Holly Day

The annual Holly Day Fair and Luncheon at Grace Episcopal Church in Vineyard Haven is this Saturday, Dec. 3, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The event is packed with traditional Christmas bazaar treats, including baked goods, handmade crafts, ornaments, clothes, a White Elephant Table with gently used gifts and a silent auction. There is also a children’s shopping room so youngsters can take part in the giving season at bargain prices and have the gifts wrapped too.

Lisa Scannell Benefit

Martha’s Vineyard vacations aren’t just good for the soul; they can also help out a person in need.

On Sunday, Dec. 5 the Martha’s Vineyard Horse Council will raffle off two Island Dream Vacation packages at its annual awards event, held at 2 p.m. at the Agricultural Hall in West Tisbury. Proceeds from the raffles will benefit Lisa Ben David Scannell, who was injured in a horse riding accident in June and has had to undergo rehabilitation.

Red Stocking Fund

Due to unexpected illness, the mailing address for the Red Stocking Fund has temporarily been changed to Box 600, Edgartown, MA 02539. All donations and communications should go to this address until further notice. Inquiries can be directed via e-mail to redstockingfund@gmail.com or phone calls to 508-693-2324. Donations also may be dropped off at any Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank location.

A large gibbous moon and brilliant Jupiter appear together as a pair, a spectacle high in the eastern sky on Tuesday night. Both are in the small zodiacal constellation Aries.

Welcome Riley

Elizabeth Davis and Alec Gale of Tisbury announce the birth of a son, Riley Patrick Gale, born on Nov. 24, at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Riley weighed 6 pounds, 12 ounces at birth.

They call him the swim-whisperer. A man able to take a fully-frightened toddler or adult, so fearful of learning to swim the sight of a half-full bathtub gives them shakes, and get them smiling wide and splashing big in just one lesson.

His name is Michael Wooley.

Another tidbit: To help build awareness and raise funds when the YMCA was still just a dream, Mr. Wooley swam from Woods Hole to Martha’s Vineyard. A few times.

Traipsing through the woods in search of the perfect Christmas tree is a holiday scene so quintessential in nature it seems it could only exist in a painting.

It was a clear night on top of Mount Washington in New Hampshire last Saturday; the temperature was 31 degrees a few hours after the sun had set. But Vineyarders didn’t have to travel to experience the weather at the highest elevation in the Northeast. A virtual trip sufficed from inside the comfortable conditions at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center.

It is easy to make rash judgments when the subject is poison sumac.

Two special birds were found on and around the Vineyard on Nov. 29. Anne Lemenager was walking around Farm Pond and what should appear but a sandhill crane! She watched it for a bit and then it flew off. We should keep our eyes peeled and check all open fields as the crane may stay around with this beautiful and weird warm weather. The second bird was a first winter Iceland gull that I found in with a flock of northern gannets, razorbills, red-breasted mergansers and gulls (Bonaparte’s, herring, black-backed and ring-billed) off Cape Pogue the same day.