Red Buds

The woodlands are brushed with the palest colors these days as an early burst of warm weather throws nature into a tailspin: new leaves in apple green, shadbush blossoms in pink and cream, oak buds in pale red.

Faint scarlet, the feathery emerging buds of oak trees are stunningly beautiful right now, silhouetted against an early evening sky and illuminated by the first rays of sun as they creep up over the extreme eastern edge of the Island.

Island police were busy over Patriots Day weekend with several calls of bad behavior at various nightclubs and bars. Oak Bluffs police in particular reacted to a high volume of calls for unruly behavior, including a brawl at Seasons Eatery & Pub that ended with several injuries and the arrest of two men.

The Cape and Islands Youth Community Development Council, a group of 16 students working through the Job Training and Employment Corp. to award grants to deserving programs, has sent out a request for proposals.

Council members set its funding priorities this year on education, homelessness, substance abuse services and other projects, which meet a demonstrated critical need in the community. The group will award a total of $5,500.

The Martha’s Vineyard Savings Charitable Foundation has awarded 20 local organizations and community groups $27,000 in various sums under its spring 2008 grant program.

The recipients include Aquinnah Cultural Center, Dolby Look Rebello Scholarship Golf Tournament, Friends of Family Planning, Habitat for Humanity, Hospice of Martha’s Vineyard, Island Theatre Workshop, Lia Kahler for the Still the Hunger Concert, and Martha’s Vineyard Arena.

A Vineyard Haven man accused of raping a West Tisbury woman at knifepoint two years ago was convicted of kidnapping, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, aggravated rape and home invasion on Wednesday and sentenced to up to 28 years in prison by a Dukes county superior court judge.

Edgartown will appeal a decision handed down last week by the state Housing Appeals Committee, which removed town-imposed conditions on a contentious 11-home development in an environmentally-sensitive area off Watcha Path.

The Cozy Hearth project was proposed by a group of Vineyard residents who banded together to build housing for themselves using Chapter 40B — a state law that allows affordable housing projects to skirt most zoning regulations.

The plan was to build 11 single family homes on 10.9 acres, in an area zoned for three-acre parcels.

The Aquinnah Public Library sports a powerful literary and learning engine inside its homespun, 19th century exterior. The former little red schoolhouse, built in 1827 on State Road just past the town hall, houses more than 7,900 books and almost 1,700 audio and DVD materials. Over the past four years, the tiny library, less than 1,000 square feet, has earned national and state honors.

Alternative energy looms large on the warrant for the May 13 Aquinnah annual town meeting.

The 31-warrant article, unveiled by Aquinnah selectmen at their meeting this week, is dominated by four energy-related articles, including a proposed new wind energy bylaw.

Voters will be asked to support efforts to site a wind turbine at the West Tisbury school and to join the Cape and Vineyard Electric Cooperative, designed to help manage and sell excess alternative energy that members generate.

Are you prepared to handle an emergency at sea? A free seminar on techniques for abandoning ship will be held at Sail Martha’s Vineyard, Main street, Vineyard Haven at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 1.

Capt. Kent Dresser of Confident Captain-Ocean Pros will demonstrate the proper deployment of an inflatable liferaft, how to get in and out of the raft, what to carry in your ditch bag and what you need to know before, during, and after you abandon ship.

“You learn to pay attention to the moment,“ said Sheila Morgan, a client of Paul Farrington, an Island provider of neurofeedback.

That’s a type of biofeedback, which aims to make people aware of, and thus control, their unconscious reactions.

“I came in like a jigsaw puzzle dropped on the table and came out put together again,” she said.

What’s this moment all about? And just how does neurofeedback work?