And so the summer begins. Between the recent cool temperatures and a week still left in the month of May, the season’s unofficial arrival has come on little cat feet. Are we ready? Are we ever?

Veterans are pressing their uniforms back into service for Monday’s Memorial Day parade. Outdoor showers are being turned on. Have you pulled out your sandals? Your cotton and linen finery? Your bathing suit? Does it still fit?

Vineyard Artisans will be debuting the season’s first batch of crafts and artworks from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday at the Grange Hall. Nearby at the Agricultural Society Hall, the Friends of Family Planning art exhibit returns Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

After this weekend, the West Tisbury library will be closed Sundays until the Fall.

In a final salute to the offseason, Anna Alley went this past week to North Atterboro for a few days to see her grandsons and complete a few off-Island chores like a check-up for her car and restocking her pantry.

Seasonal residents are opening up their homes. Vicky Bijur and Ed Levine will arrive Sunday from Manhattan for a long and relatively peaceful summer break. David Smith and Joan Apt will get here the following week.

Parents and high schoolers are poring over photos from last weekend’s prom when everyone looked so lovely, so absolutely radiant. The young men, too.

West Tisbury residents Freye Stearns and Pickle Eville were members of the high school’s women’s sailing team who were lauded for their “fine work under tough conditions” at the NESSA Herreshoff Qualifier this past weekend, hosted by the Hingham Yacht Club. The teens were faced with “a steady breeze, big chop and long courses,” reported the Martha’s Vineyard Sailing Club.

Congratulations to Violet Cabot who graduated last week with a master’s degree in speeech and language pathology.

Birthday greetings this week go out to Noni Madison Sauer and Shaela Huntington, both on Wednesday, May 28, and happy birthday to Genny Abbot on Thursday, May 29.

I wonder if the environmental police, who are puzzling over the origins of the dead and mutilated alligator found last week at Sepiessa, have talked to Martina Mastromonaco. Martina is a regular contributer on social media who showed us a photograph some weeks ago of the live alligator she discovered in Chilmark Pond. The picture she posted wasn’t a total profile of the reptile, but its face looked convincing enough to keep me out of those waters.

West Tisbury resident Martina reminds me of the main character in “Where the Crawdads Sing,” a woman who grew up and was knowledgable about the life forces in marshes and wetlands, and who was most at home in the outdoors.

In summer, Martina is the lead lifeguard at Chilmark’s Lucy Vincent Beach and she is the one who cleans up the beach and continues cleaning up after people and their dogs, long past summer. She seems to spend most of her days year-round at the water’s edge, most recently posting photos of well-nourished bullfrogs wearing Mona Lisa smiles. She has named them Peter, Paul and Mary. I am not sure if she named them for religious figures or folk musicians.