Always wanted to paint outdoors but have been too nervous to set up an easel where everyone can see? Well, Kevin Shea is coming to the Island to help put the possible in plein air painting.

Mr. Shea will hold a painting workshop on Sept. 17 to 19 designed to get one started capturing the great outdoors on canvas. The classes will include demonstrations and instruction for plein air painting, palette setup, color mixing and equipment. Paint and canvas samples are also available.

In preparation for the Island Theatre Workshop 2012 PICK of the CROP festival, ITW is seeking original script submissions by local playwrights. Shorts, one-acts and full-length plays will be considered.

If selected, materials will be presented at the November festival. Material must be received by Sept. 14 and may be submitted via the website itwmv.org or itwonmv@gmail.com, or by mail at P.O. Box 1893. Vineyard Haven 02568.

For more details, call 508-627-3166.

I spent Saturday in the garden with Violet and her friend Cesca Robinson. It doesn’t get any better than watching little girls wandering around the garden. They picked and prepared a salad. On a bed of large-leafed basil they arranged sun gold tomatoes. They put a tiny slice in each tomato and inserted some pea shoots, which only emerged a week ago. They garnished with double click white cosmos and sprigs of thyme. Don’t worry, they did not eat the cosmos. They ate several green peppers each.

Prior to 1648 when Thomas Mayhew Jr. proselytized Hiacoomes, the first of the original people to adopt Christianity at Pecoy Point, the neighborhood was called Pohqu-auk, meaning open land. As a major campsite, the area was used for gathering shellfish and eels, and growing corn, squash and tobacco. The main source of fresh water was Weatauque (place of the boundary spring) near the Land Bank’s Weahtaqua Springs Preserve at the southernmost point of the lagoon, where the Oak Bluffs water department’s first pumping station is. The original people traversed between these places by way of an ingenious pattern of trails. Pecoy Point is connected by Pulpit Rock Road, which crosses County Road at one of the entrances to Meadow View Farm, where begins the Chase Road that intersects with the Cross Oak Bluffs Trail, which extends south to Holmes Hole Road and across Barnes Road near Featherstone to Weatauque. The trail systems have been adopted as Special Ways, and are protected and conserved. While rarely used, you will find they are easily — instinctively — seen during a highly recommended walk or trail bike ride. Post-mosquitoes and other flying annoyances, this time of year is a good time for a healthy new adventure — but the poison ivy hasn’t fully disappeared so tall pants and socks are a good plan.

After clown school shut down unexpectedly, May Oskan was a little lost and rather bitter.

“The floor went out from under me... I didn’t have my community, teachers or classmates,” said Ms. Oskan of her time at the San Francisco Circus Center. “I didn’t have my tightrope or anything to juggle. I was a clown with no circus.”

Always one to be involved in a project, Ms. Oskan knew she had to do something big.

“And I knew I didn’t want it to be funny,” she added with a laugh.

103 Naushon Road in West Tisbury sold for $2,500,000 on August 23.

80 Oak Lane in West Tisbury sold for $300,000 on August 21.

409 Lambert's Cove Road in West Tisbury sold for $785,000 on August 20.

116 Stonegate Lane in Vineyard Haven sold for $955,000 on August 23.

6 Forest Circle in Edgartown sold for $580,000 on August 21.