Nature & Science
Extreme tides are taking place this week, the most tonight and this weekend. The reason is astronomical. The moon is both full and close, closer than at any time since 1993.
Across about 40 acres of forest land at Polly Hill Arboretum, some 40 per cent of the oak trees are dead. Just like tens of thousands of trees on other conservation, town and private land across Martha’s Vineyard.
Maybe enough trees to cover 1,000 acres, if you put them altogether, have died off in the past couple of years. That’s a big dying on a small Island.
The Polly Hill Arboretum has received a grant of $200,000 from the Foundation Franklinia for 2009. The grant includes $100,000 toward the arboretum’s seeds for the future capital campaign endowment and $100,000 toward operating costs in support of the living collection.
Although Jack Frost is nipping at my nose, it is the thought of chestnuts roasting on an open fire that is really getting me in the holiday mood. Thank you Mel Torme and Nat King Cole!
Bonaparte’s gulls are some of my favorite birds. These birds, unlike their larger cousins, are a delicate small gull, found in the harbors and close to shore in Vineyard and Nantucket sounds and off South Beach. The best place to see the Boneys, as these gulls are called, is along the sea wall in Vineyard Haven harbor. Look for a small grey gull with a very white band on the leading edge of its wings. Sporting a very petite black bill and a black dot behind his eye, the bird is hard to miss.
By LYNNE IRONS
I devoted a good deal of time last Saturday to cutting the bittersweet from the deer fencing around my vegetable garden. It is so ambitious and is threatening to bring down the fence with its weight. Here is a case of do what I say and not what I do. I should have bagged it for the landfill or burned it but, no! I just cut and dropped, assuring me of having to contend with it next year. I guess one could refer to the practice as job security.
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.