“Guyana — isn’t that where all those people drank Kool-Aid at Jonestown? Why would you want to go there?”

“New birds, new habitat, new country, that’s why!”

Guyana is a very small country located on the northern bump or eastern shoulder of South America. Very close to the equator, this small country that used to be called British Guiana is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the north, Venezuela on the west, Brazil on the south and Suriname (Old Dutch Guiana) on the east.

The Martha’s Vineyard Museum is extending its hours of operation this winter.

The museum will be open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the Gale Huntington Research Library will be open Wednesday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and by appointment.

Winter admission is $6 for adults, $5 for seniors, and $4 for children 6 to 12.

I learned a hard lesson last Sunday.

It was about two hours into my research and half an hour into the writing of this week’s column when I came across a disturbing fact.

Hail occurs in the spring and summer.

Normally this fact would not perturb me, but thinking I was nearing the end of my writing (and thus the beginning of my dinner), I was a bit put off by the news. The reason for my dismay was that I had to start all over.

The purchase of an 18.9-acre conservation restriction last week will expand the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank’s holdings at Sepiessa Point Reservation on the Tisbury Great Pond.

The land bank commission announced that it paid $654,500 for the restriction. The seller is Elizabeth Brown Bayer.

The property includes 2,180 feet of frontage on Tiah’s Cove, and is surrounded by the land bank’s 164-acre Sepiessa Point Reservation. Development on the property will be limited to a single building envelope around an existing home.

By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL

Wednesday night offers Vineyarders a lunar eclipse perfectly timed for observing. The full moon rises in the eastern sky just as the sun sets at about 5:04 p.m. and the best part of the show is five hours later.

One can only hope that the weather cooperates as the next time the Vineyard will have so convenient a show will be in December 2010.

This February full moon is called the Snow Moon, which is located in the zodiacal constellation Leo and in close proximity to the bright ringed-planet Saturn.

By LYNNE IRONS

I have had five memorable dogs. Each has lived over a decade and a half. My all-time favorite was Emma Jones, the beagle of my childhood. After college and moving to the Vineyard, I found Emily, who was also a white beagle mutt. She helped me raise my little children. Larry, a blue-tick hound, was always in need of a diet. He was fond of lying on the side of the road, much to the consternation of passersby. He had a habit of going up to the old Woodland where he begged donuts successfully.