The air feels softer when I open the door to let the dogs out first thing in the morning. It feels warmer, too. Maybe not so much on the thermometer, but in my bones. It beckons me to step outside, to resume my routine of walking around, coffee in hand, barefoot once it gets a little warmer, looking for the newest blossom or emerging leaf, assessing holes that need “something pink” or places where a bit of thinning is called for, a branch that needs to come down. A garden is a painting that’s never finished.
My favorite part, besides the plants that came as thinnings from friends, is the discovery of something special that has appeared unexpectedly across the yard from where I planted it. Of course, it’s a law of nature that a plant will thrive in the unplanned spot and probably die out immediately in the desired one, despite the most assiduous care. Humbling, if you want to be philosophical. Maybe just the way of nature, adapting or asserting itself to its best advantage.
Just in time for taxes, the library will have an IRS website drop-in help session. Bring your problem(s) and stop by on Monday evening, April 13, 6 to 8 pm. No tax advice, just help navigating the intricacies of website and forms.
Other special events at the library this week are a Twilight Concert with David Stanwood this Friday evening, April 10, at 7 pm. Saturday is Tartan Day, and will be celebrated between 2 and 4 pm. A Chess Club for Beginners will hold its first meeting Saturday morning between 10 am and noon. Sunday afternoon is a Community Poetry Reading at 3 pm. Writers Read Prose Workshop meets Monday evening at 7 pm.
Gloria Burkin is the library’s artist of the month for April. She is an oil painter of Island seascapes and landscapes, of light and color, of the places she walks her dog, of the places that, though secret, feel like the places we all know. They are our secrets, too. Come and have a look.
Don’t forget that, besides taxes being due on April 15, our town holds two events of civic importance. Our annual Town Meeting begins at 7 pm at the West Tisbury School on Tuesday, April 14. On Thursday, April 16, come to the Public Safety Building to vote. Polls open at 7 am and close at 8 pm.
Paddy Moore asked me to tell everyone that the Healthy Aging Task Force has been working together for over a year and will have a warrant article at Town Meeting asking for funding for First Stop, their information and referral website: “The site is designed to provide comprehensive information to Island elders, their families and caregivers on and off the Island, and to service providers as well.” They worked with the Councils on Aging and other Island organizations so as not to duplicate services already provided. Please call Paddy Moore or Bea Phear for more information, or write them at: info@hatfmv.org.
Candy Schweder emailed to announce that she has joined the Simon Gallery in Vineyard Haven. She and her pottery will still be at the summer Artisans Shows at the Grange.
Hard to believe that Bob Carroll died last week. His daughter Sue was one of my first friends when I moved to Edgartown, so of course I met Mr. Carroll soon after. He was always “Mr. Carroll” to me, although not at all formal; it just began that way and remained so. All the stories reported in both newspapers and told at the gathering last Saturday at his beloved Harbor View Hotel made him sound larger than life, which he definitely was. But to me, he was always Sue’s dad, always very warm and kind and supportive to me when I was a new young woman starting a business in town. A long time ago. Mr. Carroll didn’t seem to age or change at all. When I saw him around town or at lunches at the Harbor View, he was as genial and welcoming as he always was. That is, himself. I am grateful to have known him all these years, grateful to still be Sue’s friend, and send my condolences his family and to all who will miss him. That means all of Edgartown and most of the rest of us.
Although I didn’t know Peggy Freydberg, I certainly knew of her, her books, her poetry, and her remarkable 107 years. My condolences to her family, friends, and admirers.
West Tisbury firemen have just been called for a brush fire down toward Long Point. I hope it turns out to be nothing and they are quickly called off. But it’s breezy out, easy for fire to spread out of control. I had better go over to the firehouse and get Nanuk out of Mike’s truck so she doesn’t have to sit there all afternoon. She might as well come home and rake leaves with Talley, Nelson, and me.