Chilmark is busy looking for signs of spring. I am sure they are all around us . . . if only we could see over the snow drifts. Ice is still drifting around in the harbor and outside. The pieces are huge and there are lots of them. Everyone says, “I never saw anything like it here,” so I am assuming it is a first for several generations. Hope you took pictures!

The Chilmark Community Church will begin pizza nights on March 17. All are welcome to the community supper that begins at 6 p.m. in the church hall.

There are more birds singing in the morning now. They have adjusted to the annual time change and seem more eager than before to sound their calls. The Canada geese chatter a lot now in the early morning. They don’t start on their daily flights to yards and pastures too early, but they chatter from daylight on before taking flight at about 7. I imagine that they are discussing the best field to visit. I know all this because a large number of them spend the night in the flats of Menemsha Pond, in front of the Coast Guard station in my neighborhood.

Beth Mayhew posted some remarkable pictures on Facebook this week. A deer spent 45 minutes eating birdseed out of one of her hanging feeders. It showed no fear, just hunger seemed to motivate it, as Beth was not 20 feet away from the feeder watching it all. She reports having a sharp-shinned hawk visit the feeders this week as well as 14 cardinals one day. It seems obvious that until spring really does come, some of the wildlife appreciates our offerings.

Heavy equipment arrived on a barge in Menemsha harbor this week. There is now a bucket loader positioned on the far jetty. The ice is beginning to melt off the rocks so they will be easier to work on soon.

The West Tisbury library invites us to a Sunday, March 15, afternoon reception from 3 to 5 p.m. for Max Skjoldebrand, whose black and white photographs will be on exhibit at the library for the remainder of March. David Rhoderick will entertain at the reception with piano music played on the library’s Steinway.

Slow Food MV’s annual Farmers’ Brunch will take place from 9 a.m. to noon at the Chilmark Community Center on Sunday, March 15. The program is the GMO-free initiative. There will be four speakers as well as exhibits and displays, all to teach us the difference between GMO-free and more. Tickets may be purchased by going to slowfoodmarthasvineyard.org and they may be purchased at the door. It is $10 for members and $12 for nonmembers.

Pathways Projects Institutes continues to have many activities at the Chilmark Tavern, both afternoons and evenings. Please call them at 508-645-9098 for programs coming up on the weekend. All events are free to the public and their programs represent a variety of the arts.

By the way, how do you feel about the re-introduction of the extinct heath hen? I say if we can bring ‘em back, how about George Washington, Albert Einstein or even my grandmother? Seems as if there are lots of choices . . . I am just playing devil’s advocate but think about it.

I am very short of people news this week, so I will include one more paragraph about blizzards and then close the book on winter. Back in 1888 New England suffered a very big storm that lasted 36 hours and was referred to as the White Hurricane. Food supplies and heating coal were undeliverable due to the depth of snow and drifts; they were delivered in those days by horse and wagon and train. Nothing was moving for days and hardships were extensive. The result was a drive to create an underground means of transportation and the Boston subway system was born. I also thought it was interesting to learn that to open some roadways the horses and men dragged large logs causing the snow to pack down and allowing for wagons to pass. The next big storm was the Blizzard of 1978.

Things were very different and yet the same — pretty much our story for 2015. Does anyone have any history of this storm in Chilmark or on Martha’s Vineyard? It would be interesting to hear.

Send your Chilmark news to slaterjn@comcast.net.