Eve Vincent Codding and Geoff Codding of Tisbury announce the birth of a son, Finn Jackson Codding, born on May 29, 2011, at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Finn weighed 8 pounds, 14.2 ounces at birth.

KATHIE CASE

508-627-5349

(kathleencase@comcast.net)

As of the writing of this article, Springfield was hit with a tornado and many homes near there were hit with lightning and hail as large as golf balls. So there are no complaints from this writer, only well wishes and prayers for those in other areas of Massachusetts.

A thin crescent moon appears low in the southwestern sky after sunset tonight, when it is in the zodiacal constellation Gemini, moving into the constellation Cancer.

Coming home to the Vineyard’s common birds is always a pleasure. “Our” black-capped chickadee with an unusual white blaze is back on the shelf feeder. The red-headed woodpecker looks very uncomfortable as it balances on the Droll Yankee tube feeder extracting seed. The white-breasted nuthatch is working upside down on the sycamore maple headed for the suet cage. The regulars are around the feeders.

By JONAH LIPSKY

Near the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and MassArt in Boston lies a small basement gallery. At the entrance to the space a large electric sign hovers above the door displaying the word yes in three languages: Yes. Oui. Si.

When jazz goes on vacation, it goes to Martha’s Vineyard. So trumpets the tag line of the inaugural 2011 Martha’s Vineyard Jazz Festival, which officially takes place August 6-13, but enjoyed an unofficial kickoff at Lola’s in Oak Bluffs this past weekend. Throughout the summer, you can find jazz all over the Island leading to the weeklong festival in August.

I wonder when Decoration Day turned into Memorial Day? As a child, I believe it was used interchangeably. I thought of geraniums and cemeteries.

It is everywhere. Clouds of pollen have coated the entire Island. We are in danger of sinking under the weight of the zillions of grains of male tree dust.

Well, not really, but it is driving us all a bit crazy and putting many into a sneezing frenzy.

Baseball Team Creates Feeding Frenzy

Warning: The following contains numerous digestive metaphors. It could not be avoided.

The Martha’s Vineyard Sharks baseball team is famished. Their winter feeding grounds were dormant. Time usually spent enjoying seal sandwiches was eaten up by paper work. An inaugural baseball season is not just a dine-and-dash proposition. It requires desk jockeying and phone mangling, neither task usually on the shark preferred catch-of-the-day menu.

Currently, the Martha’s Vineyard Museum is featuring an exhibit entitled We Are Marching Along: Martha’s Vineyard and the Civil War. Next Tuesday, June 5 at 5:30 p.m., in conjunction with this exhibit the museum is hosting a lecture featuring Pulitzer Prize winning author William McFeely. He will be discussing the connection between the Civil War boat River Queen to Martha’s Vineyard.