Nature & Science
By LYNNE IRONS
The other day on the radio, they were discussing the rising cost of rice and how it is affecting a great deal of the world’s people. In fact, many cultures eat rice at every meal. They blamed part of the problem, of course, on the price of oil needed to haul that rice around.
There are many wonderful sayings regarding the first blooms of spring.
Earth Day Clean Up
Vineyard Conservation Society’s annual Earth Day Beach Clean Up tomorrow, Saturday, April 19, from 10 to noon, so bring your family and friends to your favorite beach.
Volunteers will meet you and show you what to do. Volunteers will receive all the materials needed for the cleanup, plus a conservation society reusable shopping bag made from recycled bottles.
Northern bobwhites are about as tall as robins, but are considerably chunkier. They are also called quail, and they prefer a combination of shrubs and grass, especially hedgerows in agricultural fields. These ground-nesting birds are now scarce, although they were abundant year-round residents as recently as the 1980s. Numerous reasons may explain the current scarcity of these birds.
Driving down the California coastline on a farewell tour of the state she called home, former CBS news producer Susan Gibbs pulled off the highway. She had quit her job; the contents of her Los Angeles home were packed into boxes. She was about to move across the country to New York city, and Ms. Gibbs wanted to say one last goodbye to the Pacific Ocean.
She wandered along the streets of a small waterfront tourist town and ducked into a bookstore. From the shelves she plucked a book, Barnyard in Your Backyard. In that instant, her life changed.
The gibbous moon moves up beside the brightly ringed planet Saturn on Monday and Tuesday evenings. The two are in the zodiacal constellation Leo. The bright star Regulus is nearby.
Almanac
A comprehensive guide to weather and tides on the Island.
Vineyard Gardener
I guess this past week weather-wise is called a January thaw. We did not really experience it the last several years as December was unseasonably warm.
Farm & Field
Beige and brown and tan and black, with horns spiraled or semicircular or in undulating waves, a legion of goats marched up the hill toward us, bleating in anticipation of fresh grass and leaves.