Being in love is like eating lobster on the beach as the sun sets over the ocean on a cool evening in July.

Painting ought to come naturally to West Tisbury’s John Athearn. George Brehm, the Saturday Evening Post cover illustrator and children’s book illustrator, was his grandfather. George’s brother, Worth, also a Post cover illustrator and children’s book illustrator, was his great uncle. His aunt June Tabor of Chilmark is a painter. His niece Morgan Taylor is a graphic artist. And West Tisbury painter Allen Whiting is a third cousin.

The Island art community will witness a double debut this weekend — the opening of Lanny McDowell’s solo painting exhibition and the first solo art exhibition held at the Tashmoo Spring building.

The building, known as the Tisbury Waterworks, has undergone extensive renovations in the past few years. The town has begun renting it out as a venue for weddings, art exhibitions and a youth theater camp. Once used to house water pumps, it now has high ceilings, brick walls and tall windows.

Last fall Alison Shaw awoke before the sun, planning to photograph Lewis Bay lighthouse on the Hyannis Harbor. That was the agenda for the day, but the clear blue sky called for other plans.

“As soon as the sun came up, I looked around and thought, ‘Oh look, there’s the Nantucket ferry. It’s a gorgeous day, the conditions are right ­­— I’m going to Nantucket today.’”

In the summer, when attention turns to Island beaches and visitors come off the ferry in droves, a speaker series offers a chance to think about the world beyond Vineyard shores.

The Summer Institute speaker series at the Hebrew Center, now in its 13th year, aims to provide affordable, thought-provoking discussions, said Summer Institute committee chairman, Geraldine Alpert.

The idea is to enrich the cultural and intellectual life of the Island, Ms. Alpert said. “To enlighten.”

There’s no place like home.

Dorothy said it, and the world agreed. But the artwork of Peter Batchelder challenges the famous movie mantra. By ditching the details and accessing only the universal essence of a place, he presents “home” as somewhere that can be found almost anywhere if you know how to find what’s familiar.

Kevin Keady is a familiar face on the Chappaquiddick ferry, traveling back and forth between his home on Chappy to play gigs all over the Island. He and his band the Cattle Drivers play most every Saturday morning at the West Tisbury Farmers’ Market.

Vineyarders have come so far east that they’ve broken free of mainland America, but one West Tisbury resident is the man to go to for a conversation about Western United States history.

We are all fired up at Felix Neck!

And why shouldn’t we be? Summer staff is here, camp is going strong and we are getting ready for the big parade next week. But it isn’t just the kids and counselors who are animated.

Our fields are full of light and love in the form of bright beetles. I know exactly what Bishop Reginald Heber was experiencing when he observed, “Before, beside us, and above, the firefly lights his lamp of love.”

Well, it seems to me that shorebird migration is early. I have always considered July 4 the date for the beginning of the movement of sandpipers, plovers, dowitchers, knots and the like as they head south for their winter haunts. But the shorebirds came through the Vineyard earlier, their young have hatched earlier (and now are on their own), so why not head south earlier?