Last Friday morning, Jan. 20, I decided to make a sweep of Beach Road and the Lagoon Pond Bridge in search of nip bottles. I planned my walk to coincide with the low tide point.

The Gannon and Benjamin boatyard on the Vineyard Haven harbor was the scene of a festive launch Monday for a new design created by the venerable wooden boat yard. The Sheldrake is a gaff sloop daysailer and Nat Benjamin’s 85th original design.

Participants at last week’s final winter walk at the Polly Hill Arboretum got an unexpected treat: a chance to view a traveling exhibit, Vanishing Acts: Trees Under Threat. Polly Hill is the only New England arboretum to host the exhibit, which aims to bring awareness to endangered trees.

At the Polly Hill Arboretum, horticulturalist Ian Jochems has started planting trees in the frozen ground — not living trees, but important stand-ins: tree-shaped panels that make up a traveling outdoor exhibit. Vanishing Acts: Trees Under Threat will be at the Arboretum from mid-March to June.

On the day after Thanksgiving Nat Benjamin and a four-man crew cast off the stern lines of the gaff-rigged schooner Charlotte and set sail for the Caribbean. But it will be more than a cruising adventure.

A self-described beginning birder for almost 25 years finds the annual Christmas Bird Count a journey of discovery this year.