MARGARET KNIGHT
508-627-8894
Early June is a time particularly abundant with flowers. In my yard, the colorful bearded iris are at their prime, making a statement about the bounty of nature with their extravagant blossoms. The beach roses have been putting on a good show the past week or so, too, and the drive along the state beach road to Oak Bluffs is a fantastic place for viewing huge clumps of the pink or white fragrant blossoms. The petals of the rosa rugosa are good for flavoring sherbet or milkshakes and other desserts. In the fall, the hips make a great jam.
The mosquitoes have made a statement about abundance, too. In one week Chappaquiddick has made the annual shift from “pleasant to be outside” to “venture out only for dire necessities.” It’s hard to believe nature can be so cruel.
There’s been a lot of complaining over at my house this past week, and it hasn’t all been from me. It’s coming from Gladys, number one chicken, who is not happy about what’s been happening in her world — which includes the front and back yards and the chicken house. All day long she makes a sorrowful complaining noise. It takes a chicken to express the depths of how very wronged one can feel.
She’s not happy because there are three new chickens and they aren’t under her control yet. They’re imports from my brother’s New Hampshire flock — saved from the stew pot. There’s Ruby, the New Hampshire red, and two barred rocks, a perfectly matched pair who stick so close together that I’ve been calling them Tweedle and Dee (thinking that Dee and Dum would end up being their nicknames if I called them Tweedledee and Tweedledum).
Jealousy may be part of what Gladys is complaining about. Buffy (formerly Gladys’s main companion) and Ruby have been sticking together. Their personalities are more similar — gentle, compared to Gladys, who survived a hawk attack in her youth. Gladys has a tough-as-nails personality, and keeps it sharp by pecking at intruders to her domain and by being first to any treats.
The Gilley family has adopted three chickens from my brother’s flock as well, much to the excitement of Abby, Emily and Erin, Peter and Sally’s grandchildren. Molly built them a chicken house with a little help from Erik, who may be less enthusiastic about chickens, but who will, no doubt, be won over in time. Isabelle, a pretty aracauna with brown patterned feathers, described by Abby as a plaid, had been living with us until recently. She needed a new home because she had started pecking at Buffy, who has a gimpy leg. The other two had no names until now, but have made up for it with their new names: Twilight Sparkle, a gray aracauna, and Rainbow Dash, a New Hampshire red like Ruby, are named after some TV show ponies.
The paving machine made its way to Chappy this past week, paving the turnout at the Chappy Beach Club, someone’s tennis court and the pot holes in the tar road, except the major one at the ferry line, which will need some serious drainage solution. That one may not be fixed until the discussions about the redesign of the Point happen this summer. You can contact Fran or Bob Clay about the meetings scheduled throughout the summer to give input on several designs being considered. The next one is Saturday, June 9 at 8 a.m. at the Chappy Community Center. A lot of thought has gone into these possible designs. My main criteria is that the ferry line stay where it is, so that you can look out over the harbor as you wait in line. I would hate to be sitting there with cars on either side. I think it would feel similar to lining up cars in the parking lot at the elementary school, a proposal against which we protested vigorously a few years ago.
The next community potluck, and second to last for the season, is on Wednesday, June 6, beginning at 6 p.m. at the community center. Jo-Ann and Tom Tilghman, home from their winter abode in Florida, will be hosts. All are welcome. The annual drive for the Cressy Building Fund is underway, to help preserve the building into the future.
The Chappy Book Club will meet on Tuesday, July 11 at the CCC from 10:30 a.m. to noon to discuss Dreams of Joy by Lisa See, a gripping story of Chinese-Americans in Red China during the great famine of the 1950s. All are welcome.
The Trustees have put together beach access at Wasque where the section between Wasque Point — which continues to erode — and the opening into Katama Bay is actually widening, with a middle-aged sort of spread. They’ve made a small parking lot, put up lots of signs on the beach to discourage swimmers near the opening where a fierce current runs, and located a couple of port-a-potties. A handwritten “swimming” sign directs people toward the Wasque Point end of the sandy bulge, where the current evens out: open for business, at least for the moment. Recently I saw Skip and Nancy, who regularly walk the beach, at the new parking lot. Skip said they may set up some practice rescues, to see exactly what the current does with people in the water. Those who haven’t seen the property since last summer will be surprised.
The hand bell choir I play with in West Tisbury is bringing the Merrimack Valley Ringers for a return concert on Saturday, June 2 at 4 p.m. at the West Tisbury Congregational Church. This group wowed the audience last year playing 192 bells and chimes, not all at once. They’re fantastic. Entry to the concert is by free will offering.
Here’s a Chappy question I have no answer for: why are so many oaks dying on the island? Other parts of the Vineyard suffered at the mouths of caterpillars for several years, but we never really got them. The past couple of years I’ve seen more and more young and old oaks almost leafless, including the spectacular oak in my front yard. Three summers ago it had the most lush crown of leaves, and now there are only a few leaves along the trunk, and it needs to be cut down. (Free firewood anyone?) Is this a result of climate change? The trees don’t appear to be diseased or pest-ridden.
Next week will be my last column until after the summer. Brad Woodger will be in charge of it again, but with a new twist. After Peter Wells’s well-received debut this past winter, he’ll be sharing the column with Brad. Brad is here taking care of the golf course once again, and although it’s hard to believe, he’s more handsome than ever (or so he says).
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