What happens to the 705 people of tiny Crawford, Tex. when George W. Bush moves to town?

Why do some washashores to the Island stay ashore while others drift away?

The question had settled in Island author Elaine Pace’s mind for a couple of years. She spent a year talking with people who stayed and the result is Island Home, the stories of 14 pilgrims who visited, then chose to live on the Vineyard.

Subtitled Why People Come to Martha’s Vineyard and Why They Stay, the self-published book hits Island bookstores today. The book joins Island, a Memoir, Ms. Pace’s first book, published in 2005.

National Trails Day is Saturday, June 7. The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank Commission will observe the day by sponsoring its 16th annual hike across the Island.

The commission’s Cross-Island Hike is a daylong, guided walk traversing some of the Vineyard’s most beautiful trails and conservation lands. Previous hikes have also included stretches across private properties with the permission of their owners.

MYSTERY ON THE VINEYARD: Politics, Passion and Scandal on East Chop. The History Press, Charleston S.C. 2008. 160 pages. $19.99 softcover.

Preschool Grant Offer

The Peter and Elizabeth C. Tower Foundation of Getzville, N.Y., is prepared to provide grants to organizations operating preschools on the Vineyard. The grants would go to the purchase of age-appropriate classroom equipment and technology for use by children ages three to five to promote the development of language and literacy skills. The due date for the application letter is June 30. More information can be found at thetowerfoundation.org.

Ambulance Open House

The Tisbury volunteer ambulance service will celebrate National Emergency Medical Services Week with an open house on Saturday, May 24 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Tisbury police and ambulance facility at the Water street parking lot next to the Stop & Shop in Vineyard Haven. More information is available by calling 508-696-4214.

Art students at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School will paint a mural on the exterior wall of the Stop & Shop food market next to the Water street parking lot in Vineyard Haven, following a move by the Tisbury selectmen to sanction a public art proposal presented by interested town citizens.

For the past 13 years, Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation has been working to restore the farm fields at Nat’s Farm in West Tisbury to native grassland, using prescribed fire and mowing.

In areas that have not been burned or mowed, there are hundreds of small cedars from eight to 36 inches tall.

Forty contestants from Island elementary schools participated last Saturday in the fifth annual Model Solar Car Race, held at the basketball court at the Chilmark Community Center.

Beginning with a standard kit of parts supplied by the Vineyard Energy Project, participating fifth and sixth graders put their technical knowledge, design sense and creativity to the test. Design of the cars was constrained only by the need to collect the sun’s rays.

Friday, May 16: Warm morning. Temperature close to the 60s. Rainy afternoon. Heavy showers pass over the Vineyard at the dinner hour. Cool damp evening. Bustling traffic at Five Corners as wet weekenders come off the boat pulling heavy baggage.

Saturday, May 17: A dramatic change comes to a stormy rainy morning. Clear skies from the west arrive bringing warm, summerlike sunshine. By afternoon the skies are clear and the air is warm. A beach-walking afternoon. Breezy along the shore.