If I were a tomato, I would want to be a porch tomato. It is a lesson which took only 15 months, about $50 and a bowl of bruschetta on a warm summer evening to learn.
Health and human service agencies on the Vineyard are already feeling the effects of severe state budget cuts made last week by Gov. Deval Patrick and are bracing for more in the months ahead.
State funding to Family Planning of Martha’s Vineyard and Martha’s Vineyard Community Services was slashed in the cuts, while directors at the Island Health Care Rural Clinic in Edgartown and the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital were busy this week preparing for spending and hiring freezes.
Although today’s is the last Farm and Field column for the year, the farming season is far from over. Fall brings fields full of squash and pumpkins, late summer corn, green and red tomatoes. Farm stands will stay open on through October and November. Come December, many Island farms will shut down and farmers will turn their attention to planning for the spring, summer and early fall crops.
With bacteria levels in Sengekontacket Pond lower than anticipated this summer, Edgartown shellfish constable Paul Bagnall is advocating that parts of the pond reopen to shellfishing as soon as next summer.
“I am pushing for the reopening of certain areas of the pond,” Mr. Bagnall told the Friends of Sengekontacket at their annual meeting this week. “And I don’t anticipate opposition.”
Thirteen years ago, Maggie White packed her things and moved from Colorado to the Massachusetts Island of her childhood summers. She left behind a booming and profitable business to run a small Edgartown inn. She had no experience in the hospitality industry and she knew not a soul on the Vineyard, save the herd of cows she brought with her.
Thirteen years ago, Maggie White packed her things and moved from Colorado to the Massachusetts Island of her childhood summers. She left behind a booming and profitable business to run a small Edgartown inn. She had no experience in the hospitality industry and she knew not a soul on the Vineyard, save the herd of cows she brought with her.
Martha’s Vineyard Community Services on Wednesday unveiled a strategic plan to grow in services, size and funding over the next five years, but within a year the organization expects to have better services in place for Islanders with drug and alcohol problems.
Talks already are underway between community services and the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, with help from the department of public health, to coordinate care for Islanders with substance abuse or mental health concerns.
In their workaday world they help other people create memories, but along the way they have created enough memories of their own to fill a book. And the children! V. Jaime Hamlin has four boys, three of them triplets; Patrie Grace has three girls and two boys. Jaime is a caterer whose reputation as a cook is beyond the pale. Patrie is the stalwart wedding planner and events coordinator. Their businesses are separate but intertwined. Exactly like their lives.
What does a principal do if parents do not come in to meet him and talk to the teachers?
Last year Laury Binney, principal of the Oak Bluffs elementary school, decided to go to the parents. And in his case that meant taking an unpaid sabbatical year and traveling to Brazil, including an extended visit to the two towns where most of the Island Brazilians hail from.
His trip provided a small window into the Brazilian community on the Island, which is well established but little known or understood.
