Yes We Have No Bananas, at 697 State Road, will host a jewelry trunk show opening reception on Thursday, July 31, from 4 to 7 p.m. Partial proceeds from the show will help to raise money and awareness for the American Red Cross.

The Chappaquiddick Summer Music Festival continues its 2008 season on Thursday, July 31 at 8 p.m. with a performance by Trio Solisti. The program includes Copland’s Hoe-Down, Schoenfield’s Cafe Music, Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, and the trio’s highly acclaimed arrangement of Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition.

Talking Ospreys

Rob Bierregaard began researching osprey on Martha’s Vineyard in 1969. Since then, he has been investigating the habits and migrations of these birds on Martha’s Vineyard and beyond. He will share his work, knowledge and passion for ospreys at a free lecture at the Oak Bluffs Library tonight, July 29, at 6:30 p.m.

For details on this lecture, call Felix Neck sanctuary at 508-627-4850. For more on Mr. Bierregaard’s work, see online bioweb.uncc.edu/bierregaard/.

Walking Permaculture

Permaculture designer Dick Pierce will lead a walk from 8:30 to 10 a.m. Wednesday, July 30, from the Chappaquiddick Community Center. Enjoy the morning air and views and absorb information on sustainable living and design as he talks about the land’s natural features, noting the flow of air and water, the habitats and the wild inhabitants, the trees, shrubs and plants, the resources available or missing, and how people and nature can work together.

After dusk on July 24, I ran up Look street in a downpour, searching for the party. I knew I had found the right place when I saw the ubiquitous Vineyard white-painted wooden parking sign — the one that usually reads “Reserved for: Norton” but read instead, “Reserved for: Rabbi.” I was coming to hear Alicia Svigals and the Klezmer Fiddle Express perform at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center in Vineyard Haven.

PALACE COUNCIL By Stephen L. Carter. Knopf, New York, N.Y. July 2008. 528 pages. $26.95 hardcover.

There are some thrillers — The Big Sleep and The Maltese Falcon come to mind — where the plot is never going to make much sense, but for the reader to bog down on this point is to miss a jolly good ride. Stephen L. Carter’s new novel, Palace Council, is just the sort of book that keeps you turning pages — all 500-plus of them — until the clock blinks 3:28 a.m. in digital pixels and you force yourself to turn out the light.

Edgartown Jewels

CB Stark Jewelers will be having a John Hardy Trunk show in Edgartown all day on Saturday, August 2, featuring one-of-a-kind designs along with a large selection of classic styles, at the shop at 27 North Water street. For details, call 508-627-1260.

The Vineyard Cup attracted 106 boats on Saturday for a 13-mile race across Nantucket Sound and back. The sailboats crossed the start in four separate class starts around noon.

In the three days of racing that began on Friday and ended on Sunday, one of the newest boats on the waterfront did the best.

Capt. Flip Harrington took a crew of six of us offshore in his M/V Dovekie on July 18. At one point we were 60 miles offshore, yet the bird life was lackluster to say the least. The most numerous species was the Mother Cary’s Chicken or Wilson’s storm-petrel. We spotted around 135 of them. Next in line were the greater shearwaters, at 25 strong, and lastly the Cory’s shearwater, of which there were two. We had a few of great-black-backed, herring and laughing gulls, double-crested cormorants, common loons, and near Noman’s Land, common eiders. We were all shocked at the huge numbers of double-crested cormorants that were loafing on the cobble beach at Noman’s Land. There is a small colony of common terns near the old dock and among the semipalmated plovers and least sandpipers on the wrack line was one pectoral sandpiper.

Hermit crabs do not need to worry about the rising price of real estate on the Vineyard.

It is not that they are in the lottery for an affordable homesite, nor will they inherit a house from a wealthy relative (although they might steal one.) Home ownership is just not a priority for this creature. It has no desire to settle down permanently; its affinity for moving makes it destined to be a renter, but never an owner.