I remembered to write 2015 the first time!
The wind is roaring outside my windows, the sky is gray, and it’s cold. The weather reports say temperatures won’t get above freezing most of the week. We may finally get some snow. I am looking forward to winter, the iconic New England weather of my childhood. Was it really so, or just my imagination?
Several years ago I saw a photograph in the Ridgefield Press of snow piled up along Main Street, higher than my head, or so it seemed. Just as I remembered it. There was a high bank along one section of Main Street, so that snow plowed along there really did reach amazing heights. It was a visual trick, but plowed snow along the sides of the roads piled up, especially after several storms. Snowsuits and skating, shoveling with my dad, snowmen, school canceled, sledding down our long driveway, then warming up with hot chocolate inside by a fire. I’m sure it was so.
Hopefully, below-freezing temperatures will minimize the winter moths that seem like snow itself in my car’s headlights if I’m driving home at night. And the ticks. There is a new tick disease, a virus, so not vulnerable to antibiotics. It caused rapid organ failure in a farmer in Bourbon County, Kan. It has been named Bourbon Virus. I hope it doesn’t establish itself here. Insects seem so much more resilient than we humans; they evolve to resist everything we try to deter them.
I have to thank and commend Whit Griswold for his many years as my copy editor at the Times. Whit has retired. Well-earned. You will be missed.
Community suppers have begun their winter schedule. It is possible to “eat out” every day of the week, to join friends for good food and companionship, to meet new and interesting people. Here is the schedule:
Sunday is the only lunchtime meal. It is lasagna, served from 12:30 to 2 o’clock at the Federated Church in Edgartown.
Monday — the Old Whaling Church, Edgartown. 5:30 pm.
Tuesday — Chilmark Community Church. 5:30 pm.
Wednesday — our own West Tisbury Church. 5:30 pm. Please use the entrance on Music Street.
Thursday — Saint Augustine’s Church, Vineyard Haven. 5 pm.
Friday — Grace Church, Vineyard Haven. 5 pm.
Saturday — Trinity Parish House, Oak Bluffs. 5:30 pm.
Fan Ogilvie, one of our former poet laureates, is leading a poetry discussion series at the West Tisbury library. “Metaphor and Other Tropes” is the subject on Jan. 13. On Jan. 20, “Emotions and Intellection”; “Just Words” on Jan. 27. Discussion begins at 2 pm, and the group will be limited to eight participants. Please sign up at the circulation desk, 508-693-3366, or online at programs@westtisburylibrary.org.
Benjamin Higgins will perform a piano concert at the library this Friday, Jan. 9, at 4 pm. Beth is making cookies, an added inducement, so please plan to come.
The Lego Club continues to meet at the library this Saturday, Jan. 10, 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm.
Mike and I invited some friends to help us celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary on New Year’s Day. It was wonderful to be with so many of the people who have made our life richer than we could have imagined all those years ago.
We also invited Junior and Salissa DeOlivera, the new owners of Mike’s Aunt Janice’s house, our new neighbors. They came with their children, Noah, Owen, and Gabriel (the girls, Emily and Rafaela, stayed home) and their incredibly cute puppy, 9-month old BooBoo, who stole the show. He and our Talley and Nanuk frolicked and entertained everyone, despite the size and age differences. BooBoo is a tiny Chihuahua cross, and ours are 60- and 70-plus-pound retrievers.
Everyone commented on Nelson’s exemplary manners. He is a very sociable cat, loves to be in the midst of any gathering, and spent a good two hours sleeping and purring contentedly on Megan Mendenhall’s lap. I was teased about all the things I write in this column about his terrible behavior. As I often tell, he was perfect at the party, the best-behaved cat one could imagine. But as soon as everyone left, he came into the kitchen, leaped up, and gave me a good hard bite to remind me that I am the person he loves most in the world.
