When the tour buses leave and the crowds thin, we often turn our attention to our other neighbors – those with wings, wool, or antlers. Winter and spring in a predominently rural community present plenty of opportunties to consider our relationship with the many creatures who call the Island home. Once a month, from November to March, you can seek out some of these cohabitants as you traipse through the woods of the Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary in Edgartown at the Full Moon Owl Prowl. Follow the guide and keep an ear out for the birds’ ghostly calls. If you hear them, consider yourself lucky. It’s just one of the many rewards for slowing down and getting quiet.
What to Do
What does holiday cheer mean to you? Is it about gathering with friends and family, finding a great gift, lighting up the dark nights, or supporting those who need it most? Whatever it is, you can find it at the annual Christmas in Edgartown festivities, which run from December 11 to 14. Shop for a cause, hug a teddy bear at the Teddy Bear Suite, and sip a warm drink. Is Vineyard Haven more your style? Check out the Tis the Season events December 5 to 7. Then head back to Tisbury on December 21 for carollers and carriage rides.
What to Watch
If the cold of March makes you want to curl up on the couch and watch a great movie but the long winter has you missing the camaraderie of a social outing, head to the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival from March 25 to 29. Organized by Circuit Arts, the annual event includes screenings at a variety of Island locations, as well as panel discussions, music, food, drink, and chances to chat with fellow film heads. Expect a wide variety of movies in different genres, each carefully selected to transport you to a place beyond your own living room.
What We’re Eating
We take our locally caught seafood very seriously. But come January, it will be a bit harder to come by: Edgartown Seafood is planning to close from January through March, The Fish House from New Year’s Eve through April, and the Net Result from November to April. The Menemsha Fish Market has plans to close in January and will determine their reopening date down the line. Where to get local fish? Support the restaurants that serve it and maybe seek out a fisherman for your fix.
What’s Up and What’s Down
Forget about the New York Stock Exchange. We’ll tell you what’s up and what’s down on the Island, what’s rising and what’s falling. Remember: buy low, sell high.
What's Up:
Around here, there are a couple of things that we can count on rising. One is the sun and the other is the Steamship Authority ticket prices. In October, the board of governors unanimously approved fare increases averaging about five percent across the ferry line. The rates are getting hiked to help close a roughly $7.5 million gap in the operating budget due to rising costs for maintenance, training, and other expenses. The only alternative would be to cut service and personnel during the winter, treasurer Mark Rozum told the board.
What's Down:
Careful readers of “What's Down” may remember a proposed plan from the United States Coast Guard to reduce the amount of navigational buoys around the Island and the broader Northeast region by 350. The Coast Guard received more than 3,200 public comments, many in opposition to the plan. This fall, it released a new plan to remove just 162 buoys. For more breaking buoy news, keep your eyes trained on this space.
Numerology
52: State officials have approved the first phase of a controversial plan to cut down fifty-two acres of non-native white pine trees in the state forest.
175: In total, the state Department of Conservation and Recreation plans to cut down 175 acres to restore globally rare sandplain grassland habitat.
100: The original set of pines was planted in the state forest some 100 years ago to create a local lumber industry.
Well Said
“This is an intentional and willful disregard for what we required them to do.”
– In other tree-cutting news, Geoff Kontje, an Edgartown Conservation Commission member, described the actions of Katama homeowners who illegally had nearly twenty trees cut down on their $31.6 million property.
What to Read
Away to See: Martha's Vineyard by Paul Norwood and Liz Norwood (The Collective Book Studio, March 2026)
Husband and wife Paul and Liz Norwood have teamed up to create a text and image compendium of Island paintings and musings. Paul Norwood grew up in coastal Maine and paints expressive landscapes, often with thick, shingled brushtrokes and flecks of orange at the intersections, like strings tied between quilt squares. When figures enter the scene, they’re full of life. In one, a dog is frozen mid-shake, sending a confetti-like explosion of droplets into the air. Even in a quieter scene, when a woman hangs laundry in the hills of Menemsha, the wind renders the scene active, blowing her hair. In this book, the images are iconic Vineyard: sunset at Great Pond, sailboats in the Sound, Chappy ferries criss-crossing. The orange flecks and glow give the paintings warmth, and Liz Norwood’s reflective writing adds a lyrical quality. A viewer can imagine a couple out at the scene, husband looking out from behind an easel and wife from behind a notebook.
