Margaret Knight>

508 627-8894

(margaret02539@yahoo.com)

With high winds and alternating rain and snow, March chased the tail end of February out with a roar, but on the Vineyard, the month came in more shark-like than a lion, eating great chunks out of Wasque. The “deflation parking lot” at the end of the road before Norton Point is in the process of being washed away. This is the “donut lot,” so-called because it’s where people (maybe those who tossed all those beer cans in the bushes) leave tracks from having driven round and round in circles. There’s still room to turn around, but no more donuts: the lot is being undercut by the waves, and the edge, marked off with orange tape, will soon be washed away, no doubt. Norton Point is covered with uprooted bushes from the bank.

At the bathing beach area, the ocean has moved the beach right up to the bottom of the bluffs, leaving only about fifty feet of boardwalk from the benches at the top. A couple of bird nesting boxes are now right on the beach, and the swan pond has narrowed and shortened even more.

Meanwhile a new pond is forming in the low area between the two parking lots, where there was at one point a marsh with a muskrat home. The ocean washes into it at high tide and with south winds, but no channel has been created yet.

However, the Edgartown side of Norton Point is growing, even as the Chappy side curves further inward and away. Those two points will clearly never meet again. If the patterns of the past repeat themselves, the Edgartown side will eventually grow all the way across to Wasque Point to make the connection. The present swan pond will shrink to nothing, and a new pond will likely be created. Despite the rate of change, all this will probably take many more years.

At the Edgartown channel where the ferry crosses, the currents continue to sharpen the Chappy Point. It’s somewhat alarming to see the rate at which the rosa rugosa and beach grass on the outward side of the Point are disappearing, especially where the water’s edge is starting to curve back into the area to the side of the parking lot. Just a few years ago, before the breach, the channel into the harbor was getting narrower and narrower as the point beyond the Edgartown lighthouse grew steadily outward, creating a winding path that could barely accommodate all the boat traffic of the summer months. Now the channel has grown wide and straight, as the sand spit beyond the lighthouse rapidly disappears. The lighthouse originally had a boardwalk out to it, and may again someday. We may also need a bridge out to the ferry at this rate. Change seems to happen slowly until all of a sudden, it starts to seem really quick.

The new electric line pole next to Caleb’s Pond that was leaning in toward the pond was hauled up straight again in time for last week’s wind. The electric company attached a line to the pole, pulled it up, and filled in the hole that remained. There is another, older pole, a few down the row, that’s also leaning over, although not quite as far yet, and probably not as easily fixed.

The freshwater ponds and swamps are especially full after all the rain. The saltwater marshes are extra full from the high tides, rain, and wind, which slow the flow of water draining from the swamps. Brine’s Pond is about as full as it’s ever been.

The weather and the approach of spring seem to be bringing animals to new places. A pair of swans, maybe refugees from the swan pond at Wasque, found Brine’s Pond a pleasant place to hang out this week – maybe they’ll decide to nest there. Peter Wells and his granddaughter Abby found a harp seal lying in the path to the beach across from Caleb’s Pond, only about a hundred feet from the paved road. Skunks can be seen everywhere.

The correct name of Ben Knight and Nicole Carey’s daughter, born Feb. 17, is Molly Juniper Carey-Knight. She and her parents are doing well.

The Edgartown library’s Island Plan 101 series continues with the subject of Housing, Livelihood and Commerce on Wednesday, March 10 at 7 p.m. The programs ends at 8 but the library remains open until 9 for those needing to catch the ferry.

The Census Jobs Fair takes place at the Oak Bluffs Library on Saturday, March 6 from 1 to 4 p.m. You can find out more about census jobs there or on the Web site, 2010censusjobs.gov; or by calling 866-861-2010.

The spring session of ACE MV – the Island’s popular series of community education classes – begins Monday, March 8, International Women’s Day. A free seminar, Women and the African Diaspora, is offered from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the high school library. Historian and teacher Shari Geisfeld will share her knowledge about social inequalities in the eastern hemisphere, from colonial times to the present. The seminar is cosponsored by Young Brothers to Men as a benefit for Haiti, and by the Chaska Hill Women’s Cooperative of Peru as a benefit for flood victims. The variety of ACE’s exciting spring classes can be viewed online at acemv.org. Early online registration is encouraged. For more information, you can e-mail Lynn Ditchfield at lynn@acemv.org or leave a voice message at 508-693-1033, extension 240.

As I write this, it’s snowing again and the wind is whipping the trees around, which reminds me why March is the perfect month for a film festival. You can stay inside, watch great films (on couches, no less!), and eat delicious food, all in company of like-minded people – like-minded in their focus of attention anyway. The Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival starts on Friday, March 12 and continues through Sunday at the Chilmark Community Center and the Chilmark Library. You can find out more about the films on their Web site: tmvff.org.