Director Joann Green Breuer is a bit vague when it comes to describing the themes at work in her Vineyard Playhouse performance of the Brian Friel play Faith Healer. It’s not that she’s trying to be evasive, it’s just that the subject matter itself is sometimes vague, subjective and difficult to describe.

Generations of joggers, walkers and runners gathered at Washington Park in Oak Bluffs on Saturday morning for the 22nd annual Sullivan 5K Run and Walk for Health and Fitness. The fundraiser for the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital had all the trappings of a family reunion and social until the race began and the group suddenly rushed en masse down the street. Prior to the start, participants lingered about, sharing stories and sipping from bottles of water.

On a recent afternoon, when the skies had finally cleared and the earth was beginning to soak up five days worth of rain, Marie Scott emerged out of her field off Middle Road in Chilmark. Barefoot, she appeared to float effortlessly amongst her crops. Her feet squished in the damp ground as she showed the Gazette around the land she has been connected to her entire life off Beetlebung Corner, aptly named Beetlebung Farm.

President Obama and his family ended their vacation on the Vineyard Sunday just as they had begun it 10 days earlier — quietly and without fanfare.

Tisbury is looking at signing onto a state program which offers millions of dollars in grant money to communities which undertake policies to cut their energy use by 20 per cent, and make themselves friendly for alternative energy development.

The next meeting of the town selectmen will hear a presentation organized by town administrator John Bugbee on the benefits of joining the Green Communities Program from a state-nominated consultant who would then help navigate the requirements for entry to the program.

A wind farm off Cuttyhunk — one of only two places in the commonwealth designated for commercial wind development — is in the earliest stages of planning, although at this stage the details are being kept carefully under wraps.

Veggies Go Bye-Bye

The last Wednesday West Tisbury Farmers’ Market of the season is this week, Wednesday, Sept. 1.

Last Monday the schooner Valora was lost after she broke from her mooring outside Vineyard Haven and went up on the breakwater. Friends often heard me say that you never really own a boat like Valora, you just take care of her for future generations. I certainly expected her to outlive me — sadly, this will not be so.

President Obama and his family ended their 10-day Vineyard vacation quietly on Sunday morning, lifting off in Marine One at the Martha’s Vineyard Airport at just before 10 a.m.

The motorcade departed the presidential vacation home at Blue Heron Farm in Chilmark at 9:30 a.m. under clear blue and skies and warm sunshine. Small groups of onlookers gathered along the West Tisbury Road to wave goodbye as the President passed.

Waters on the Lagoon Pond side of Eastville Beach are closed to swimming as of Friday morning, according to David Caron from the Oak Bluffs board of health. The beach near the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital is used for clamming and occasionally for swimming, but test results for bacteria have come back slightly elevated, with a reading of 113 when the top of the acceptable range is 100. It will remain closed for the weekend; the town will retest on Monday.

All the main swimming beaches in Oak Bluffs are open to swimming, Mr. Caron said.