MARGARET KNIGHT
508-627-8894
Living at the edge of a continent, we should expect to see more change than as if we lived somewhere in the middle of things, like Iowa. Since we actually live beyond the periphery, on our own tiny “continent,” with the ocean acting as catalyst, change is more or less constant along our edges.
Last weekend, Sidney and I walked at Wasque for the first time in months, and saw the reshaping of the land out there. The boardwalk to the bathing beach area ends not much farther than the swan pond, which is much narrower and shorter. It looks as if a bulldozer pushed sand from the beach side into the pond. On the outer beach, the top branches of bayberry and other bushes stick out of the sand right above where the waves break.
We walked down the beach to get a better view of Norton Point, bare of any growth, which has curved way into Katama Bay, far out of line from it’s original attachment to the Edgartown side, which has not changed much. The Bay at the Wasque end is much narrower. A lot of clams must have been buried alive, unless they have some way of moving sideways under the sand.
Out at Wasque Point, change is less obvious. Off the point, though, is a good-sized sandbar or small island which, from a distance, was black with seals at the two pointed ends. There must have been hundreds of them.
The town’s fire engine number four came to Chappy last week for its monthly training. They practiced drafting water from the Chappy fire station’s cistern, which is a more complicated process than taking a fire hydrant’s water, which is under pressure. Peter Wells, Chappy’s captain, says that when there’s a fire on Chappy and the trucks come from town, they want to be able to set up a relay team. One truck would pump water from the cistern or a pond or swimming pool, and then fill another truck which would transport the water to the fire.
In May, Peter and the Chappy fire fighters will host the first Thursday of the month supper at the Chappy station for all the town’s “fire people.” They’ve invited the selectmen as well, so they can officially visit the new firehouse.
Liz Villard’s original musical, An Island of Women, has begun rehearsals, and will open with a benefit for the Martha’s Vineyard Museum on Thursday, June 11. Just as rehearsals began, two performers had to leave the cast because of unexpected time conflicts, so the production is looking for two singers between ages 16 and 30 to play the role of Hannah Norton Vincent, a young wife whose husband is at sea in the whaling industry, and Grace Mayhew, who works in a Fall River mill while she waits for her fiancé to return from sea. Both are important roles and get to sing some of Phil Dietterich’s wonderful songs. If you’re interested in the roles or know of someone the director might contact, please call Liz Villard at 508-627-2529 or e-mail her at mvhistory@earthlink.net. She says she’d be willing to work with a college student so long as they will be on the Island by around May 15.
On Saturday, April 25, Felix Neck will be part of Mass Audubon’s third annual statewide volunteer day from 9 a.m. until noon, followed by a thank-you barbecue lunch. There are projects for all ages and abilities. Bring your own gloves for the Metamorphosis of the Butterfly Garden, Picnic Table Paloozza, or Bittersweet Blues. To sign up, visit online massaudubon.org/workforwildlife. For more information, call 508-627-4850.
The new Chappaquiddick Cemetery is looking very inviting these days, with its bright green grass and daffodils blooming, against the background of the gray and leafless trees. Donna Kelly and her crew have been working on it since early spring.
Spring is probably the most changeable season anywhere, and this year the Island is having its typical Vineyard spring: sunny and in the 60s one day, and rainy and in the 40s the next. I’m reading Annie Dillard’s Tinker Creek in which she ponders how long it would take people to figure out the seasonal cycles if we had no notion of years, set by seasons. If somehow you landed in the midst of a Vineyard spring, I don’t think you’d know what was going on! It could take months to know for sure that there was even a trend toward warmth.
Despite the temperatures, the hyacinths and forsythia bloom on schedule, following the daffodils which are still looking good since we haven’t yet had a prolonged heat. The woods may still look gray but the edges are greening.
With all the rain this past week, ducks can be seen in unusual places. A pair of mallards stood at the edge of a puddle in the main road near Caleb’s Pond, and didn’t even bother to move as I drove around them.
Skip Bettencourt has seen a surf scoter a few times at Brine’s Pond, which is an usual place for one. They usually like an open body of water for diving in. They’re black with one or two white patches on the crown of the head and are nicknamed, the skunk-head coot.
Speaking of skunks, Luanne Johnson, former head of skunk studies on the Island, “is out of the skunk business — just into the PhD business these days,” according to an e-mail I received from her. She is busy analyzing data and writing, and hopes to finish by the end of August. She will be giving a talk at the Vineyard Haven library on Tuesday, May 5, that will focus on what she is getting out of her analysis of the data she collected for five years.
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