The holidays are over, the snow has blown in and the slow crawl to Memorial Day has begun. There is less work available and fewer options for weekend fun.

Rather than fall victim to the winter blues, however, Islanders from Edgartown to Aquinnah are starting to plan their warm-weather getaways.

“It’s nice to break up the winter, to get an infusion of sun,” said Clarissa Allen of the Allen Sheep Farm in Chilmark.

Many threads have woven through history to shape the Valentine’s Day we celebrate today into admittedly a rather commercial holiday. But it’s been industrialized since the mid-1800s when an enterprising Boston artist, Esther Howland, picked up on the popularity amongst wealthy Europeans of exchanging intricately designed Valentine’s cards. Ms. Howland started the first Valentine’s Day card company in the United States, handcrafting cards with ribbons and paper lace imported from England.

Each winter Featherstone Center for the Arts, the Vineyard’s only year-round art center, undergoes a rebirth.

While students register for art classes, the gallery is refurbished. This year a new track has been installed around the perimeter of the gallery to better display works of art. And the gallery floor has been sanded down to bare wood and sealed for a gleaming new surface.

Plenty of mild chili, cold beer and warm fun went into the 22nd annual WMVY Chili Contest last Saturday. The fundraiser raised approximately $21,000 for the Island’s charitable organization, the Red Stocking Fund, more than last year’s event.