Snow is still on the ground, but milder days have opened areas of grass, gravel, and mud. I wonder if we will have a mud season like we used to have, when winters were routinely cold enough to freeze the ground. Miserable memories of rutted driveways, lawns, fields, and dirt roads, then mud tracked inside everywhere. Yuck.
Next week is school vacation. Expect the Island to feel emptied out. The library will have free soup and bread lunches Monday to Friday, 11:30 to 1 pm. All soups are made to accommodate alpha-gal, vegan, and gluten-free diets. Thanks to Chef Deon, the West Tisbury Library Foundation, and Friends of the West Tisbury Free Public Library. Everyone is welcome to share a delicious lunch and some social time.
Other library events include seed-sorting and tea on Saturday, Feb. 21, at noon, followed at 3 pm with a concert by Sarah Shaw Dawson, Island musician, songwriter, and MV Times reporter. The Climate Book Club will meet Sunday afternoon at 4 pm to discuss “Silent Spring,” the classic by Rachel Carson; sign up at wt_mail@clamsnet.org. “Notes of a Crocodile” by Qiu Miaojin will be discussed at the LGBTQI+ Book Club meeting on Monday afternoon at 5:30; sign up at apratt@clamsnet.org or wt_mail@clamsnet.org. Come to “Potion-Making for Kids” on Wednesday from 3 to 4:30 pm; the program also includes instructions for spell-writing, and making your own wand. Families are invited to a pancake and cartoon breakfast Thursday morning, 9:30 to 10:30. Pajamas are optional. Ukelele players will meet to jam together at 3:30 Thursday afternoon. Also at 3:30 will be a meeting for Book Buddies, a program that pairs high school and elementary school students to read together.
I went to see “Hadestown” at the regional high school. What a performance. Everything about it was professional: the acting, the choreography, the sets, the costumes, the lighting, the stage management. I will admit to a love for mythology, so loved the idea of a modern play based on the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, with Hades and Persephone thrown in for good measure. Bravo. You were fabulous.
Tara Whiting-Wells was glowing with happiness when she told me about her visit with her “adored big brother,” Daniel, who came for a week from Manchester, England. Tara said that Daniel loves to drive around the Island, so they covered it from Aquinnah to Chappy, visiting favorite places, and finding them especially magical in the snow. In between were visits with other family members. Alas, Daniel has had to return home, leaving Tara dreaming of their next time together.
I know that feeling. Although Connecticut isn’t as far away as England, I miss my brothers terribly. We wish we had ruby slippers like Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz,” that we could click our heels together and magically transport ourselves to each other’s firesides.