A short column this week. Mike and I finished our taxes Sunday night. As he predicted, I waited till the last possible second to do it and there we were, sitting amid forms and paperwork into the night. Every year I expect to finally adopt my husband’s admirable habit of having all his papers in order and forms filled out by March. Every year, both of us are disappointed as I swear I will never do this again. I guess one of the secrets of a long and happy marriage is acceptance. Thank you, Mike, for more than your share of patience and accepting me as I am. A good sense of humor doesn’t hurt either. Our thanks to Sue Hruby and Jared Hull for providing your good company and a sustaining meal when we needed it most.
Having brought up this subject, I was appalled to discover that this year the IRS didn’t include any forms or mailing envelopes in the booklet of tax information they send out at the beginning of January.
Mike and I found ourselves running up to the library, again at the last minute.
While we were otherwise engaged, West Tisbury blossomed. The magnolia in front of Olsens’ is more beautiful than ever. Daffodils and forsythia have brightened every roadside and garden in town. Lawns are beginning to green up. Spring truly feels like a miracle to me — life and color reemerging from winter’s gray earth.
Despite last Wednesday’s drenching rainstorm, we didn’t wash away. The conversation around town has been about no one remembering such a heavy rain. Roads were closed, cellars flooded, lawns and driveways disappeared, ponds washed over their banks. The amount of rainfall, reported from 4 to 5 inches, fell in blinding sheets, with lightning and thunder beginning the night before.
Passover began Monday night with families and friends gathering for seders throughout town. Good Friday and Easter Sunday will be celebrated this weekend. Thursday evening at 7:30, there will be a Tenebrae service at the West Tisbury Church. Sunday morning, the sunrise service begins at 5:30, at the end of Littlefield Lane (turn onto the second right, follow it to the end) across from the Polly Hill Arboretum. Services at 9 and 11 am will be held at the church.
The library will have a Spring Egg Hunt on Saturday, beginning at 10:30 “till they’re all gone.”
At 11 am Saturday morning, the weekly garden lecture will be about starting plants from seed.
Easter Sunday, Vineyard Gardens holds their Annual Easter Egg Hunt at 1 pm. All are encouraged to come and bring your cameras.
Maria McFarland asks that anyone looking for a “unique volunteer opportunity” contact her at 508-696-6404. As part of the North American Monitoring Program of UMass Amherst, an Amphibian Monitor is needed. Matt Pelikan has retired from the job. If you are interested, call Maria to find out the details.
Monday Night Scrabble Club meets this Monday, April 25, 7 pm, at the library. Knitters will be gathering for their weekly evening together.
The Tuesday Night Knitters who meet at Vineyard Knitworks will take a break this Tuesday, and resume their labors on May 3.
Tuesday, April 26, Mal Jones will speak at the library at 5 pm. His topic is Lines and Circles: A Hands-on Workshop for your Brain.
JB Blau of Sharky’s Cantinas in Oak Bluffs and Edgartown is holding a “Dine to Donate Dinner” this Tuesday night, April 26. This Tuesday’s dinner will benefit the Martha’s Vineyard Center for Living. Sharky’s donates 15 percent to a different Island nonprofit from these Tuesday night dinners. So come and support our Island, and enjoy a pleasant night out.
A big pot of hyacinths is on a table in our living room, its fragrance wafting through the room. All around the house, I have brought out little vases, and filled them with bouquets from my own garden. Pansies, daffodils, grape hyacinths, cherry blossoms, forsythia. My brother, Andy, called from Redding, Conn., yesterday to tell me about a daffodil-covered hillside we both have loved and admired. I am planning on my daffodil visit to Kathy Stevenson’s daffodil-covered hillside, right here in West Tisbury.
