Everyone in the town hall meeting room rose to their feet as the Tisbury selectmen held an official swearing-in ceremony Tuesday for new permanent police officers Ryan Natichioni and Jeremie Rogers.
“We wanted to have them come before the town . . . so their families could be here to honor them for their willingness to serve our community.” said selectman and board chairman Tristan Israel.
Last fall Alison Shaw awoke before the sun, planning to photograph Lewis Bay lighthouse on the Hyannis Harbor. That was the agenda for the day, but the clear blue sky called for other plans.
“As soon as the sun came up, I looked around and thought, ‘Oh look, there’s the Nantucket ferry. It’s a gorgeous day, the conditions are right — I’m going to Nantucket today.’”
On the way out her apartment door in Boston for Christmas vacation, Caitlin Hawke grabbed the mail and started sifting through it on the elevator, suitcase at her side.
One letter in particular got her attention.
Inside the Polly Hill Arboretum office on Monday afternoon sits Collections and Grounds Manager Tom Clarke with a number of black oak twigs and branches on his desk, one just brought in by arborist John McCarter an hour earlier. With acorns dangling and new foliage sprouting, the twigs are seemingly healthy.
Look closer and each twig has hundreds of miniscule holes; the once smooth, skinny branches are now bumpy and swollen.
Once emerging from these tiny holes were the cynipid gall wasps currently attacking black oak trees up and down the Island.
