It was 5:30 a.m. and still barely light over Tisbury Great Pond. I noted motion over the pond and saw two birds chasing one another. Then I heard a distinctive rattle and realized that the silhouettes I was watching were two belted kingfishers. I put the kettle on and settled in to sip my tea and watch the sun come up. As dawn broke the two kingfishers raced by low to the pond, then they banked and rose up over the embankment and flashed a single broad breast band: two male kingfishers.

By LYNNE IRONS

I have no business writing a garden column. I should be doing a political blog, as if I knew how to blog. I can barely Google in a pinch.

There. I have set the stage.

Four hundred thousand dead civilians and 2.5 million displaced refugees. Hundreds of undefended villages razed by government-funded marauders on horseback. People living in camps with poisoned wells. Starving two-year-olds who look like they’re 102. Mothers who send their daughters out to collect firewood, knowing they will be raped. The violence in Darfur makes the early 21st century look as dark as the 20th.

Friday, Sept. 7: Hot and humid. Summer keeps a hold on the Vineyard. Swimmers gather at the Bend in the Road Beach, under fast moving clouds. Yellow roses are in full bloom on South Water street in Edgartown.

Capt. Wayne Iacono and a number of other Menemsha lobstermen are having a better autumn this year because of the help of a local draggerman, Capt. Craig Coutinho of the fishing boat Viking.

“If it wasn’t for Craig we’d all be in trouble,” Captain Iacono said.

A panel discussion featuring the founders of the Israeli-Palestinian Negotiating Partners, moderated by Shula Gilad, is set for Sunday, Sept. 30 from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center, 130 Centre street in Vineyard Haven.

On the panel will be Nisreen Haj-Ahmed Abbas from the Kennedy School of Government, who holds a law degree from the University of Edinburgh and is on leave from her position with the economic advisor to the president of the Palestinian Authority.

You have to crawl before you learn to fly if you are a tussock moth.

Don’t have a hairy fit if you find one of these creepy, crawly, furry caterpillars. In the Island world of caterpillars, finding a tussock moth caterpillar should not ruin your day. At least, it isn’t a winter moth caterpillar and won’t be raining insect debris on your head during a jaunt in the woods or in your yard.

Nineteen Martha’s Vineyard artists> have been working outside this week, en plein air, to take full advantage of the exquisite September light and crowd-free vistas. The artists’ media range from oil and acrylic to pastel, watercolor and pen and ink. Each artist will exhibit views of Menemsha, the Edgartown Lighthouse and the Tisbury Waterworks as well as other favorite Island locations. The work will be exhibited concurrently at Dragonfly, Periwinkle and Pik-Nik galleries in Oak Bluffs.

Stephen DiRado's photographs taken on the Vineyard have hung in galleries in New York city, Houston and London and belong to prestigious museum collections in Boston, Berlin and Toledo, Ohio. There was even a play inspired by his summers photographing on the Vineyard, performed at the New Jersey Repertory Company in 2003.

Yet here on the Island, Mr. DiRado's work is conspicuously absent. The Martha's Vineyard Museum has five of his pieces in its archives, but no galleries here exhibit his work.

Remember to pick up Tuesday’s Gazette for the latest on the fishing derby and other weekend events.xxxxx x xxxxx xxx xx xx xxxxxxx x xxxxxxxxx x