Welcome, April showers. The daffodils are starting to pop, and by this weekend, Joan and Pat Jenkinson’s hillside by the old gas pump on North Road will be resplendent.
Many thanks to Beetlebung Farm for offering leftover packets of seeds. We are working diligently on expanding and redesigning our vegetable and fruit garden. Digging up locust saplings, blackberries, and wisteria are the hardest jobs. The goal is a space that is fully accessible for all ages, strollers, wheelchairs. A space that smells and feels as delightful as it looks. A space that is bountiful, with plenty of places to rest, visit, and enjoy the view and a meal. We are dividing it into four areas, with a sacred spiral in one and a Trinity knot at the center.
At the Chilmark Church, the Sunday school is starting to plan a play yard with a vegetable garden.
Friday, April 4, from 11:30 to 1 pm we are invited to meet Krishana Collins, the farmer who created the thriving flower farm business at Tea Lane Farm, on the corner of Middle Road and Tea Lane.
We are a community of wonderful and powerfully creative people. Last fall, at a farmers’ mending night, hosted by the Ag Society, Delila Bennet taught me how to needle-felt over holes in a favorite wool sweater. Over the course of the winter, I enjoyed the process of repairing my sweaters and wool shirts, making new friends, and visiting with the remarkable Rebecca Gilbert and Connie Hyde at their “Slow Stitching Circle.”
It was shockingly delightful to learn at the final Friends of the Mill Pond event at the West Tisbury library that the creators of this technique are our very own Island treasures, Eleanor and David Stanwood.
The Mill Pond event was followed by a moving and beautiful concert by Ellen Biskis, Stuart Gardner, Lucas, Ostinato, and Taurus. It was lovely to see George Gude’s partner, Melissa Knowles, take the stage for a song. May his memory continue to be a blessing.
For those of us who love berries, North Tabor Farm might still have some of their Berry Good Fruit crush in their farm stand.
Ruth Folchman and Mary Marro are looking for strong-swimming women, 65 to 85, to join the expansion of Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage (OLAG of Cape Cod) this summer on M.V. Info at olaug-ma.com, or email olaug.mv@gmail.com.
The Menemsha Fish Market is back to its spring schedule, Monday to Saturday, 11 to 5, and Sunday, 12 to 4. Mum loves a cup of their lobster bisque, and I am pleased to learn they are happy to fill a thermos. Call ahead if you want them to cook your lobsters: 508-645-2282.
Congratulations to Nancy Aronie on your sold-out May “Jump-Start Your Memoir: Write It From the Heart” and for this summer’s offerings: May 26-30 at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, N.Y., and at her Chilmark studio, June 9-12, July 14-17, and August 11-14. Check out her website for more information: chilmarkwritingworkshop.com/mv-summer-workshops.
If you have any Chilmark Town Column suggestions, email Claire Ganz, cganz@live.com.
