January

Ice Follies With temperatures bouncing between single digits and the thirties and forties in recent weeks, ice has been the predominant theme of winter so far. No snow to speak of, but plenty of ice: on ponds, on harbor pilings, on the roads and on sidewalks. Enough for pond hockey in West Tisbury last weekend. Enough to slip and fall on the brick sidewalks in Edgartown, where a thin eggshell coating was the surprise greeting for all who were out and about in the early morning on Thursday. It’s beautiful, all this ice, but also a hazard.

March Goes Out

After months of deep snow and bitter cold, it comes as little surprise that spring has struggled to begin. Wet snow, leaden skies and raw air were the melody as the spring equinox arrived late Friday and early Saturday on the Island. Like the rest of us, the ground has emerged somewhat battered by so much winter.

But the days have grown suddenly long, casting new angles of light into the house at suppertime. The osprey have returned. In the field behind Arrowhead Farm in West Tisbury, horse hoof prints dent dark earth. Someone has been out for a ride. Soon this field will turn green, and nearby along Indian Hill Road fat daffodils will bloom.

April beckons. The osprey know.

Memorial Day

Spring has arrived this year like a virtual slide show of sound, light and color, overtaking a landscape that the harsh winter had left in tatters with broken trees, roads and fields heaved by frost and a shoreline strewn with rubble.

That’s all over now. In April a flash mob of pinkletinks sang the arrival of a new season from cold, muddy swamps, and soon the Island was covered in yellow daffodils, pink mayflowers and pale green fiddleheads.

Suddenly, though, it seems as if everything is catching up and all in a rush.

Summer Intermezzo

A gauzy blanket of heat settled over the Island last week and then a little like the latest round of house guests, decided to stay for awhile. Thick, humid air and blazing sunshine is driving vacationers to the shore, where cool water for swimming and ocean breezes beckon. In town villages air conditioners are humming and ice cream shops are doing a brisk business. Did someone declare this the summer of the cone? Forget the waistline, make ours a double scoop.

Tomorrow July gives way to August.

Thanksgiving

Autumn on the Vineyard this year has been a gift from nature — seductively mild, with clear days and frosty nights stretching on as if they would never end. Bay scallopers are out on the ponds in shirtsleeves; children wait for school buses along Island thoroughfares in the early mornings clad in light jackets and sweatshirts. A waxing moon casts pale light across evening walks in the crisp air. Suppertime falls at an early hour these days and November quiet has settled over the Vineyard like a familiar bedtime story. Islanders have planted spring bulbs, put away the garden tools, stored boats and fishing rods for another year, stacked their sheds with firewood and are ready to tuck in for the long winter ahead.