Swiss-born designer Stina Sayre has fashion in her genes. “I love to design, that’s what I do,” she said recently from her Vineyard Haven studio and store. “I come from a clothing family in Sweden. My grandfather started a clothing company and my uncles took it over. I worked in the business as a kid,” she said. Mrs. Sayre began taking classes and courses in design and technique. It wasn’t until moving to Martha’s Vineyard 20 years ago (after meeting her husband, Nevin, both champion windsurfers) that Mrs.

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 eccentric Uncle Abe keep his landscaping business, Pequot, afloat. Abe has paranoid hatred of Richard Moby, the CEO of an off-Island wholesale nursery (and Abe’s ex-wife’s new beau). In recent chapters, Abe caught Moby selling illegal invasive plants and sent a plant-sample to the state authorities to prove it.

The Yard Arts! Kids, Family and Community festival programming continues. Besides the free family Saturday matinees every week (see above), The Yard is offering one more kids’ creative theatre workshop, an upcoming opportunity for kids to perform at the Tabernacle, and the Multi-Generational Performance Project with Sarah Wilbur.

The Yard promises a high-energy, laugh aloud evening of work by three very different artists: Jamal Jackson Dance Company (African/hip hop/contemporary dance), performance artist Claire Porter, and solo dancer Lorraine Chapman share the stage on Friday and Saturday, August 1 and 2 at 8 p.m., with a free family matinee on Saturday at 4 p.m. at The Yard, Middle Road in Chilmark.

Vineyard Playhouse patrons might be forgiven for a feeling of deja vu when viewing the lineup of mainstage shows Cambridge’s new Central Square Theatre selected for its first season. Two shows opened this past weekend — QED: An Evening with Richard Feynman and Coming Up for Air, An AutoJazzography — and both productions were developed on the stage on Church street, Vineyard Haven.

Concerned that the Bush administration has stepped up its threats against Iran, peace groups, including the Martha’s Vineyard Peace Council, are holding No War on Iran rallies on Saturday, August 2. The Vineyard rally will be at Five Corners at 1 p.m.

Organizer Chris Fried notes that on July 22, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned that Iran had two weeks to halt its development of nuclear energy or face further “punitive measures.” That deadline will expire on Tuesday, August 5.

For details, call Mr. Fried at 508-693-7741.

Che’s Lounge hosts an eclectic Poetry and Music Jam on Monday, August 4. The show begins at 7:30 p.m. and features the Hot Words Collective — Justen Ahren (Jen Brown’s Brother), Samantha Barrow, Linda Black, Richard C. Skidmore, Michael West and Ben Williams.

Temperature: Precip.

Day Max. Min. Inches.

Fº Fº

July 25 76 68 2.47

July 26 79 64 Trace

July 27 82 69 .00

July 28 82 64 1.01

July 29 82 67 Trace

July 30 86 66 .00

July 31 82 69 .02

Water temperature in Edgartown harbor: 76º F.

The Chappaquiddick Summer Music Festival concludes its 2008 season on Thursday, August 7 at 8 p.m. with a performance by violinist Jennifer Koh and pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute. The program includes sonatas by Mozart, Brahms and Bartok.

Former CIA lawyer Vicki Divoll will deliver a talk titled Memo to Our New President: How to Fix Eight Years of Damage to U.S. Intelligence on Wednesday, August 6 at 5:30 p.m. at the Chilmark Public Library.

Ms. Divoll, former assistant general counsel for the CIA and former general counsel of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is presently teaching American government at the United States Naval Academy. She has also served as a fellow at Harvard University Institute of Politics.