Tisbury is throwing itself a birthday party and everyone is invited. The annual street fair, featuring face painting, a dunking booth, vendor displays and plenty of food, will take place tonight from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Established in 1971 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the town of Tisbury, the fair is now in its 42nd year and regularly draws a crowd of thousands.

On a hot Sunday morning in Oak Bluffs, the Hon. Margaret Marshall’s words were focused on a continent and an era away: South Africa during the apartheid era, when Nelson Mandela was a source of inspiration to Ms. Marshall and so many others.

With a cool, brisk breeze rippling the waters of Vineyard Haven harbor, perhaps the most surprising feature of the annual Sail Martha’s Vineyard seafood buffet and auction was the number of sailors who were not out on their boats for the evening.

With two hours to go until parade time, the sun shone on the lines of brightly-decorated floats that filled the parking lot of the Edgartown School Thursday afternoon. Their occupants, which included members of organizations from across the Island, milled about. When the time came to begin, the parade started with a bang — literally.

Workwise, Josh Scott is an ultra-marathoner. On a sunny, brisk spring morning, the arborist and owner of Beetlebung Tree Care walks around a spectacular 70-acre property on Squibnocket Pond with caretaker Tim Rich. Visually, they are quite a pair. Tim is tall, maybe six-six with a long, lumbering stride while Josh has the wiry build and nimble movements of a runner.

Middle Road wears an Island necklace in shades of gray. Allow the car behind you to pass and drive just slowly enough to glimpse it hiding behind a blur of trees and vines, or follow after it as it lends definition to the landscape on either side of the road from West Tisbury to Chilmark.