Scoop Up Fun With Run

The annual Vineyard Scoops Fun Run begins Sunday, August 3, at The Farm Institute, with an 8:45 a.m. fun run for tots and 9 a.m. 5K run/walk for all. Entry is $15 in advance or $20 on race day for the 5K. It’s $5 for fun run, or $50 to register the whole family. Applications are available at Scoops Ice Cream on the corner of Main and South Summer streets in Edgartown or online at mvmultisport.com. For more information, call 508-627-8303.

The little information booth sits in downtown Oak Bluffs, an ornate yellow and red axis around which the machinery of summer seems to rotate. At 9 a.m. on a July Saturday morning, the breeze moves through the booth window and out the open door. Laced with buttered popcorn and the whine of passing mopeds, it carries the smells and sounds of a resort town at the height of the season.

Sails and masts from Bermuda rose high over Vineyard Haven harbor this past weekend. The 89-foot, three-masted schooner Spirit of Bermuda made its first visit to the Island, a collaboration involving two nonprofit organizations, Sail Martha’s Vineyard and Boston MedFlight.

The 2-year-old vessel’s inaugural visit was significant for a number of reasons.

By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL

This is a summer of leatherback sea turtle sightings by local fishermen. Capt. Dick Smith of the charter fishing boat Patriot Too has seen quite a few of these large sea turtles in Vineyard waters.

“During the summer, the jellyfish come through Nantucket and Vineyard sounds,” Mr. Smith said. “Leatherback sea turtles are usually out there on the Gulf Stream, but their diet is jellyfish, so they are here.”

Earlier in July, the captain said, he saw quite a few sea turtles almost daily.

Friday, July 25: Heavy rain overnight. The landscape is dripping wet from a night of thunderstorms. More storms in the afternoon. Loud rumbling thunder echoes through the streets of Vineyard Haven. Large puddles slow nightlife traffic in Oak Bluffs.

Della Hardman, an artist, educator, writer and columnist, was a pillar of service in the Vineyard community.

She died in December of 2005, but not before enjoying Oak Bluffs’ first Della Brown Hardman Day in July of that year.

“We didn’t realize it would be her last year,” Ms. Hardman’s daughter, Andrea Taylor, said of the first event. “It was a wonderful celebration. A great way for her to look back on her career.”

Long before dawn, you can hear the soft munching of hay and quiet nickering of horses at Pond View Farm as Sarah Doyle prepares for another 6 a.m. trip off-Island to a horse show.

Sarah moved to the Island in 1986 and began teaching riding lessons at Arrowhead Farm in West Tisbury. She began living on the Vineyard year-round after she took a job with the late Anne and Tony Fisher. She currently lives in Chilmark with her husband, Bret Stearns, and three kids, Jeff, 19, Ava, 6, and Graham, 4.

“They are cute!” exclaimed four-year-old Liam Rust, an alpaca enthusiast. It’s hard not to become one after seeing the herd at Island Alpaca. The animals graze in a nine-and-a-half-acre gold and green field in front of a Pennsylvania barn that’s nearing the end of its second century.

On a recent summer afternoon, Heather Welch, a 16-year-old caretaker, stood before the barn and sprayed down the alpacas, trying to keep them cool and clean.

By LISA VANDERHOOP

Ah, the dog days of summer. It’s an often used term, part of our vernacular, bringing to mind the hottest, most sultry days of the year. But where the did the phrase come from?

You don’t need to surf to be a professional beach bum; if you get good enough, you can travel the world carving sandcastles with a palette knife and an ice cream scoop. That’s what Lucinda “Sandy Feet” Wierenga does. Ms. Wierenga was this year’s winner of the Travel Channel’s Sand Blasters competition. She’s in Italy now, giving castle-building demonstrations. And Ms Wierenga will be here from 2 to 5 p.m.