I want to thank my friends and family who held an impromptu barbecue for my birthday last Sunday. Tamma Willoughby outdid herself with making green salad, potato salad, hamburgers and hotdogs.

Be on the lookout for our most recently arrived public enemy, the Lone Star tick. This critter is roughly the same size as the adult deer tick, but with a distinct single white spot on the center of its back.

Della Hardman was an art professor, Gazette columnist and keeper of the East Chop Lighthouse, among other things. She first came to the Vineyard as a three-year-old child in 1925.

The tax-free (sales tax) weekend begins on August 15, and the president and first family arrive tomorrow for a well-deserved vacation.

No wonder everyone is moving so fast, too much to do and too little time to do them all. The good weather days offer the beaches and fishing and the rainy days offer the shopping tours.

We usually don’t start seeing black-legged kittiwakes from the Island beaches until October, unless we have a storm prior to that month.

I met Grey after he came to Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary with a photo of a mystery marine creature.

The Queen Anne’s lace is spectacular this year. The huge field across from the Allen sheep farm is covered with it.

A report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has found that cod stocks in the Gulf of Maine are at an all-time low.

Renee Balter, Dorothy Bangs and Richard Paradise will be honored next week with the Martha’s Vineyard Museum’s annual Martha’s Vineyard Medal.