It’s almost the end of March, which often feels like the longest month of the year. It is officially spring. The light is changing, days are lengthening, energy is waxing like the moon. Most of us are eager to get outdoors as the earth warms and softens. It’s time to begin planting. I have already walked barefoot outside and had coffee on my porch. That said, I was delighted to hear a fellow winter lover comment that one more snow day would be lovely.
As winter comes to an end, the Federated Church in Edgartown announces that its last lasagna luncheon of the season will be this Sunday. It is free and open to all, served in the Parish House after the morning service. Contact the church for more information: phone 508-627-4221; federatedchurchmv.org; email admin@federatedchurchmv.org.
ACE MV is beginning a new series of health and wellness classes about medications, diabetes, and sleep issues, as well as licensing classes for contractors, equipment operators, and pesticide applicators. Look at acemv.org for more information.
Polly Hill Arboretum is offering a “Holly Hat Racking Workshop” this Friday, March 24, 9 am to noon. Hat racking is a radical pruning technique that rejuvenates old or overgrown holly trees. Cost is $10 for members, $15 for nonmembers. Register at the arboretum, 508-693-9426. Attendees are asked to dress for the weather and bring work gloves.
The Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School play, “Young King Arthur and the Sword in the Stone,” will open this Saturday, March 25, with performances at 2 and 6 pm, at the Katharine Cornell Theater in Vineyard Haven. There will be a matinee performance on Sunday at 2 pm. Tickets are $6 per person or $20 per family.
At the West Tisbury library this coming week, three events on Saturday, March 25. Felix Neck naturalists will visit the library at 10:30 to present a program about owls and ospreys for children ages 6 and up. At 3 pm there will be a rock concert for kids featuring Jellybone Rivers and the Maniacs of the Heart. Author and former West Tisbury librarian Jennifer Tseng will read from her new chapbook, “Not So Dear Jenny,” at 6 pm. Sunday afternoon at 4 pm there will be a concert, “The Colorful Influence of Spanish Roots,” presented by Music Street and performed by pianist Diane Katzenburg Braun, violinist Daniel Koo, and cellist Jonathan Butler. On Monday, March 27, Kanta Lipsky will lead a balance workshop at 11:30 am. At 6 pm, Martha’s Vineyard’s We Stand Together group will present a film documenting the story of journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, who was brought to the United States from the Philippines as a child and became a leading immigration reform activist. Wednesday, March 29, the library and Morrice Florist invite you to a “Terrarium Workshop” at Morrice Florist at 1 pm: “Create something green you can take home.” Space is limited for this workshop, so sign up at the library. An episode of MVTV’s “MV Signs Then and Now” will be shown Wednesday afternoon at 4 pm at the library.
A word about the library’s ongoing “Explorations in Healthy Living” programs, frequently mentioned in this column: The series includes workshops and informational programs to foster community, health, and creativity. Massage, balance, explorations into green burial and natural death care discussions, bookmaking crafts, displays of books focused on special aspects of health care are all a part. The events are all free, made possible by a Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners LSTA Grant, the West Tisbury Library Foundation, and the Friends of the West Tisbury Library.
A note for local historians: “The Wampanoag Genealogical History of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts,” by Dr. Jerome Segel and Andrew Pierce, has just had its third printing.
Absentee ballots have arrived at Town Hall. Town clerk’s hours are Monday through Friday, 8:30 am to 1:30 pm.
I always appreciate the rituals in my life, and often write about them. My year has a cadence to it. Last Friday evening Mike and I were at Diane Wall’s house for our annual St. Patrick’s Day dinner. We have been sharing this meal for 30-plus years; I think we have only missed one in all those years. Mike and I married, then Howard and Diane married; Hilary and Tessa were born, and are now women on their own, happily still on the Island with jobs and partners and homes of their own. Jan and Rich Rooney married and raised their daughter Janay. Teena and Charlie Parton moved away, although there have been years when they returned for our corned beef and cabbage feast. Diane and Jan’s parents, Fudge and Ben Paul, moved to the Island and joined us. Sadly, they have both died, as has our dear friend Howard Wall, who gave us an after-dinner bagpipe concert. I treasure this occasion, and all the occasions that mark my year.