Heard on Main Street: How can you tell when you’re out of invisible ink?
The Vineyard Haven Band will play in Owen Park this Sunday, July 23, at 7:30 pm. The rain date is always Monday at 7:30 pm.
Join the Beach BeFrienders who are tending our beaches. Because it is the fourth Saturday of the month on July 22, you can join them from 8 to 10 am to clean an Island beach, and the beach this month is Inkwell, in O.B. We all use that one, so perhaps you can help. Someone from the Vineyard Conservation Society will be there, with gloves and bags. They will dispose of the waste you collect.
If you like flowers, you must have noticed that those at our Post Office are not getting watered enough — even with all our rainy days. Probably because when the sun is out, it is also very hot. If you drive, take a big bottle of water with you — and help save the flowers.
I just enjoyed a new book called “Must Love Flowers.” I always look forward to books by Debbie Macomber. This one I also found comforting. Not because of any similarity to the main character, but because of the compassionate writing about the timing of what she went through. My husband also died the year before COVID struck. As I read the description of us all going into lockdown for a couple of years, widows alone in our own homes, and then carefully emerging back into the world again, it struck a chord. I had not been really alone — even when I thought I was.
This book is not gloomy or sad. Like many by Macomber, it is a very good story about the variety of ways that our friends and family are so important. It did make me appreciate my own kids and neighbors more fully.
I was quite unhappy to learn that my good friend Mary Ellen Hill has gone. She shared my pleasure in genealogy, cooking, and good books, and we often had a luncheon at a favorite place, consisting of a good bowl of French onion soup with big tasty onion rings. She was definitely one of the blessings in my life. One August her daughters treated Mary Ellen and some friends to lunch at Farm Neck to celebrate her 90th birthday. It became a very memorable day when Obama walked by, wished her a happy birthday, and then kissed her cheek.
I have finally come to realize that watching parts of the Tour de France can be compelling. My kids have enjoyed it for years, but to my surprise, I enjoy at least limited viewing. I was surprised when I recognized some names of the competitors as well.
You can meet with the Friends of the Vineyard Haven Library at 10:15 am on Saturday, July 22, and you will learn more about the work of the group, and how much they do for our library.
And you can expand your knowledge about cooking with these library programs online: The Vineyard Haven Library Spice Club, at 6 pm on Tuesday, July 25, will focus on fenugreek. Or try “Cooking with Scraps” with Lindsay Jean Hard at 6 pm on Wednesday, July 26. Or “Beach Medicine” at 4:30 pm on Tuesday, August 1. That’s about uncovering the abundant medicinal herbs in the coastal region, the sandy soils of Cape Cod and the Islands. You must register for each of these with amcdonough@clamsnet.org.
The West Tisbury Library book sale starts next Thursday, under a tent at the West Tisbury School, all weekend through Monday, July 27 to 31, from 9 am to 3 pm. Sunday the books will be half-price, and free on Monday.
Happy anniversary to Eric and Susan Lopes on Saturday. Big bunches of birthday balloon wishes go out to Thomas E. Colligan on Tuesday. Happy birthday on Wednesday to my lovely granddaughter, Rory Mayhew, my good friend Pam Cassel, and especially to Michael Bulkin.
Heard on Main Street: Don’t cry because it’s over; smile because it happened.
If you have any Tisbury Town Column suggestions, email Kay Mayhew, tashmoorock@gmail.com.
