Nature & Science
On Saturday, Nov. 24, the Vineyard Open Land Foundation will hold the annual meeting of its board of overseers at the Mary P. Wakeman Conservation Center auditorium off Lambert’s Cove Road in Vineyard Haven. The overseers will meet at 1 p.m. The annual meeting of the board of trustees will follow. At 1:30 p.m., the foundation will invite the public to a presentation of its activities over the past year.
I nominate cranberries for the best supporting role in a holiday dinner.
There was a time, in the not so distant past, when turkeys crowded more than just the roads of Martha’s Vineyard.
I woke up in that daze created by flying for 10 hours and waking up in an unfamiliar bed.
“Leaping lemurs — did you hear that, Flip?”
“Yes, if we weren’t in Madagascar I would swear it was a turkey,” he replied.
Following a summer of uncertainty and dashed hopes, the future of the Island Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program was secured last week when a farming-friendly New Jersey resident announced that he will buy Thimble Farm — and keep it in active agriculture.
Eric Grubman, an executive vice president with the National Football League, will buy the 43-acre farm from Lawrence Benson for $2.45 million. The closing is expected before the end of the year.
This week’s most exciting sightings are Sally Anderson’s reports of pine siskins on Nov. 4 and 8 and common redpolls observed in Aquinnah on Nov. 12. To have these northern finches around this early, and widespread across Massachusetts, means that they may be relatively common this winter. These finches only migrate this far south when food is scarce in their northern forest homelands. Last winter the seeds they eat were abundant, yet the birds were virtually absent in New England.
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.