KATHIE CASE

508-627-5349

(kathleencase@comcast.net)

Here we are one week before Memorial Day and we are having some good weather and some still-needed rain. It sounds like this weekend is going to be a nice one but I still warn people about planting too soon. There are some things that can go in the garden but it is still a little bit early.

Happy birthday to all who celebrated their day this past week. Big balloons go out to Summer Cardoza, who celebrated her day May 13, Josephine Chivers, Maria Sanchez Roa, and Matthew Smith, who all celebrated their day May 14, Rhanna DeOliveira and Shannon Levesque, who celebrated May 16, and Elliot Ferland and Olivia Pate, who celebrated their day May 17.

As I’m sure you know, last weekend was Pink and Green weekend in Edgartown. The town was decorated in color, and people were really getting into the whole weekend theme. I hope you had a chance to see the lighthouse with the pink and green streamer in the form of a Maypole. Secretly I was wondering if anyone would have dared to do the dance around it and form the weave on the lighthouse.

Donaroma’s started off the weekend with an open house, and I reported it was also their 33rd anniversary, when it was actually their 35th.

Our theme was Medieval, and we had a king and queen and some in-house princesses, but the best part of the night was the many young princesses that arrived throughout the late afternoon. They were all happy as they wandered into the north end of the green house to make themselves their own crown. There were many smiles from both young and old and it made all the hard work worth it to see the smiles on everyone’s face.

Also last weekend was the Junior Prom. Thanks once again to Facebook, we were able to see a lot of pictures of all the attire worn that night. The girls looked beautiful in their long, beautiful, colored gowns, and the young men looked very dapper in their tuxes. It was hard to believe that these young people are almost ready to graduate, as it seemed like yesterday we watched them going into kindergarten.

My niece, Tina Polleys was telling me she was a chaperone for her son J.J.’s third grade class when they went to the New Bedford Whaling museum. Tina said it was exciting to see the kids enjoying themselves, and she even learned a few extra tidbits from the trip.

Tina learned about ambergris. It seems they found it in the whale and it was used to enhance the fragrance of perfume and a few other things. It was considered a special find when they discovered it in the whale. It seems that when the whales were feeding and they ate a large, squid they could not digest the beak the squid has. So when they digested the squid, the whale produced this ambergris and it surrounded the beak of the squid to protect the whale’s stomach.

So Tina went one step further when they got home, as we have an abundance of squid around these days. Jonathan, Tina’s husband, took J.J. and their daughter Audrey to the Bend in the Road Beach and caught a bucket of squid, and Tina and J.J. took it to class the next day so the rest of the kids could see and feel the squid, but most of all to feel the beak of the squid. The gesture went well and there were many happy faces after.

This week we are all happy at work as two of our three college students have returned. Megan Rose is home from her studies at Bridgewater; Ben Telep, who studies at the University of Connecticut and has come here for the past three summers with his wife Claudia (who works at the Beach Plum Inn), is back. We now wait for Kellyn Conklin who just graduated from Centenary College of New Jersey on Sunday, who will be coming back next Monday. Even though we were busy, it was great to have them all back and ready for summer.

Have a great week and keep the home candles burning.