Well, here we are. Strawberries. Peas. Bluefish. Flags and fireworks. It’s Fourth of July weekend. Everyone is busy getting ready for houseguests or just plain busy with work. I don’t know how it got to be July already.
The Farmers Market is in full swing, and all the farm stands are open and busy. Garden centers are filled with people pulling wagons full of flowers; early-blooming shrubs are already on sale. North Tisbury is mobbed. Alley’s porch is full of beach toys. The Grange Hall is host to the Artisans Show on Thursdays and Sundays, and to the weekly Antique Show on Fridays. The first haying is done. Sheep are sheared to their summer coats. Fields are full of grazing animals. Church bells ring on Sunday mornings, welcoming all to worship services at the West Tisbury Church.
Mike’s cousin, Hannah Beecher, is expecting her brother and sister-in-law, John and Dolly Beecher, her sons Christopher and Rick, Chris’s wife Cheryl, and all of their children to arrive at the Slocum House this weekend. Hannah has invited us Island relatives to join them for a cookout on the Fourth. It is always a good party. Tables are spread across the back lawn and everyone cooks. Amazing how quickly the children grow from one year to the next. Rick’s oldest just graduated from high school.
Caryn Broitman called me about something this morning, and I asked, “Do you have any news?” “Yes,” she replied. She and her husband, Brian Walt, are expecting a houseful, too. Brian’s daughter, Chana Joffe-Walt, is coming from New York, where she is a radio journalist and has just won a Peabody Award for her work on PBS’s “This American Life.” Brian’s brother and sister-in-law, Harold and Brenda Walt, will arrive from Los Angeles on Friday. Brian’s cousin, Barbara, and her daughter, Talia, are coming from Belgium, and his sister, Yda, who is an artist, from Johannesburg, South Africa, will round out the guest list. Caryn and Brian’s daughter, Galya, is home for the summer, so she and her cousin will get some time together.
A reminder from Rabbi Broitman: The Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center services move to their summer schedule. Friday-night services begin at 6 pm, and will be held at the Camp Jabberwocky beach along the Beach Road, or at the Hebrew Center if it rains. Saturday-morning services are at the Hebrew Center, beginning at 9:30.
Allen Whiting and Kara Taylor both opened their galleries for the season with festive parties last Sunday. The Field Gallery held its first opening, featuring the work of Jhenn Watts, Kenneth Pillsworth, and Jessica Pisano. There will be an opening reception for Rez Williams at the West Tisbury library this Saturday, July 2, at 4 o’clock. Rez’s paintings will be on display in the Program Room through the month of July. The Granary Gallery’s first summer show is this Sunday, July 3, from 5 to 7; painters Kenneth Vincent and David Wallis and photographer Alison Shaw will be showing their new work. Marie-Louise Rouff’s gallery has been open on Saturdays and Sundays since May. My gallery, Hermine Merel Smith Fine Art, will open for the season this Saturday with Ruth Kirchmeier’s woodcuts, following her 80th birthday retrospective at the library, and my oil paintings. Lots of art to see in what Polly Murphy called “the Athens of the Island.”
Jungle Jim will tell stories and do magic and improv at the Ag Hall this Saturday morning at 11 am. It is the kickoff event for the Martha’s Vineyard Library Association’s Summer Reading Program. There will be face painting for $1. Admission is $3 per person; babies in arms are free. Come and see the show, then sign up at your own library to begin reading for T shirts, book bags, and fair passes.
The West Tisbury Library Foundation will begin “Tuesdays@Twilight” at the Grange Hall this Tuesday, July 5. Mentalist Nat Lawson is the performer. His stage show, “Perceptions,” includes mind reading, hypnotic influence, and “other inexplicable feats of the mind.” Admission is $15, $7 for children under 12. The show begins at 7:30. Come early to enjoy dinner by Smoak between 6 and 8 pm.
I stopped by Ruth Kirchmeier and Nelson Bryant’s house last week, hoping to catch a sighting of their new cat, Hermine. She was out around the neighborhood, but I heard all about her stellar accomplishments, excellent household manners, and her shows of devotion, especially to Nelson. Needless to say, they are both smitten.
You may remember that when Mike and I got a kitten almost three years ago we named him Nelson, after our dear friend. At the time, Nelson (the human Nelson) commented that he had never had a cat named after him before. About a year ago, Ruth and Nelson lost their aged and much-adored cat, Barty, and Nelson told Ruth that their next cat should be a female so they could name it Hermine. The cat came along, but he was designated a male, and named Hector, the closest they could get. Not long after, a friend of the family pronounced it definitely female, and her name was officially changed to Hermine. I couldn’t have been happier. I have never had a cat named after me.