The sweet honey locust blossoms are huge and lovely this year. Recent rains helped the garden, and though I am allergic to grass pollen, I love the scent of newly mown fields and how swallows swoop around the tractor. Wearing a good mask helps tremendously.
It is impossible to note graduation without feeling the absence of Waylon Madison Sauer, a member of the graduating class who tragically died in 2023, leaving a large hole along with inspiration in many hearts. There wasn’t a dry eye when his father Daniel, mother Wenonah Madison, grandfather Jeffrey Madison, and his siblings accepted his honorary diploma.
Well done, Laila Fenner, Charlotte Scott, Hayden Higgins, Rodeo Purves Langer, Katherine and Elizabeth Chvatal, Billie Vanderhoop Shepherd, Quinlan Slavin, Delilah Oliver, and Finnegan MacLeod. You are ready and able. Risk being seen in all your perfectly imperfect human glory. Cultivate and love and your playful hearts and embrace the ordinary. Meet your misadventures and mistakes with a sense of humor and faith. The best of friends know all about you and are delighted. They love you through trials and errors. They forgive and remember with laughter while cheering you on. The world is a better and richer place because you are in it.
This Saturday, June 14, from 10 am to noon, is the annual Children’s Fair at the Chilmark Community Church on Menemsha Crossroads. This will be the Rev. Janet Stoddard’s first. Pony rides, bounce house, water games, T-ball, face painting, ball toss, decorating your own cupcakes. This event is free, though we will have a donation basket. Thank you in advance to Julie Flanders for leading this effort and the pony rides, and to Sarah Shipway, Sarah Laux, Janet Weidner, Ann Noyes, Kathie Carroll, Mariah and Jessica Campbell, Emily Broderick, and Pam Goff.
It is time to meet the Howes House Friday Watercolor artists, and stock up on paintings and cards. Friday, June 20, noon to 4 pm, and Saturday, June 21, 9 to 2 pm. The Howes House is located in the center of West Tisbury, across from Alley’s Store. Feel free to call (508-693-3693) or email me with any questions.
Remember to complete the survey on the Menemsha Dock options, and help us keep Menemsha the special small fishing village we love. The survey can be taken online at surveymonkey.com/r/GNW6DC6.
Are you managing a career’s worth of artworks? Has a loved one or friend entrusted you to ensure their legacy? Peter B. Cook is presenting a free workshop, “Stewardship Strategies for Artists, their Families, and Agents,” with Nikki Hayes on Saturday, June 14, 1 to 4 pm, at the Chilmark library.
Peter Cook is the grandson, son, father, brother-in-law, uncle, and cousin of artists. For four decades he has worked on preserving their legacies. A former secondary school teacher and coach, he spent 33 years as a writer/producer at WGBH boston, his last assignment being executive producer of “Antiques Roadshow.” He lives in Chilmark.
Nikki Hayes has spent many years working with the John F. Folinsbee Art Trust, first as research assistant and then manager of the published online catalogue. She previously lived in New York City as an artist working for art galleries. She was the artist residency director for the Edna St. Vincent Millay Colony of the Arts, and has worked for the Norman Rockwell Museum and for the Trustees of Reservations at two historic house properties. She is currently working in site administration and as an interpreter at Chesterwood.
Summer hours and events have started for our farmers. Beetlebung Farm is open Wednesday to Sunday, 8 am to 5 pm. North Tabor Farm is offering preorder pizza on Monday. Order online before 3 pm, and select a pickup time between 5 and 7. Sundays they offer Iggy’s bread. Don’t forget to visit their stands at the West Tisbury Farmers Market on Wednesdays and Saturdays, 9 am to noon. Native Earth Teaching Farm has plants for sale, and is open for visits Sundays, 1 to 4 pm.
If you have any Chilmark Town Column suggestions, email Claire Ganz, cganz@live.com.
