ANNUAL PLANT SALE
with Garden Hand Tools and Containers

The annual plant sale on the Library lawn (rain or shine) is one of the highlights of spring in Woods Hole. It is also a vital source of operating funds for our village library. This eagerly anticipated annual event began in 1971 and from its humble beginnings has grown into a Woods Hole tradition and a healthy source of funds for the Library. It gives gardeners the opportunity to buy plants that are “tried and true”, ones that grow successfully in our climate. Local gardeners have been busy digging their robust perennials in preparation for the sale.

The plants are reasonably priced, thus making a beautiful garden affordable. Shoppers are encouraged to arrive near opening time so as not to be disappointed. The wide selection of perennials, annuals, vegetables, herbs and flowers sells quickly! This year, decorative and clay pots and an assortment of “gently used” garden tools will also be available for purchase.


Nancy Copley, organizer of the our plant sale this year

Do you have vegetable and flower seedlings, shrubs, bulbs, dahlia tubers, perennials, or other garden plants that you would like to donate to the Woods Hole Public Library for the plant sale? Tomatoes, basil, herbs and peppers are always very popular. Pots, dirt, and label sticks will be available at the Library starting the second half of April.



We would love your help! Please let us know if you would like to…
• contribute plants, tools, containers (no plastic, please)
• help dig plants from donor gardens
• help with the sale

We can help you…
• if you have plants you’d like to donate and need help digging we’ll bring shovels
• if you would like us to pick up plants, tools or containers
• Are you dividing your perennials now? We will be happy to pick up the extras and keep them safe until the sale.

Please call the library at 508-548-8961 or email us at whpl.plantsale@gmail.com. You are most welcome, of course to
bring plants to the Library May 13 to 17.

We hope that you will come to the sale and bring your friends. Proceeds from the sale will help in funding the Library’s many programs. Your help is key to the success of this fun and important fundraiser!

Thank you for your support and Happy Spring!


The Plant Sale Committee
Nancy Copley
Plant Sale Coordinator

Illustrated Talk: Nan Logan: Only 3 weeks in Delhi, India



Woods Hole resident Nan Logan will speak at the Woods Hole Public Library about her recent trip to Delhi, India. Since she retired a few years ago, Nan has taken several adventurous vacations, including hiking the final 100 miles of  the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain, and hiking and staying in monasteries along the French side of the Pyrenees.

This time she decided her travel would include a worthwhile mission, as an opportunity to be a participant, in addition to an observer, of the country. So she chose to spend most of the month of March  in India on a volunteer vacation with Cross Cultural Solutions.  Her volunteer assignment was at Prem Daan, one of the 15 homes in Delhi run by the Missionaries of Charity, the order founded by Mother Teresa. This home is dedicated to rescuing women who have been abandoned by their families.

Weekend adventures included hours of memorable rides along congested 2-lane roads with the predictable combination of cars, motorcycles, bicycles, pedal rickshaws, trucks loaded with sugar cane, bullock carts, and the ever popular 3-wheel “tuk tuk taxis” to visit holy sites along the Ganges, colonial hill stations and of course the Taj Mahal.  
Nan has pictures and “a bit of music” -- perhaps even a snack – to share from the experience.

For more information, call the Library at 508-548-8961.

Tick Talk

Larry Dapsis of the Cape Cod Co-operative Extension will give a talk about Ticks and Tick-Born Diseases. (This talk had originally been scheduled in April but was postponed due to the speaker’s illness.)

Lyme is the second most prevalent infectious disease in Massachusetts; babesiosis and anaplasmosis are on the increase as well.  All three are carried by the deer tick, also known as the black-legged tick. Over half of the cases of babesiosis in Massachusetts occur on the Cape and Islands. In fact, the number of cases of babesiosis on the Cape doubled from 2010 and 2011. The Cape has seen a steady increase in the number of locations where infected ticks are found. But, as Mr. Dapsis stresses, “These diseases are preventable, and that remains our core message.”

The talk is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Library at 508-548-8961.

Big Spring Book Sale



Our book sale committee is about to haul out boxes and boxes of books for our big Spring Book Sale. Loads of new books have been pouring in to the Library for the sale from donors near and far. As always the books reflect a wide range of interests and expertise, making for a very interesting offering. There have been several recent donations of    really good books, most recently a collection of theater books, including the scores from the Andrew Lloyd Webber productions. One serious collector has brought ten boxes from his own library, many carefully housed in protective plastic enclosures. They include an almost complete set of the mysteries of Evanovich, Ellis Peters, McCall-Smith, and Ian Rankin. Another donor brought in a stack of books on the care and housing of snakes, turtles, geckos, tortoises. There are a number of books of very local interest, all in great condition. As the chair of the committee says “There’s a little bit of everything; something for everyone.

The committee will spend the days preceding the sale setting up tables and bringing out and arranging books all through the sale room, which doubles as the Library’s large meeting room. By the opening hour Saturday morning, the room will be filled with books: full shelves around all the walls, free-standing shelves, and tables filling the center of the room covered with books brought out especially for this day-long sale.

One the hallmarks and added delight of the Woods Hole Public Library sale is that the books are arranged by subject and the hard-backed fiction is arranged by author. This is not surprising, knowing that the  Book Sale Committee is led by two retired librarians, Camilla Larrey and Susan Fishman, who seem to have both the love of books and the need to have them in order in their blood. The resulting presentation makes the sale much easier for shoppers to manage and enjoy.

There is also a Children’s Corner, filled with all sorts of books for kids including the Harry Potter and Artemis Fowl series, as well as old classics. For teens there is a complete set of the Stephanie Meyer series as well as several by Nancy Farmer.

All books are reasonably priced. The standard for hardbacks is $2 and for ordinary paper back, 50 cents. A few are priced higher, such as the “collectibles” which include a small selection of first editions.

Until May 26,  the “standard” book sale will be open. During this phase, the shelves surrounding the room are filled with books for sale, carefully arranged, yet the center of the room is open and available for chairs to be set up for talks and other group presentations. On a recent Saturday afternoon a touring couple from Vermont saw the book sale flag flying outside and eagerly came in, spending about an hour in different parts of the room, each pursuing his/her own interests. Each left with a hefty stack of books, for a grand total of $20 for the two stacks together, each delighted with this part of their vacation trip. For the June 1 sale, the committee hopes to provide this sort of experience “and more”.

For more information, call the Library at 508-548-8961.