Whether it’s Fido or your Aunt Fanny’s feline, all are welcome to the fifth annual Paws on the Porch pet celebration at the Harbor View Hotel on June 15.

After gathering on the porch of the hotel at 10 a.m., pets of every variety, from the scaly to the feathery, can take part in the parade to the Edgartown Lighthouse. The parade will be led by the Black Dog mascot.

Father Michael Nagle of Good Shepherd Parish will bless all the animals.

After the parade, it’s water and pet treats for everybody back at the Harbor View porch.

The Vineyard’s top saltwater fly fishermen will pair up with anglers from all over the country to compete in tomorrow night’s 22nd annual Martha’s Vineyard Rod and Gun Club striped bass catch-and-release tournament. It is primarily a night fishing event that begins at 7 p.m., and no fish are taken home.

Cooper A. Gilkes 3rd, who co-organizes the event, said many of the contestants are already here and are out scoping their favorite fishing places. This is a good fishing spring, Mr. Gilkes said. Shorefishermen are doing well all around the Island.

The nesting season for the birds of Martha’s Vineyard is upon us. Last week’s discovery of the brown creepers’ nest nudged other birders to sharing their bird nesting stories. And I started thinking about all the different nests I have seen on the Island. The variety is amazing and the different architecture and material choices is immense. The range in size and shape is incredible, from the tiny one inch across and one inch deep cup of lichens and moss woven together by our ruby-throated hummingbird to our fish hawk’s massive old nests.

That was some serious rain last Friday evening. I love it. I did not have to haul hoses around for several days.

Before I got to mention the locust blooms, they were gone. How does that happen? I hope everything is in season forever in heaven.

It was truly a tree-mendous mystery.

Award winning songwriter Kathy Moser performs a special concert at Alex’s Place on June 22 featuring music by and for people in recovery and their families and friends. Ms. Moser is a national touring artist who has performed and led songwriting workshops in alcohol and drug treatment facilities all over the U.S. Appearing with her will be Bethel Steel who was just chosen as a finalist for the Kerryville New Folk Competition.

The concert begins at 7 p.m. at Alex’s Place at the YMCA.

Summer reads are one thing, but the Martha’s Vineyard Book Festival is quite another. In its fifth year, the festival occurs the first weekend in August every other year and highlights the Island’s rich literary history while bringing some of the best known authors to the Vineyard. The weekend features some of the country’s leading authors and includes readings, panel discussions, author interviews and book signings.

Some may know how Tai Chi and Chi Gung help create a more balanced approach to life. Upcoming classes at the Tisbury Senior Center add swords and fans into the mix.
Fans add to hand and wrist movement while the sword helps to create a continuous flow of energy. The class leader Daisy Lifton brings 20 years of experience teaching Chi Gung and Kung Fu to students of all ages.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi, a documentary about the world famous sushi chef in Japan, made waves in the food world last year with its high definition celebration of the tiny basement level restaurant and their impeccable selection and treatment of the most appetizing seafood imaginable. Jiro continues to make his name serving what is thought to be one of the most expensive meals on earth, which is calculated partly by the length of the meal that often lasts less than 20 minutes as simple dish after dish is prepared in rapid succession, almost immediately after the last is consumed.

Every dance has its own vocabulary or its own “it-ness” as choreographer David Brick refers to it. For the past three weeks at the Yard, Mr. Brick’s job has been to draw out this “it-ness”, harness it and help three up and coming choreographers dig a little deeper into their work.