Tucked away on a hill in West Tisbury rests an unlikely young girl. She’s over six feet tall, has ears as big as hub caps and is stuffed with thrift store rubble. Her name is Ellie the elephant, and she’s waiting to become the newest addition to the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival’s Cinema Circus.

A sweeping harbor improvement plan is now in the works for Menemsha thanks to a hefty grant awarded to the town of Chilmark this spring from the Massachusetts Seaport Advisory Council.

Chilmark selectmen discussed the plan at their weekly meeting Tuesday night, which calls for building new concrete and wooden docks throughout the pier system in the historic fishing village.

The following letter was sent to the Edgartown conservation commission, other town boards and the board for the Farm Institute and the Katama Association.

I have been a resident of Edgartown for 28 years and live adjacent to the Katama Farm. I am writing you on an important issue concerning the proposed installation of a telecommunication cell tower to be placed in the silo at the Katama Farm. I am not opposed to the technology, but I am concerned about the site that has been chosen. There are many documented studies done on the proximity of cell towers and the ill effects they have on humans and animals.

Hello, softball fans! Do you realize this is probably the 75th season of our Sunday softball games in Chilmark? What started in the back lot off the Menemsha Inn Road, and then found a home for awhile at Toomey’s, is now played at Flanders Fields off Tabor House Road. You can go there any Sunday during the summer at 8:30 a.m. and watch or play several pickup games. Young and old, women and men and even some dogs will dazzle you with their talents. I was invited to play by David Flanders — the best ballplayer to swing the bat in Chilmark. I can still hear him with his high-pitched voice heckling me from the outfield.

The first days of summer are expected to be a warm ones for the Vineyard, with temperatures predicted to touch 80 degrees on Wednesday and 90 degrees on Thursday. The Environmental Protection Agency is forecasting unhealthy air quality during that time based
on projected levels of ground-level ozone. The area affected includes portions of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Cape Cod and the Islands.

The campers are back, and they were greeted by plenty of jumping and cheering. On Monday morning, the 10:45 ferry brought the campers of Camp Jabberwocky, Martha’s Vineyard Cerebral Palsy camp, back to the Island for the 2012 season. In a mass of sparkling fabrics and bright colors, the counselors greeted this summer’s crew with traditional Jabberwocky energy, starting their cheers when the boat was still 100 feet away.

A prominent New England patriarch has died violently, exposing a nest of dark family secrets. That’s the plot of Richard North Patterson’s recently released family drama. The novel, Fall From Grace, set on Martha’s Vineyard, is the first in what is to be a series of three novels.

Mr. Patterson, a part-time Island resident, will discuss his work at a speakeasy on June 20 at 5:30 p.m. held at State Road Restaurant in West Tisbury. Hors d’oeuvres and light refreshments will be served.

Want cupcakes? Well, you won’t find any at Johnny Cupcakes, the new store that opened last Saturday on Circuit avenue in Oak Bluffs.

The store may smell like frosting, and the décor may include a giant whisk and a stack of cupcake tins, but the pastry display cases aren’t refrigerated because they contain non-perishable items: limited edition T-shirts.

“We trick a lot of hungry people,” said Johnny Earle, founder and CEO of Johnny Cupcakes.

Coming on the heels of a successful Memorial Day weekend, new Edgartown business owners expressed excitement for the coming season and the hope that they are helping to breathe new life into a downtown that has seen a good deal of commercial space turnover in recent years. The trend has not translated to empty storefronts; instead where one business moves out, another takes its place, and the retail landscape this summer is a lively mix of old and new.

Faces are lit up — store faces, that is. Main street Vineyard Haven has filled up for the 2012 summer season, complete with a handful of new shops that add some previously missing color to the harborside village. And the new stores are hard to miss.