Julia Rappaport
Adult education on Martha’s Vineyard dates back to the 1970s, but this month the old idea will be expanded and relaunched under the leadership of former high school Spanish teacher Lynn Ditchfield.
An overflow crowd came to the Agricultural Hall on Tuesday afternoon to celebrate and remember David Willey, the Vineyard Haven man and Cape Air pilot who died last Friday evening when his plane crashed near Nip ’n’ Tuck Farm in West Tisbury. He was 61.
Martha’s Vineyard Community Services on Wednesday unveiled a strategic plan to grow in services, size and funding over the next five years, but within a year the organization expects to have better services in place for Islanders with drug and alcohol problems.
Talks already are underway between community services and the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, with help from the department of public health, to coordinate care for Islanders with substance abuse or mental health concerns.
They are artists and painters of the plein air variety, and of course friends and nearly neighbors. Hermine Hull and Leslie Baker both live in West Tisbury. They paint together often, sometimes several times a week. Never at a loss for words, Hermine is chatty and outgoing, while Leslie is quiet and introspective. But, like the walking path that runs behind the West Tisbury fire station between their two houses, they are connected.
Interviews By Julia Rappaport
Although today’s is the last Farm and Field column for the year, the farming season is far from over. Fall brings fields full of squash and pumpkins, late summer corn, green and red tomatoes. Farm stands will stay open on through October and November. Come December, many Island farms will shut down and farmers will turn their attention to planning for the spring, summer and early fall crops.
Living locally is old news on Martha’s Vineyard.
“That was the only way to go,” Chilmarker David Flanders said this week. Mr. Flanders has Vineyard roots which extend back generations and are deeply tied to the land. “The whole thing was always like that to be very honest,” he continued. “It’s an old-time solution.” This weekend a two-day celebration of the local, the sustainable and the renewable is putting that old Island tradition back into the spotlight.