MARGARET KNIGHT
508-627-8894
The world has greened up to the point that the flower garden beyond the greenhouse attached to our house is just about as green as what’s growing inside. The buds on the sassafras trees at the edge of the yard have swollen so that the tops are covered with little balled fists of green. Inside the greenhouse there is a large calendula plant that’s been growing all winter and is covered with blooms. An indigo bunting, the most startling all-blue bird I’ve ever seen, was making its way through our yard recently, and when it got to the greenhouse, it spent a few minutes trying different ways to get inside to those bright orange flowers.
On several different occasions, tree frogs have come to live in the greenhouse, but usually I don’t notice them until fall or winter when they speak out, as tree frogs do in late summer. Recently, we heard a loud croaking chirp, not quite like any noise I’d ever heard inside the house, even from a frog. I narrowed the sound down to a small area in the greenhouse, but have not yet been able to find the creature. I’m pretty sure it’s some kind of frog, though, and it must like popular music from the early 1960s, because I was playing Cast your Fate to the Wind on the piano when the frog first started croaking.
Over at Debbie Sankey’s Shepherd’s Hill Farm, Nigel and Simon have joined ewes Daisy, Snow, and Angel. They’re Navaho-Chirro lambs, four and five weeks old, from the Farm Institute. They came to Debbie’s as a result of being semi-orphan lambs — one who weren’t getting enough milk from their mothers. Last weekend Debbie’s job of bottle feeding was taken over by her grandchildren, who would have been content to do nothing else during their visit.
We are sad to learn of the death of Helen Miller, who had been living on Chappy in recent years. She and her family spent summers here from 1960 on. Helen was an independent spirit who knew how to enjoy life on the island. She was a regular at the beach club and spent lots of time with her grandchildren swimming, exploring, picking blueberries for pies, and talking. Helen passed on her love of the island. As one grandchild expressed his appreciation of that time with her: “When I think of her I think of the Vineyard, when I think of the Vineyard I think of her. To me they are the same.”
Her son Char Miller said how sharp her mother’s mind was, and that he was reminded of that recently when he showed her some Spanish language columns he had written. She was interested in the translation, having learned Spanish in Mexico where she had wintered for more than 20 years. Being puzzled by some words and phrasing, she wondered if the translator came from South America. When Char told her that the translator was from Colombia, he said, she laughed and said, “I knew it!”
Another Chappy elder, Moira Filley, died in March. She had a long connection to Chappaquiddick, over 50 years, and she loved to garden and watch birds here. She will be missed by her family and friends.
Tomorrow Mytoi will hold its spring planting and garden cleanup from 9 a.m. to noon. You can spend a spring morning caring for the Island’s only public Japanese garden, owned by The Trustees of Reservations. Bring your own work gloves, rakes, and shovels, and join anytime throughout the morning. Please let them know if you plan to attend by calling 508-693-7662.
The CIA will sponsor a Chappy pickup for the hazardous waste collection day on May 9 at the Chappaquiddick Community Center. More information next week.
On Wednesday, May 6, Marvene and Bob O’Rourke will host the bimonthly potluck beginning at 6 p.m. All are welcome.
Frank Partel’s recently published novel, A Wound in the Mind, The Court-Martial of Lance Corporal Cachora, USMC is available at the Edgartown Books and the Bunch of Grapes in the local author’s section.
The On Time III is still in Vineyard Haven being worked on. She will be getting new rudders, but meanwhile, the cracks in the old ones will be welded this weekend by Eric Gilley. Eric and his wife Molly — Peter and Sally’s daughter — and their three girls plan to move to the Island in another month. Eric, who has lots of boat repair skills, will be working with Peter.
Peter said he’s been enjoying being at the Vineyard Haven harbor this spring. Rick and Chrissie Haslet’s boat Destiny received her masts, 12 years from her start. On Friday, when her main mast touched down, Phil Hale shot off a canon to commemorate. On Saturday, no one was around to celebrate the mizen going in, so Peter and his crew simulated the canon’s “ka-boom.”
A new ferry loading plan is being tried: two cars will drive on first, then passengers and bikes, with bikes loading on the side with the exhaust pipe, and then the third car. Disembarkation will stay the same, with one car unloading, then the passengers and bikes, and then the last two cars.
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