Nature & Science
National Trails Day is Saturday, June 7. The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank Commission will observe the day by sponsoring its 16th annual hike across the Island.
The commission’s Cross-Island Hike is a daylong, guided walk traversing some of the Vineyard’s most beautiful trails and conservation lands. Previous hikes have also included stretches across private properties with the permission of their owners.
By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL
Memorial Day weekend on the waterfront comes early this year and the fish seem to know it. Bluefish, striped bass and all the right fish already are here and even more fish are arriving.
The prevailing word on the waterfront is that the best is yet to come. The seasonal migration below the surface that began well over a month ago is still underway.
T.J. Hegarty accused me of being a political activist in the Vineyard Haven post office last week. Where did he get that idea? Here is the original . . . Mark Twain said, “Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.”
I can “azure” you that it is finally spring.
It wasn’t a little birdie that told me; rather, a small butterfly. This butterfly has all the reason in the world to be blue. For that is the color of the spring azure butterfly.
My thanks go out to all the birders and feeder observers that either went out into the field or watched their feeders last weekend and reported their finds. Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary was able to raise close to (and maybe by now) $2,000.
The red planet Mars is high in the northwestern sky after sunset. The dull red planet resides in the zodiacal constellation Cancer and this weekend the bright planet is in the star cluster known as The Beehive.
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.