Osprey bird counters are stopping by to check on the nests.
Last weekend Patricia (“Tricia”) Bergeron’s ashes were laid to rest in the Sacred Heart Cemetery, Oak Bluffs, Zelda (“Zee”) Finkelstein Gamson was buried in Abel’s Hill, Roy Scheffer was remembered at the Ag Hall, and Catherine Mersin Mayhew was remembered at the First Congregational Church in West Tisbury, with a reception at the museum.
It is striking how the dawn breaks after walking in darkness weighted with sorrow, fear, and shame. The breathtaking beauty of the faces of neighbors and landscapes we share replaces worry. Victories and joy are remembered, and love of the kind that pounds your heart, pumping generosity, grace, kindness, well-being, and goodness into every one of your cells, until it overflows and you want to dance again, and touch the shoulder of a stranger who reminds you of someone, and tell them how wonderful they are and were.
Congratulations to Ruby Russell, 16, on winning the 2026 USA Gymnastics State Championship for her age group. Congratulations to Beth Goodell and Martha’s Vineyard Gymnastics. Congratulations also to her parents, Jen and Tony Russell. It takes a team.
North Tabor Farm welcomes, for a six-month collaboration, the inimitable and inspiring chef, writer, showrunner, director, and producer, and lifelong New Yorker, Irene Wong. Irene will be cooking up treats for sale in the farmstand and at the farmers market. She mentioned that this is a year where we cannot be doing the same things. We are thrilled.
Congratulations, Rebecca Haag, on election to the select board. Rebecca Haag replaces outgoing Chair Marie Larsen. Thank you, Marie, for the hours of care, thought, and work it takes to show up and provide oversight and leadership.
Rebecca joins Jeffrey Maida and Matthew Poole; this week they will meet to reorganize and assign chair, vice chair, and clerk.
Congratulations to Elizabeth Barrett Oliver, board of assessors; Drew Belsky, board of health; Kaila Allen-Posin, trustee of the public library; Marshall Carrol and Deborah Hancock, finance advisory committee; Peter Cook, Mitchell Posin, and Hugh Weisman, planning board; Mary Grady, cemetery commissioner; Aaron Brown, tree warden and surveyor of wood, lumber, and bark; and Keith Emin, fence viewer.
Thank you to Janet Weidner, Jane Slater, Bradley Carroll, and Katie Carroll, Julie Flanders, and Tim Rich for the research and presentation honoring Massachusetts’ revolutionary legacy and the 250th anniversary of American democracy.
The Chilmark Wool Fair and Yarn Swap will take place on Saturday, May 9, from 11:00 am to 4 pm at the Allen Farm. This daylong event will feature a community art-making project, talks, demonstrations, and a yarn swap. Fiber artists, knitters, and crocheters are welcome to sign up for our yarn swap. Spring is a great time to clean out your stash of yarn, books, and supplies. A Chilmark School art show will hang on the walls.
Beetlebung Farm is offering another class, “Demystifying Sourdough: Bread-Baking Basics for the Home,” on May 16. It includes the lesson, bread tasting, flour samples, take-home starter, and a printed recipe. It’s $60 per person; sign up on Beetlebung’s website, or at bit.ly/BF_SourdoughClass.