuit avenue entrance to the Martha’s Vineyard Camp Meeting Association. Tomorrow — Wednesday, August 13 — the public will have the chance to visit inside 10 Cottage Park homes during the 13th Annual Cottage Tour — the first time every cottage in a single Camp Ground neighborhood has been open to the public.

The second annual Cooke and South Water streets house tour will be tomorrow, Wednesday. August 13, from 2 to 4 p.m. The tour will include five historic homes in Edgartown, all within walking distance of each other, followed by tea and refreshments. At each home, guests will be greeted by a docent who will share information about the history of the home and answer questions.

In 1967, heartthrob band mates John Lennon and Paul Mc Cartney wrote a ballad for their friend and drummer Ringo Starr. Over the airwaves, the lyrics poured, catchy and upbeat: I get by with a little help from my friends. How lovely, how Sixties.

How unimaginable when trying to juggle kids, a full-time job, volunteerism and, oh right, a husband.

In this serialized novel set on the Vineyard in real time, a native Islander (“Call me Becca”) returns home after many years to help her highly-respected but eccentric Uncle Abe keep his landscaping business, Pequot, afloat. Abe has a paranoid hatred of Richard Moby, the CEO of an off-Island wholesale nursery. He is convinced that Moby wants to destroy Abe personally, as well as all Island-based landscaping/nursery businesses. Abe is now obsessed with “taking down” Moby before Moby can damage Pequot or any other Island grower.

The Martha’s Vineyard NAACP and the Oyster Bar & Grill are presenting a series of four summer luncheons with guest speakers who have made successful careers in broadcasting entrepreneurship, in organizational management and human resources, in writing, and in medicine. Lunch and dialogue is open to all. The events are at 12:30 p.m. at the Oyster Bar & Grill at 57 Circuit avenue in Oak Bluffs. Cost is $30 per person per luncheon, to benefit the Island branch of the NAACP.

The speakers will be as follows:

The Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society concludes its 38th summer season this Monday and Tuesday with an ambitious finale that includes a world premiere and the first-ever performance of a classic Stravinsky piece on the Island.

On August 11 at the Old Whaling Church and August 12 at the Chilmark Community Center, the trio of violinist Nancy Wu, clarinetist Anthony McGill and pianist Delores Stevens will perform the premiere of Then and Now and Forever, a piece commissioned by the chamber music society and written by the noted composer Morton Subotnik.

A Sunday matiné e musical puppet show for all ages at Che’s Lounge will feature musical monkeys who love to dance and play, with their friends Bella and Arakataka’s Little Band. Are You Looking for Bananas? is the name of this happy play about a musical land where musician monkeys live and enjoy life.

The play and its songs are written by Bella and they are performed live in both English and Portuguese by Bella and Carol Loud, a music teacher for children.

The executive director of J Street, the political arm of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement, Jeremy Ben-Ami speaks tonight, Friday, August 8, at 7 p.m. at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center.

Francis-Carroll Nuptials

Jennifer Francis and Christopher Carroll were married June 7 at The Beechmoor in Onset. Jennifer was born on the Vineyard in 1981 and raised here till she was eight. The Carrolls now reside with their son Shane in West Yarmouth.