Nature & Science
Although escargot was not served, somehow a snail found its way to a dinner party that I attended last weekend.
The marauding mollusk crashed the party with an invited guest who brought it to be identified. She had found it hitchhiking on a Comcast truck.
The magic of migration is happening. The honking of Canada geese pierces the silence and peace and quiet of dawn. Our birdbath has new visitors that we haven’t spotted since last fall, and avid Vineyard birders are waking before sunup to migrate to Aquinnah or Gay Head.
By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL
Barry Clifford plans to be back in Vineyard waters. The celebrated underwater explorer, who has spent decades uncovering shipwrecks almost forgotten and who got started here on the Vineyard, has his eyes on a wreck four miles east of Cape Pogue.
His firm Vast Explorer Inc. filed papers in U.S. District Court in Boston seeking exclusive rights to salvage the Semiramis, a 120-foot, three-masted ship, one of the first of the China traders. Mr. Clifford said he wants to start diving on the wreck later this fall.
By LYNNE IRONS
I love a rainy Saturday. Last week I trudged around in the vegetable garden in full rain gear. I picked several containers of food needing to be processed. I harvested the herbs (parsley, celery leaf, and basil) and a big basket of tomatoes, not to mention beets and cabbage. I then spent the day in the kitchen preparing everything. I watched Senator Kennedy’s funeral and gabbed on the phone.
Great Rock Windpower installed and commissioned the first off the production line endurance model S-343 wind turbine in Edgartown last week. The S-343 has a rotor area of 343 square feet, runs at 166 RPM and is rated at 5.3kW. It is designed to produce more power at lower wind speeds than its predecessors.
Up Island Paint has introduced Vermont Natural Coatings PolyWhey wood finishes, an environmentally safe alternative to traditional polyurethane, available in floor and furniture formulations. Co-owner Rachel Baumrin calls the product nontoxic and safe for family and pets.
Almanac
A comprehensive guide to weather and tides on the Island.
Vineyard Gardener
I guess this past week weather-wise is called a January thaw. We did not really experience it the last several years as December was unseasonably warm.
Farm & Field
Beige and brown and tan and black, with horns spiraled or semicircular or in undulating waves, a legion of goats marched up the hill toward us, bleating in anticipation of fresh grass and leaves.