BRAD WOODGER

508-627-4216

Cloudy days, hot and humid and now they are saying the fall weather is coming this weekend. Welcome to September. This is a personal favorite month as I love the color blue the sky is and the white billowy clouds. Happy birthday to all who celebrated their birthday this past week.

In 1881 Cottage City’s telephone service started with the first line laid to Vineyard Haven. To use a telephone one had to go to a hotel or a store and by 1882 there were seven phones in Cottage City that were called public telephone pay stations.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Bruno’s, Bruno’s, Brunos! We waited with much fear and anticipation Labor Day to see if trash and recycles would be picked up. Oh, no one in my ‘hood is messy or generates much trash and recyclables, it was just all those pesky summer guests we have and the parties for the last hurrah of summer.

The Martha’s Vineyard Songwriter’s Festival touches down on the Island this September for the third year. Previously promoted and hosted by BMI, this year the country music festival has been organized by New England to Nashville (NETN), a group founded in 2012 by Matt Casey. The event includes a songwriting workshop on Sept. 14 and 15 and a concert at Flatbread on Sept. 14.

Offered By Tea Lane Associates
Perched on a small bluff at the quiet western end of the island, this elegant waterfront retreat offers a truly rare combination of a finely finished home, guesthouse and gardens with acreage, panoramic views and easy walk to a private sandy beach.

This week concludes Capt. Robert Douglas’ 50th summer skippering the Shenandoah, what amounts to the longest-running relationship between a captain and his boat he’s ever heard of.

“To my knowledge, no one has ever been tied up to the same boat, without interruption for 50 years,” he said this week on the porch outside his office in Vineyard Haven.

Just after a Labor Day tradition of breakfast at Art Cliff Diner with friends, Don McKillop and Susan Davy sit together on a navy leather couch in their living room. Paintings cover the walls, sculptures rest on end tables and a rack of postcards stands tall in the corner. In addition to this being their living room, it is also the Dragonfly Fine Arts Gallery which the couple owns and operates.

Columbus Day weekend will mark an end and herald a beginning for Mr. McKillop and Ms. Davy.

Save the date for Tivoli Day, arriving in Oak Bluffs for the 36th year on Saturday, Sept. 14. The celebration of summer’s end, or the beginning of the shoulder season, is from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and takes place all along Circuit avenue, which is closed to traffic for the event.

Art in the Stacks features photos by Christopher Wright beginning Monday, Sept. 9 at the Vineyard Haven Library. Mr. Wright’s work revolves around the Vineyard. He’s a waterscape and landscape photographer whose photos are found at many Vineyard galleries and other Island venues. The exhibit continues through Oct. 4.

Call 508-696-4211 or visit vhlibrary.org.