Town Column : West Tisbury
By Hermine Hull
Published: September 25, 2008
The season has changed from summer to fall. Chrysanthemums and asters brighten the roadside gardens and the air is filled with the scent of last mowings.
The town offices completed their move into two trailers and the old library. There are also storage trailers on site. Bea Phear commented, "Kathy Logue deserves a medal," for her coordination of the move. Jen Rand and Ernie Mendenhall worked till 1:30 am, then Ernie spent a good bit of the weekend finishing the job. I know this because he stopped by to borrow some tools from Mike on Sunday afternoon. There will be an official groundbreaking ceremony on Oct. 8 at 3:30 pm to which everyone is invited. Keep that date.
When I saw AnnaBelle Brothers at the post office last week, she was wearing such a pretty necklace that I complimented her on it. She told me she found it at the Dumptique, one of her favorite places, on a recent trip with PopPop (known to the rest of us as Tim Maley.) AnnaBelle's mother, Stephanie, described her daughter's find as "beads bigger than her head," but they were still very pretty and fashionable, and looked lovely on AnnaBelle.
I am sad to report that another of my favorite young friends will be leaving West Tisbury at the end of this month. Xing Senna, with her parents, Marco Senna and Jennifer Tseng, will be moving to California. We had a going-away party for Jennifer at the library last Thursday afternoon. Unfortunately, Xing was taking a nap so she didn't attend. All of us at the library have grown very fond of Xing, who was a brand-new infant when her mother began working with us. Jennifer has promised to send daily updates and pictures. Meanwhile, we all enjoyed the party with a fabulous cake baked and decorated by Douglas Reid and Paula Black's lemonade, made with ice cubes that had raspberries and lemon slices frozen into them, a good party tip.
Here is the new address for McCaull Reid: Crotchett Mountain Rehabilitation Center, Room 1 Lower Hayden, 1 Verney Drive, Greenfield, N.H. 03047. McCaull moved a couple of weeks ago. He is on a floor with young people his own age, which makes a huge difference, and he likes Crotchett Mountain very much. McCaull is able to stand on his own, working on walking, and liking the beautiful mountain view. Please write to him.
This weekend will be a busy one at the Ag Hall, where the annual Living Local Harvest Festival and the Antique Power Show will be held on Saturday, Sept. 27. The Farmer's Market will move to the Ag Hall this weekend, too. While on the Ag Hall grounds, take a look at the new barn. It's absolutely beautiful.
Henry Bassett spent the weekend with his grandparents, Susie and Bob Wasserman. While here, Henry got a blue two-wheel bicycle, which he was planning to ride around Music Street to the bike path. Henry began his new school year in Boston, where he is in the second grade.
Throughout the summer, Mike and I have been watching the progress of a vine that began in our compost pile and proceeded in a gargantuan sprawl across the top of our vegetable garden fence. It grew in two directions, sending out shoots onto anything that would support its rampant growth. Flowers became small mystery fruits. Slowly they formed themselves into a bumper crop of pumpkins, two different kinds.
Every year, I like to decorate my house for fall with little pumpkins on the windowsills, one in the middle of each sill. At about a dollar apiece and with several windows, it adds up to a pretty penny. So I was thrilled to find out that our mystery vines had produced enough pumpkins for all my windows. Those are little French pumpkins. For the porch, there are larger sugar pumpkins, still sweetening on their vines. Soon they will decorate our porch (and maybe the library) for Halloween. Then they can become our Thanksgiving pumpkin pies. I am quite proud of having grown them myself, even though it was totally inadvertent.
