Wayne Coutinho was the first person I ever saw dive headfirst off of the old pier at the Pay Beach. That doesn’t sound like too big of a deal until you realize that the pier was about eight or nine feet above about six or seven feet of water, depending on the tide. And he didn’t just dive; Wayne ran half the length of the pier laughing enthusiastically and leaping with abandon — just like he lived, loving the water above all else.

The weather is getting colder and the question of the month is “When do you turn your heat on?” Well, most of the answers I hear are Nov. 1. A lot of people say they already have it on and don’t care.

Chilmark is enjoying being haunted this week as we prepare for the annual Halloween celebrations around the Island. The Chilmark Volunteer Firefighters hosted their annual Halloween party for the young and not so young ghosts and goblins at the Chilmark Community Center on Thursday evening.

With Thanksgiving sneaking up on us on pointy turkey talons, we begin to reflect upon all that for which we are grateful ... which leaves us precious little time to brood upon those things that annoy us.

The autumn air has remained in the 50s throughout the week, but the frost is on the pumpkins most nights. Tuesday was an absolutely warm, calm day for getting out to enjoy the sounds of nature.

At a Harvard Law School event a few weeks ago that honored Alan Dershowitz’s career, Larry David sent a video.
“Look, the world is divided into two groups of people,” Mr. Dershowitz said, quoting Mr. David, an actor and fellow seasonal Vineyarder. “There are people who don’t know Alan and hate him. People who know Alan and love him. I’m in a third category. I know Alan really well and I hate his guts.”

Abigail Higgins is a wealth of information. She always has an answer for my garden questions. Recently I rang her concerning dahlias. Mine had experienced a light freeze.

Daniel Pinkwater, a writer of children’s and young adult fiction, contends that “Werewolves are much more common animals than you might think.”

The thought of alerting bird watchers to make sure their bird baths are full on Oct. 31 never crossed my mind. However, I find that with this drought, the birds in my yard and the woods and fields that surround my home are looking hard for sources of water.

The arborists at Beetlebung Tree Care hope their treetop handiwork doesn’t cause an accident this week.

But it’s not their lofty tree-pruning that they’re worried about. It’s a papier-mache and hay arborist hanging at the entrance to the West Tisbury business.

His name is the Singing Arborist and the Scared Crow, and he is a scarecrow. He’s tied into the tree about 20 feet above the ground, with state-of-the-art climbing gear, including a brand new climbing rope, a saddle and a prusik. A papier-mache crow squawks beside him.