Jim Glavin had a wonderful 60th birthday party on Saturday night. He was hoping more of his friends would show up, but the estimated 800 who attended the first Aquinnah Music Festival made Mr. Glavin’s 60th birthday magic. “I see a lot of happy people out there,” he said on Saturday night, looking over the lawn at the Aquinnah Circle.

Della Hardman Day

The Oak Bluffs Public Library will host an artists’ reception on Saturday, July 26, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. for a photography exhibition in honor of Della Hardman Day.

The library held a contest to select images to be included in the 2009 Savor the Moment calendar. Selected photographs will be on display at the library from July 25 to August 16. More information about the event is available by calling the library at 508-693-9433.

Cottagettes to Perform:

Cottagers’ History Program

The Oak Bluffs Historical Commission will sponsor a program depicting the history of the Cottagers, Inc. in Oak Bluffs on Wednesday, July 30 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Oak Bluffs Library meeting room.

Supreme Journalist

Linda Greenhouse, the Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times Supreme Court reporter, will give two talks this week: Wednesday, at 7:30 p.m. at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center as part of its Summer Institute lecture series, and then, Thursday, a free talk about legal trends at the nation’s top court at 5 p.m. at the Chilmark Public Library.

Twelve years ago, Marian Halperin of Vineyard Haven began reading and copying the private journal of someone she didn’t know. Then she read and copied the letters he wrote far from home and the account book his father kept on the Island while he was away.

The beach is the place to be. July’s hot weather this summer beckons people to a place to jump into the ocean, sound or pond to cool off. Now there are a bunch of us who wear weird-looking long pants that zip off at the knees, long-sleeved shirts with a label that says “Buzz off” and sneakers or hiking boots on the beach. We don’t carry umbrellas or picnic baskets but sport binoculars around our necks and perhaps a spotting scope over our shoulders. We are birders or bird watchers.

By LYNNE IRONS

What’s up with the salmonella on tomatoes? I have several thoughts on the subject. Bear with me as they are somewhat disjointed. First of all, big farmers are plowing up their fields as the market is so bad and they are trying to get another crop of something else into the ground while there is still time.

Researcher Will Speak

About Osprey on Island

Rob Bierregaard began researching osprey on the Vineyard in 1969. Since then, he has been investigating the habits and migrations of these birds on the Island and beyond.

He will share his passion at a free lecture at the Oak Bluffs library on Tuesday, July 29, at 6:30 p.m.

Since June 2000, in collaboration with Mark Martell of The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota, Mr. Bierregaard has put satellite transmitters on osprey to track their travels.

Morning glory hallelujah!

Walt Whitman might have sung the praise of this flower since he noted that “a morning glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.”

Another famed poet, Henry David Thoreau, concurred. In his tribute he observed that this flower is “well named morning glory. Its broad, bell and trumpet-shaped flowers, faintly tinged with red, are like the dawn itself.”

By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL

The commercial striped bass season began this week with a whimper. The fishermen are out hunting for this highly prized fish, but their landings are off.

Striped bass are local and one of the few species that are plentiful and available at fish markets and restaurants to sell. Bluefish comes a close second as a local fish and are landed daily.