West Tisbury

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What perfect days we have had lately. The wind has finally died down and the sun is glorious. The beach roses are blooming, perfuming the air as they make colorful displays along some of my favorite walks and roadways.

I spotted four fuzzy yellow-gray goslings swimming between their parents in the Mill Pond.

Mike and I were treated to an off-season Thanksgiving dinner Saturday night. Betty Haynes called Saturday morning just as I was leaving for work and said, “Can you come for dinner tonight?” This is the time of year we are all trying to clean out our freezers, so the on-sale-last-November turkey had to be cooked and eaten. Impromptu freezer dinners are a special gift of friendship. Especially when your friend opens the last jar of her spiced pear preserves to go with it.

Our answering machine held another of my favorite seasonal gifts this morning. Margaret Logue called, requesting that I please pick her asparagus while she is away for a couple of days. I had gone to see Margaret last week for advice on planting my asparagus bed. Hers is a marvel of productivity. Plus, any occasion for a visit is to be taken. So, following instructions from her, Robert Rodale, and Ruth Stout, I started digging and adding compost. Thank you, Margaret, for your tutelage. I am happy to be able to repay the favor by eating your asparagus for you.

I have to give credit to my friend, Leslie Baker, who helped me dig and plant said asparagus bed. Having her company and extra shovel made the job into a very pleasant afternoon.

Speaking of Leslie, she and Ruth Kirchmeier are featured in the latest issue of Cape Cod Home magazine. Two articles showcased them as artists and as gardeners, areas they both said were interrelated, areas in which they both excel. The photography is luscious and both artists are articulate when discussing their work. Take a look.

Saturday is National Sea Turtle Day. In honor of the occasion, Colleen Morris, always au courant, has planned a special craft at the library. Drop in throughout the day to make your own sea turtle to take home.

Later in the day, 4 pm, Joanne Scott will speak as part of the library’s Health and Wellness Series. Her subject, Happiness 101, is sure to be filled with insight and useful information. Who wouldn’t want to know the secrets to happiness? See you there.

If you are up for a trip to Edgartown, plan to go this Sunday afternoon. A piano recital is scheduled at the Old Whaling Church from 1 to 4 pm. I have been invited by Violet Cabot. Surely there will be many other West Tisbury students participating. I’ll try to mention everyone in next week’s column.

Everyone I know is out getting ready for the up-coming summer season. Whether it is getting a garden in, as more of us are doing this year, or just the regular ritual of putting up screens and pulling out the lawn furniture, everyone is really busy.

Then there is work. Seasonal businesses are opening. I noticed that both Gossamer Gallery and the Field Gallery had opened this past weekend, with outdoor displays of sculpture and paintings to entice people to explore. Carpenters, painters, plumbers, electricians, masons, landscapers, farmers — everyone is trying to get everything done before summer visitors arrive.

For any artist, spring is way too short. The landscape changes minute by minute, both the effects of light and the actual scene itself. Where trees were showing the most subtle hint of new colored leaves, overnight a dark canopy has emerged. Our woods are chartreuse and peach early this morning against a lavender-gray sky. Soon the sky will color up. The leaves will thicken and darken. It will be summer before we know it.