We have had enough rain and now it is on to the heat. If the weather is going to be as warm as they say, I think we are in the right place. But please be careful and wear sunscreen and drink lots of fluids.

Happy birthday to all who celebrated their day this past week. Big balloons go out to Aidan Smith who celebrated June 30, Abner Oliveira, July 1, Charles Fenske, July 2, Landin Medeiros, July 3 and to Ella Willoughby who celebrates her day today, July 5.

It was the summer of 1974 and John and Judy Belushi pulled up to the Woods Hole ferry terminal with a guidebook, a sense of adventure and no ferry reservation. The two were working for National Lampoon at the time and were enjoying a real vacation for once in New England.

Aaron Carter has a deep, gravelly voice. This may not be what you remember coming from the gangly, thirteen-year-old blonde kid who rapped about his block “party of the year” and his dream game of one-on-one against Shaquille O’Neal in the early 2000s. “Everyone will start to see that I’m not going to be the same as I was back then, and I’m not afraid to express myself,” Mr. Carter said in an interview with the Gazette. “I’m going to do new, big things.”

On Sunday, July 7, Margaret H. Marshall, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, will be the featured speaker at Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs. Her talk begins at 10 a.m. and is entitled Immigration and Justice.

The Unitarian Universalist Society hosts guest preacher Rev. Arlene Bodge this Sunday, July 7, at 11 a.m. Ms. Bodge is a longtime Islander and a retired Methodist minister who formerly served in Chilmark and Edgartown.

The Vineyard Gazette this week announced the publication of its second annual Martha’s Vineyard Real Estate Yearbook, a free resource guide for anyone interested in buying or selling property on the Island.
Published in partnership with LINK, the primary multiple listing service for Martha’s Vineyard, the yearbook provides a comprehensive look at property transactions by town and neighborhood over a 12-month period that ended April 30, 2013. The yearbook also includes an analysis of real estate trends, and information about purchasing property on the Island.

From the Vineyard Gazette editions of July, 1968: The Vineyard sizzled yesterday as it seldom does. The maximum temperature recorded at Edgartown was 91, and of course the high where heat gathered in streets and other places was way above 91. This is really hot for the Island. Last summer 85 was the maximum. The all-time high for the Island is said to have been 96, reached on July 20, 1892. At that time there was a Weather Bureau station on the Island.

As long as Gigi Horr Liverant has been visiting the Island she has been painting it. For 30 years, she has studied the landscape, the archetypal and the commonplace of the Vineyard, and committed it to canvas with pastels, acrylics and oils. While she’s here she takes photographs, makes sketches and brainstorms ideas about what to paint.

How often in nature do we see a single standing beetlebung tree? Not often, thinks Kara Taylor.

“A beetlebung alone is a really unique sight to see,” Ms. Taylor said last week in her new Chilmark gallery space. “Alone, the tree takes this amazing shape. I can only remember one place where I’ve seen this.”

So she decided to paint it.

The wood panel oil painting with 23-karat gold leaf, entitled West Tisbury Beetlebung, is one of 13 paintings in Deciduous, Ms. Taylor’s first show in her new location.

Award-winning writer and performer Ann Randolph brings her spin on life’s little challenges to the Vineyard with her solo show, Loveland. Ms. Randolph takes the audience along on a cross-country flight described as both hilarious and deeply human. She will offer two shows at the Katharine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven, one this Saturday beginning at 7:30 p.m. and another performance next Saturday, July 13, at the same time.

In an interview from the Berkshires where she is teaching a writing workshop, Ms. Randolph provided some insight as to where she gets her material.