Margaret Howe Freydberg of Chilmark was 104 in March and celebrated this month with the publication of her 11th book, Cruachan: The Battle Cry of Scottish Chieftains. It is a long short story, originally written many years ago, after her first and only visit to Scotland in the 1950s. Recently, she discovered her old writings while exploring a trunk. Reading over the manuscript, written so long ago as to be the product of a comparatively young woman, she realized the work called for a revision. And so, she emphasizes, the book is not just some old jottings found in a trunk.

For the last five years a quiet revolution has been under way in Vineyard schools. It’s taking place in the lunchrooms, where leafy green salads, roasted pumpkin seeds and tacos stuffed with brightly colored peppers from local farms are replacing the more traditional canned corn, tater tots and government surplus fare.

It’s taking place in the school yards, where lush gardens and neatly-turned piles of dark compost can now be found alongside the playgrounds that are trampled by hundreds of young feet at recess every day.

It is 128 years since the worst maritime disaster in these waters, yet the story of the sinking of the City of Columbus, one half mile off Aquinnah, gains new life by the release of a book by Thomas Dresser.

Shipwrecks and the events that surround them never seem far from the public eye. Last month, there was observance of the centennial of the sinking of the Titanic. And in January, there was the sinking of the 952-foot cruise ship Costa Concordia, a story that is still unfolding.