In this serialized novel set on the Vineyard in real time, a native Islander (“Call me Becca”) returns home to the Vineyard after many years in Manhattan. Her uncle Abe has been dumped by his wife Gwen, and Abe requires assistance to keep their landscaping business, Pequot, afloat. In the first few chapters, Becca reacquainted herself with Island life and through Mott (the general manager), met Quincas (a Brazilian), and the rest of Pequot’s staff.

June 13, 2008

Dear P:

Etiquette Class, Please

Certified etiquette teacher Elaine C. Carroll is offering children’s etiquette classes. Her East Coast School of Etiquette program opens at Farm Neck Golf Club in Oak Bluffs on June 30, teaching children from 3:15 to 4:40 p.m., three days a week for two weeks.

A graduate of the American School of Protocol in Atlanta, Ga., and the Protocol School of Washington, D.C., Mrs. Carroll has visited many Vineyard classrooms over recent years to help children learn their manners in a program called Tea and Etiquette.

Nantucket’s rich history of bay scallop fisheries includes both commercial and family scalloping seasons. On Wednesday, guest speaker Dr. Robert Kennedy will detail the latest research into this fishery, in a free talk at Chilmark Public Library.

He will summarize of the history of the bay scallop and scalloping on Nantucket, outline past and present scallop research, discuss current management practices, status of eelgrass beds and water circulation in Nantucket Harbor, and review possible reasons for lower commercial landings in 2005 and 2006.

Friday Conversation

William O’Brien, chairman of the Dukes County Charter Study Commission, will speak in the Friday Conversations program at the Oak Bluffs Senior Center from 10 to 11:30 a.m. on Friday, June 13. More information is available by calling moderator Robert A. Iadicicco at 508-693-9771.

Robert Thorson, professor of geology at the University of Connecticut, will speak on Saturday, June 14 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Polly Hill Arboretum in West Tisbury on the cultural and environmental history of stone walls.

From rugged coastline, granite ledges, and lichen-covered glacial boulders to the signature stone walls that ribbon our forests and fields, the New England landscape is defined by stone. The Vineyard is no exception: the presence of stone walls in the landscape reflect the history of the Island and its people.