I hope everyone has had an opportunity to walk outside during the past few nights to look at the huge full moon and clear, star-filled sky. Having an elderly dog is my excuse, and I am glad for it. Of course I just love her, but having a dog makes me go out and experience all kinds of weather, whether I want to or not. Most of the time I find it greatly to my advantage. I love our cold, crisp night air, soft rainy days and nights, snow falling around us as we make footprints and pawprints together.
Reading about this supermoon or super perigee moon piqued my curiosity. It is approximately 221,567 miles away, and not expected to be this close again until November 2034. I wondered about the names of the monthly full moons, names given by Native Americans, names that charted the seasons. November is the “frost moon.” Appropriate, as we have finally had our first hard frost here, killing off the last of my fragile summer annuals. We still have nicotianas and ageratum, Verbena bonariensis, which should reseed out in the garden for next year. I brought in pots of “black” petunias, hopefully to winter over. There is still plenty of sage, parsley, and rosemary to flavor our Thanksgiving turkey.
Katherine Long has planned a November visit, and an early Thanksgiving dinner, with her mother, Katherine, and sister, Mary Ruth Flores. They prefer to “avoid the traffic,” according to Katherine. She was planning to pick them up for the visit after she worked the 7 am to noon shift at the polls on Nov. 8.
When I arrived to work the noon to 4 shift, Tara Whiting told me that 24 percent of our town’s voters had taken advantage of early voting, 634 out of our 2,603 registered voters. The action was steady all afternoon, and I think we had one of the highest turnouts ever.
There was an air of jollity as voters arrived, checked in, and marked their ballots. I was reminded of my pal, Ernie Mendenhall, who always said, “Vote early and often.” He always laughed as he said it, and I laughed, too, remembering his deep voice and twinkling eyes, his sense of humor.
I was touched by all the parents who brought their young children in to “help them vote.” I have a special memory of going into the curtained booth with my dad, watching as he set each switch beside a name or ballot question, then pulled the lever to cast his vote and open the curtain. It’s a happy memory I hope will follow all the children I saw on Election Day. An acknowledgement of our youngest town voter: Teagan Soder, age 4 months. He arrived in a carriage, with his mom, Angela Goethals, and big sister Brooklyn. Also, so many first-time voters: I hope you will always treasure the excitement and responsibility of casting your vote.
Happy birthday wishes to Tara Larsen, and happy anniversary wishes to her and Stephen as they prepare to celebrate their 13th wedding anniversary. Love to you both.
I ran into Kate Warner, she of the Vineyard Bread Project. If you don’t know about it, take a look at her website: vineyardbreadproject.com. Kate is an amazingly creative thinker and baker, making bread to be picked up by project participants, currently Tuesday and Friday afternoons, at her home on State Road. If you have noticed the sign as you are driving up-Island and wondered about it, this is your opportunity to find out. Kate is offering a one-time trial for the interested and curious. Go to her website and place an order. Try her bread. Decide if you want to join up and be a weekly participant. We are lucky to have fresh, delicious homemade breads made with good ingredients, many local, and shared in a convivial kitchen right here in town.
We are lucky to have access to so much locally grown and raised food, period. Look around at our farm stands and farms, at the cooks and bakers we have in West Tisbury. Our weekly Farmers Market has moved inside for the winter, opening at the Ag Hall every Saturday between 10 am and 1 pm. Local produce and prepared food, jams, soups, and scones, it’s all there. Pick up your Thanksgiving turkey. Meet your friends and neighbors, enjoy the warmth of a fire to sit by, and be grateful that we live in this healthy, careful, safe, and conscious place.
Dr. Jay Segal recently taught a class in Toronto to podiatrists, physical therapists, and gait specialists. Jay invented a custom orthotic, the DynaFlange, that he lectures about. He also speaks about gait issues, a subject he has written extensively about. For the record, he writes and plays music too, and gardens. A renaissance man.
November is National Alzheimer’s Month. There is a display in the library of books and DVDs about aspects of Alzheimer’s, from caregiving, to telling the story to neurological changes in the brain and body. Take a look next time you are at the library, and consider sending a donation to the Alzheimer’s Association, or one of our local organizations that works with families on the Island. There are lots: Hospice, the Supportive Day Program, any of our Councils on Aging, Windemere, and Hope Dementia and Alzheimer’s Services. The Martha’s Vineyard Museum runs a Memory Cafe. Community Services runs a support group for caregivers. There are surely others I have forgotten to mention.
The West Tisbury library invites anyone interested to participate in “Through the Lens,” a community photography exhibition for amateurs and professionals, planned to run through the month of December. Submission deadline is Nov. 18. Check online at westtisburylibrary.org, or at the circulation desk.
Upcoming library events include: Friday, Nov. 18, 7 to 8:30 pm, Martha’s Vineyard Bodhi Path will host a talk by Buddhist monk Tsony, “Finding Your Internal and External Coherency: Erasing the Subjective Borders Between ‘Me’ and ‘You.’” Saturday afternoon, 4 to 5 pm, there will be a Community Poetry Reading, hosted by West Tisbury poet laureate Emma Young. Ursula Ferro will read from her new autobiography, “Berglihof Farm: How an Urban Family Took Up Farming and Thrived,” on Monday, Nov. 21, at 5:30 pm. A free monthly health clinic will begin on Wednesday, Nov. 23. A nurse from the Public Health and Wellness Department of VNA of Cape Cod will check blood pressures and answer medical questions from 4 to 5 pm.
The Times has asked that we submit our columns early next week because of Thanksgiving, so anyone with news, please let me know ASAP. I will be writing it this Friday afternoon.
My thanks always to Beth Kramer for taking over the column-writing duties last week. I had a wonderful time visiting my two very healthy brothers and their husbands in Connecticut for a shared birthday celebration. Mine was Nov. 1, brother-in-law Edward’s was on Nov. 11, and Fred’s is coming up on Dec. 4. We all had fun together, and, as our tradition, cake and presents galore.
