Chilmark is celebrating Earth Day today as I write and with some extra gratitude this year ... we can now see the earth! And, as it always does at this time of year, earth is producing many blooms. Even the skunk cabbage growth is welcome to our eyes.

Please remember that town meeting is Monday evening at the community center at 7:30 p.m. and town elections will be on Wednesday at the community center from noon until 8 p.m. We are being asked to vote on the new auxiliary apartment bylaw and to approve funds for the purchase of the building for the Council on Aging use as well as a number of other issues. Be sure and come, ask questions and vote.

The town is quiet this week as some have an April vacation to celebrate. Caleb, Chris, and Celia Slater are here with spring chores on their list of things to do.

The work on the jetties goes on. Someone called to our attention an article from a copy of the Standard Times of 1910. It was a notice that the Eastern Dredging Co. of Boston was to do dredging to deepen the channel between Gay Head and Chilmark for $5,790 and to strengthen the jetties with 1,500 tons of granite quarry grout and chips at $2.15 a ton. Things have changed in 115 years, a ton is still a ton but clearly the value of money has changed!

The Pathways Arts program will end their winter season with a Pathways Grand Finale and Honoraria Night on Saturday, April 25 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Chilmark Tavern. They are completing a busy and well-received season under the direction of Marianne Goldberg.

We send best wishes to Bette Carroll who is still in Martha’s Vineyard Hospital as I write on Wednesday. We hope she will be home soon.

John Jacobs has come from Littleton, Colo. for a brief spring visit to his Menemsha home. He reports that his son Jake and family are still living and working in Hong Kong and hoping to visit Chilmark this summer.

Ace MV Adult and Community Education of Martha’s Vineyard is conducting a panel discussion on Tuesday, April 28 from 9 to 10:30 a.m. at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School. The subject is Women Entrepreneurs of MV: Revitalization Forum. I include this in the Chilmark column because I started counting small businesses in Chilmark run by women and I was impressed.

The lank bank staff will lead a guided tour of their Tiasquam Valley Reservation on Middle Road on Sunday, May 3 from 1 to 3 p.m. Please call 508-627-7141 to sign up.

I regret that I am late in telling you about Linda Thompson’s art show at the Chilmark library. She has paintings on display that were inspired by the up-Island towns and can be viewed during regular library hours through April.

Bill and Zee Gamson are back at their Chilmark home after a month of travel. They enjoyed a visit to their old home, Ann Arbor, Mich., where they participated in the 50th anniversary of their first Vietnam teach-in., an organization Bill helped to found. The teach-in this year looked at climate change and moved to action. Amy Goodman from the show Democracy Now! and Bill McKibben, founder of the climate activism group 350.org, were part of the program. The Gamsons then traveled to Oakland, Calif. to visit with their extended family. They are looking forward to a Chilmark visit this summer by their son, Josh with his family, Dr. Richard Knight and their daughters, Maddy and Reba.

The daffodil displays are spectacular this year and worth slowing down to take a look, both at the town center where the back corner of the Larsen lawn is in full bloom and on North Road where the Jenkinson family plantings are also at their peak bloom.

Send your Chilmark news to slaterjn@comcast.net.