Our Town Party is tonight from 5 to 8 pm at the Ag Hall. I’m starting off the column with this so that everyone will be reminded to attend. Bring a potluck dish to share and your holiday good cheer. It’s always a wonderful party.
It’s finally gotten cold enough to wear a hat and gloves and a scarf as well as a coat. I waited all day Saturday for the predicted snow, and felt mightily aggrieved that my brothers in Connecticut had four inches or more while we got nothing but rain. With all the lights up around town, the snow would look especially pretty.
In last week’s column I said if anyone knew about the plant I described outside the West Tisbury church, I would love more information about it. I should have just thought from the start to call Cathy Minkiewicz, gardener and plant expert extraordinaire. She sent me an email about it; it’s properly called Poncirus trifoliata. For anyone who is interested, there is an excellent photograph and description on the Missouri Botanical Garden’s website. Cathy said it’s easy to propagate, and offered me a small plant. I responded that I was thinking of planting it all around my yard as a deer deterrent.
Coincidentally, I was at Ruth Kirchmeier’s house today, and saw the same plant with all its thorny projectiles and tiny, wizened fruit in a spot I had walked by a zillion times and never noticed before. Ruth knew exactly what it was. She said that she, too, had propagated several little plants with the same idea in mind, to plant them thickly enough with all those sharp spines that they would keep out the deer. It seems like a good idea.
Paul Levine’s birthday is this Monday, Dec. 18. We can all celebrate it together at the West Tisbury library’s Holiday Party, which Paul will surely attend. He is a great lover and supporter of our library. The party starts at 4:30 and goes till 6:30 pm. There will be “music and merry-making galore,” according to the library staff, along with plenty of greens for making swags to take home, and delicious things to eat.
Other library programs this coming week:
Friday, Dec. 15, 10:30 am, open chamber music rehearsal with Cesar Atzic Marquez. All are welcome to bring instruments to play, or just to come and listen.
Saturday, Dec. 16, 3 pm, a Rock Concert for Kids with Jellybone Rivers and the Maniacs of the Heart.
Sunday, Dec. 17, 3:30 pm, a Concert of Sacred Music featuring Boston jazz greats Stan Strickland on sax, flute, and vocals; Josh Rosen on piano; Akili Jamal Haynes on bass; and Greta Bro on violin.
Monday, Dec. 18, 11:30 am, Kanta Lipsky’s Balance Workshop, and at 4:30 pm, the above-described Holiday Party.
Tuesday, Dec. 19, noon to 1:30 pm, a Free Wellness Clinic with VNA of Cape Cod. At 7 pm, there will be a screening of a documentary, “Zaza Rising,” followed by Q and A with Lena Strothe, the film’s director, and Pam Putney, women’s healthcare activist. Learn about their work in Rwanda and the making of the film. Lena Strothe is the daughter of West Tisbury documentary filmmaker Angela Andersen. Lena will be visiting with her mom and Island friends through the Christmas holidays.
Katherine Long’s Winter Solstice Party is this Sunday, Dec. 17, from noon to 9 pm. You will see bright balloons leading in from Scotchman’s Lane, and lights strung through the trees when you arrive. Everyone is invited to bring a potluck dish and asked to leave their dogs at home.
Paul Karasik and Mark Newgarden will be at the Society of Illustrators in New York City this week for the official launch party of their book, “How to Read Nancy.”
A new employee is joining the staff at the Polly Hill Arboretum in 2018, and will be needing housing, preferably year-round. If you know of anything, please contact todd@pollyhillarboretum.org.
The arboretum has two events planned for this Saturday, Dec. 16. There will be a Winter Walk beginning at 10 am, and a Woodland Fairy Workshop from 9:30 to 12:30.
Hanukkah begins this Tuesday, Dec. 12, at sunset. The Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center will mark the holiday with the nightly lighting of a new outdoor menorah. Everyone is invited to join Rabbi Caryn Broitman and members of the congregation for this event at 5:30 pm every evening through the end of the holiday on Dec. 19. There will also be a special service and party on Friday evening, Dec. 15, beginning at 5:30 pm. Bring your menorah to light during the service, and fruit or a dessert to share at the dinner afterward.
On Sunday, Dec. 17, at 5 pm, there will be a free Winter Concert and Community Sing: Songs of Peace, Hope, and Light at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center. Roberta Kirn and the Martha’s Vineyard Family Chorus will lead the program.
Before the concert, Marsha Winsryg will have a selection of crafts for sale, made by the women she works with through her African Artists Community Development Project. Marsha will also be part of a local artisans “Friday Evenings at Rosewater” from 3 to 7 pm on Dec. 22.
Our first Christmas card arrived in Friday’s mail. I opened it and admired an interesting and colorful abstract image, suitably red and green. The card was from an artist friend, Marilyn Swift, but this clearly wasn’t her work. Wondering who the artist might be, I looked at the back of the card and read, “This abstract design was unintentionally created by Larry while replacing a panel on his ‘67 MGB GT during the fall of 2017.” Inside, Marilyn wrote us a note, calling her husband’s creation “Garage Art” mixed media: Bondo, primer, sanding, etc.
