West Tisbury Town Column
I’m looking out my windows, not wanting to miss a moment as spring changes from its early subtlety to the thickness of summer. We have had just the right combination of sunny days and...
West Tisbury Town Column
I am writing on my first day out after being sick. It’s a lovely spring day, pleasantly warm, with no wind. Mary Bohan was here from Old Saybrook, showing her brother and sister-in-law, Micky...
West Tisbury Town Column
We were treated to a beautiful Easter Sunday after another wet, windy, chilly week. Still, every day brings the appearance of another sign of spring unfolding. The three garden centers in town were filled...
West Tisbury Town Column
After a few nice days, we seem to have returned to winter. It was windy and cold much of the past week. Rainy, too. It’s never smart to put away your sweaters and flannel...
West Tisbury Town Column
We are finally getting some much-needed April showers. Daffodils are blooming all over town. There are tiny green leaves showing on the earliest autumn olive and multiflora rose bushes, the first pale blossoms on...
West Tisbury Town Column
I was waiting for Iyla at the Chilmark School last Thursday afternoon, watching all the activity, listening to children talking and laughing. Kate was serving snacks at a table, then everyone laid yoga mats...
West Tisbury Town Column
It’s officially spring now. My first daffodils are blooming. Snowdrops and crocuses are everywhere. After complaining about my eranthis a few weeks ago, I have found patches of it in unexpected spots around the...
West Tisbury Town Column
I am writing a late column this week, on Monday morning. Rain is pouring down, and the wind is blowing hard enough to almost flatten light shrubbery and saplings in our woods. Abby wasn’t...
West Tisbury Town Column
March’s roaring lion arrived with winds that kept our woods in perpetual motion and sent leaves blowing everywhere. It was warm one day, then cold the next. Our woodpile is getting shorter, and I...
West Tisbury Town Column
What a lovely week it has been. Temperatures in the 40s and 50s. Sunny. The days are already longer, even though we don’t set our clocks ahead until this Sunday. Spring ahead. March has...
West Tisbury Town Column
The sun is pouring in through our living room windows as I write, the best part of having it low in the sky all winter. Nelson is purring on my lap, Abby asleep beside...
West Tisbury Town Column
Real snow on the ground. What a treat. Despite the inconveniences, it is so pretty. Inconveniences abound, however. Everything takes longer, because clearing snow away adds an extra step. The ridiculousness of shoveling a...
West Tisbury Town Column
Real snow, a few inches. It was peaceful to watch during the night, then to awake to the ground thickly covered on Sunday morning. I took Abby out to play in it around 1...
West Tisbury Town Column
It’s finally cold enough that there is ice on the ponds. There was a time when cars parked along State Road, and skaters would be out on Parsonage Pond for the day. It doesn’t...
West Tisbury Town Column
There is still snow on the ground, more of a patch than a blanket, but snow nonetheless, and cold. Our wheelbarrow was frozen to the ground when I went out to the woodpile. The...
West Tisbury Town Column
As we have been watching the fires continue to spread across LA, a tragic fire has affected someone closer to home. Our dear Bianca, who smiles and makes jokes to brighten our days, who...
West Tisbury Town Column
It’s a good day to make a big pot of stew or soup. I did that last weekend after stopping at Julia Humphreys’ house and smelling the coq au vin she was cooking. I...
West Tisbury Town Column
It has been mild and freezing, windy and still. The sunsets have been spectacular, streaks of orange slashing through purple skies. I have already noticed the lengthening daylight through the bare branches of our...
West Tisbury Town Column
It was a surprise to find the lightest frosting of new snow when I looked outside on the morning after Christmas. I suppose that technically we had a white Christmas with the remnants of...
West Tisbury Town Column
It’s almost the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. I love the early darkness, turning lights on, getting the fire going to warm up the house. Mike comes home earlier, giving us...