MARGARET KNIGHT
508-627-8894
The warm weather last weekend gave us a jump start on spring. This time of year is a good time to admire the moss, which grows so well on our island. It’s looking especially happy in the woods where it shows up emerald green against the brown of the leaves on the ground and the gray of the trees. The moss in our lawn is doing well, too, and has given the yard some color while the grass gets going. I used to fight the moss encroaching on our lawn, adding lime to alkalize the soil so the grass would grow better. But over the years I’ve come to appreciate its early color, and its ability to survive drought and come back green when it rains again.
People were out working in their gardens again, this being the best time to pull weeds before the roots get a good hold. There’s one type of weed that was in the background of my gardens for many years, but has suddenly taken over the whole place. It’s like it reached critical mass, and then had a population explosion. I spent a few pleasant hours weeding one flower bed with my three chickens. They scratched up the leaves, ate bugs, and clucked companionably, while I pulled out weeds.
The chickens have started acting like dogs lately. They follow me out to the car when I leave, and when I come home, they’re at the car door waiting for me to open it. They’ve started hopping inside to eat crumbs off the floor mat. Sometimes they hang around outside the front door of the house, because we’ve let them into the mud room a few times to clean up spilled birdseed. Next they’ll be scratching at the door to be let in.
Mary Spencer reported seeing oyster-catchers while out in her kayak on Cape Pogue pond last weekend. According to Rob Bierregaard’s osprey maps, it looks as if some osprey could be here any day.
A new building committee will study the town’s options for expansion of the Edgartown Public Library. The selectmen have named Morton Fearey, Larry Mercier, Ann Tyra, Dick Knight, Chris Scott, and Michael Donaroma (and a seventh member yet to be appointed). Their mission is to come up with a plan for expanding the library. The plan will be given to the state board of library commissioners as part of an application for funding, with an October deadline. The library trustees, working together with the board of selectmen and financial advisory committee, have submitted an article for annual town meeting, asking voters to appropriate $300,000 for the design work that will be needed to apply for another round of funding from the state. If a building plan can be agreed upon and submitted to the state this October, construction of a new library could begin as early as the spring of 2012.
You can expect someone to be knocking at your door in the next few weeks during the 2010 census taking. Elsewhere, census forms are mailed, but there are so many vacant seasonal houses on the Island that the count is made door to door. The questions on the form are simple and basic — name, date of birth, and a few others. Uncle Sam promises to keep your personally identifiable information (PII — one of many census acronyms) private for 72 years. That means you will be simply a statistic for a long time, much to the frustration of future genealogists. Meanwhile, the statistics will provide information that will affect our representation in government and federal funding for schools, roads, libraries, hospitals, etc.
Tomorrow, March 27, you can join millions of people around the world calling for action on climate change by turning out your lights for Earth Hour starting at 8:30 p.m. local time. In conjunction with Lights Out Martha’s Vineyard, Felix Neck is holding a wildlife walk from 8 to 9 p.m.
Comments
Comment policy »