JANE N. SLATER

508-645-3378

(slaterjn@comcast.net)

Chilmark is enduring one more snow storm; as the wind whips giant snowflakes past my steamed up window I tell myself — and you — that this will be the last snowstorm of the season and my daffodils will be allowed to come up after this! Don’t you wish?

We send condolences to the family and friends of T.P. Benton, who died Feb. 14 at his home in Acton. His name was Thomas Piacenza but we always called him T.P. and he was part of my early Chilmark years as he and his family vacationed every summer close to us in the Boston Hill area of Chilmark. He began to play music very early and entertained us with his talent. Later in life, he took up painting and developed his own style, not an easy thing to do if your father is Thomas Hart Benton. His visits to Chilmark were fewer as the years passed but his family continues to come, and we know they will treasure their memories of his long life.

Pam Bunker is recovering from some knee surgery, so if you see her around town on a crutch, know that she will soon be back to her healthy self.

Congratulations from us all to our favorite Chilmark poet, Peggy Freydberg, who turns 102 on Saturday. Her many Chilmark friends send best wishes.

If you are running for office in Chilmark please note that your papers must be back in town hall by March 10. If you are not running, there is still time to take out papers and collect signatures; talk to the town clerk and begin a new career!

Clarissa Allen and Jan Buhrman visited friends in Mt. Sterling, a small town near Lexington, Ky., last week. They traveled into eastern Kentucky to see the effects of mountaintop removal and strip-mining in the coal country of the Appalachians. This area isn’t often visited, and they had much food for thought.

Pam Goff received an e-mail this week from Chilmark, Wiltshire, U.K. Someone named Paul is starting a running blog for the village of Chilmark, Wiltshire, and welcomes pictures and chat from this Chilmark. His address is chilmarkvillage.wordpress.com. He also is working on a Chilmark festival for this year and the address for that is chilmarkfestival2010.wordpress.com.

Greg Curry and his wife, Donna, are both in the medical profession; he is an M.D. and she is a pharmacist at Massachusetts General Hospital. When they are free of their professional work, they live on South Road. This week, Donna departed for Haiti with a tent and the job of setting up a pharmacy in Haiti. Pharmacists from all over the U.S. will rotate in two-week intervals will run it. She is at a hospital near the worst of the damage, with 200 patients. Like many volunteers, she was required to bring a tent for her personal use. Karin Flynn put out a call last week for the loan of a tent. Her number is 508-693-3801.

Sue Larsen continues to walk in training for the May 15 and 16 Avon Walk For Cancer in Boston. She also continues to remind us of the grim facts concerning breast cancer and the importance of early detection. One out of eight women will develop this cancer. A new case of breast cancer is diagnosed every three minutes. Sue will be walking from West Basin and looping around the lighthouse via Lighthouse Road, Moshup Trail and Lobsterville Road, approximately 11 miles. She welcomes fellow walkers. Sue looks for inspiring signs of life as she walks, and last Sunday on a walk along the Tea Lane Farm trail she saw her first sign of spring: skunk cabbage above ground. Her Web site has changed. It is avonwalk.org/goto/Susan.Larsen.

Here are some dates to note. There will be a Silva Farm brainstorming session at town hall on March 17 at 7:30 p.m. beginning with coffee.

The planning board will hold a public hearing about homesite heirs at 4:30 p.m. on March 22 at town hall.

The annual Chilmark town meeting will be on April 26 at 7:30 p.m.

The selectmen appointed Jennifer Christie as Chilmark rep to the Martha’s Vineyard Cultural Council.

March 10 will see chowder and Breakfast at Tiffany’s at the library. The chowder is free, the time is noon.

The Chilmark Community Church continues to meet for craft making on Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 8 p.m. They are creating treasures to be sold at the summer flea market and at the annual Christmas sale. All are welcome to join them through March. Pizza nights have begun at the church on Tuesday evenings with food, games and socializing for all ages beginning at 5:30 p.m.