On a Sunday afternoon in July about 10 years ago the Beach Club was alive with excitement. Dexter Nerney had purchased blue sea glass at a gift shop during the off-season and brought it to the Vineyard. On that Sunday afternoon, he scattered it around the beach and then sat with some friends with his wonderful impish grin to watch the action.

The early summer heat and confounded traffic that snarled everywhere except the roundabout is making the Vineyard Transportation Authority’s #7, #9 and #13 Oak Bluffs buses into bargains, if not blessings. The apocryphal story I’ve heard is that due to the debris Hurricane Sandy dropped into the water along the Jersey shore, it’s too dangerous to swim, and vacationers have chosen the Island as a replacement destination.

Chilmark feels like August this week as I write on Tuesday evening — hot, muggy and very crowded. The Menemsha sunsets have been drawing big crowds and the beaches are well occupied every day by smart people trying to stay cool! What happened to July? I am hoping it is behind the fog that is hanging around the Elizabeth Islands!

The weekend weather was superb, hot and dry. The beaches were full and our temperature in the shade was nearly 90 degrees. Frank Adams would have described the weather we have been having as “hotter than a burn boot,” as that was the description he wrote in his diary about a similar heat wave that occurred in the summer of 1941.

My dreams have been dashed once again. For the past few weeks I have awakened at four or five in the morning to the dulcet sounds of another rooster in our neighborhood. I was so happy! Shades of Rupert and the big rooster controversy that tore this ‘hood apart a few years back.

Sincerest condolences to the family and friends of our eldest Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribal Member, Beatrice H. (Vanderhoop) Gentry, who died at her Aquinnah home on July 7 surrounded by her loving family. Beatrice was the middle child of nine, the daughter of the late Cummings Adrian Vanderhoop and Jestina (Thompson) and the only surviving sibling, having been predeceased by her siblings Ida, Clarence, Cummings Earl, Viola, Bertha, Alfred, Barbara and Thelma.

Last Friday morning, in the shady woods of Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary, camp counselor Noah McCarter sat on a fallen log and held a tiny blue and white feather in his hand.

“What kind of bird do you think it was from?” he asked a camper sitting quietly beside him.

“A blue jay!” Nora exclaimed.

Noah placed the feather in Nora’s hand and she proudly shared what she just learned.

A new event for the Vineyard this summer is the On The Vine Festival, which will bring musical artists Smokey Robinson and Natalie Cole, among other notable performers, to the Island. What brings all this talent to one event? The On The Vine Festival benefits kidney disease research and the American Friends of Rambam, the health care campus located in Haifa, Israel where breakthrough kidney research is taking place.

Gay Head Gallery is currently featuring watercolor landscapes by local artist John Nickerson Athearn. Mr. Athearn is a self-taught artist who inherited much of his inspiration from his grandfather, George Brehm, a painter and illustrator who worked with Norman Rockwell.

Hooked in Oak Bluffs is baiting the hook with some serious musical talent on Saturday night. Former members of Steely Dan, the Doobie Brothers, Boston, James Brown Band, the Wailers and Fosterchild will join Mike Martin and Los Rootsicks for a supergroup jam starting at 9 p.m.