My Aunt Marie turned 70 this past August. She is still slender, young in most every way and very strong.

Vineyard fashion is often said to be an oxymoron.
Barn glamour, beach chic, preppy with a tinge of hippie are frequently used to describe how Islanders dress. But while dress clogs, Muck Boots, a clean pair of jeans, cowboy boots and the reliable plaid shirt may all be staples in many Vineyard closets, a group of Vineyard fashion designers have set out to redefine what it means to dress with comfort, confidence and, above all, personal expression.

Beginning Monday, Sept. 17, and running through Saturday, Sept.

The varsity boys’ soccer team plays its first home game of the season tomorrow evening at 6:30 p.m. against Nauset.

Girls’ soccer also plays at home tomorrow, taking on Whitinsville Christian at 1:30 p.m.

Golf has two home matches this week, and will play Eastern Athletic Conference opponents Bishop Feehan on Tuesday and Coyle-Cassidy on Thursday at Farm Neck.

Over 2,600 pounds of fish have crossed the scales in the first five days of the 67th Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby, and they’re coming from all sectors of Vineyard waters.

“It’s been stellar, absolutely stellar,” Amy Coffey, who has volunteered at the weigh-in station for over 20 years, said on Thursday afternoon. “We had all four species weighed in from both boat and shore [in the all-tackle divisions], which is unusual for the first week.” Ms. Coffey estimated that it has been five years since the phenomenon last occurred.

As if on cue for the sixty-seventh Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby, the fish are running again.

There was a bluefish feeding frenzy at the Cape Pogue gut late one afternoon last week, one of those churning blitzes where you could throw out an old shoe and catch a fish. And out on Nantucket Sound, boats have been lined up like summer traffic at Five Corners as fishermen chase the silvery schools of bonito now flashing through the cooling saltwater. There are reports of stripers being caught on the north shore.

They came together at the end of the day Wednesday to catch fish. Backed by the glitter of fast-moving water, more than 20 anglers, most of them participants in the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby, stood at the far end of the Menemsha jetty casting their lures in close quarters. The sun was brilliant above the horizon. The Menemsha buoy, a ringing bell, filled the air with sound.
Ian Thurber, 31, a landscaper from West Tisbury, arrived at 5 p.m. after a full day of work. “This is one of many of my favorite places,” he said. “When there are no fish, it is relaxing.

The mystery of a nearly invisible tropical pinkletink which took up residence in an Oak Bluffs greenhouse has been solved. The tree frog, originally a native of Puerto Rico and thought to be a former resident of Hawaii, was captured last week by Gus Ben David of Edgartown.

“You can’t believe how loud it was,” Mr. Ben David said. “It had a piercing sound. We just couldn’t see it.”

With another step completed toward restoring on-Island health care access for veterans, members of the Providence VA hospital are planning an on-Island trip for early October for a town hall meeting with veterans and discussions with Martha’s Vineyard Hospital.

This week came word that the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital had signed a new contract for veterans’ health care; the last remaining step is contract approval from the Providence VA Medical Center.

The clear dry air that covers New England and is giving the Vineyard excellent sunny days is also giving us near perfect stargazing nights. Visibility is excellent. The stars are bright and numerous. The Milky Way is easy to see overhead, and the stars of autumn are rising in the east.
For those who are up late, the bright planet Jupiter rises in the East around midnight. The planet is in the zodiacal constellation Taurus, a constellation we associate with cold winter nights. If you wait later, the constellation Orion rises. Orion, the hunter, is a winter constellation. Orion rises in the east at 1 a.m.

Paper is so embedded in daily life as to be almost invisible. It is a transmitter. The message it bears, whether a scribbled note or a printed contract, is the focal point.