Friday is the beginning of a long holiday weekend in the commonwealth. Monday is Patriots Day and the 120th running of the Marathon up in the Boston area. On Monday all town buildings, including the library, will be closed to observe the state holiday. The street sweeper was busy last week clearing many of the roads in town of tons of sand and salt spread on them over the winter. Colleen Morris reports that this is National Frog month, for all of you who did not know that important fact. If we have warmer weather expect a large influx of people all week long.

Susan Block, of Music street, reported driving by three baby white-tailed deer walking down State Road near Deep Bottom Road last Tuesday evening. Cherrilla Brown spotted three otters in the Mill Pond that morning. The blue flowers in Paul Cook’s yard are about to burst open in all of their glory this week, transforming his lawn into a sea of blue. Daffodils everywhere have opened up, signaling spring is here.

Anna Alley, of State Road, went up to East Taunton to visit the grandchildren, Robbie, Henry, Edward and Mark, and their parents. She took the older boys to the circus in Boston. She reports they enjoyed it and they participated in other activities on Sunday. She came home on Monday night.

Kendall Gifford Miller of Athens, Ohio was here last week. He no doubt was opening up the house and preparing to plant his garden.

Lora Borges and Caleb Williams, of Old County Road, were married last Saturday at the Capawock Theater in Vineyard Haven, where he is also the projectionist. They were married on the small stage in front of the silver screen before about 75 wedding guests, including Darth Vader. After they were married and were walking back up the aisle to applause, the justice of the peace, John Alley, waited his turn and then gave his best impression of what Porky Pig would say at the close of each of his cartoons: Thee ah...thee ah...that’s all folks!

It has come across my desk that James Johnson was presented with the Champion of Justice Award for his work as a founding member of New Jersey Communities Forward and many other federal agencies. Jim has been a summer resident in this town for many years. Congratulations!

Monday is the final day to file your tax return for last year with the federal government (although you have until Tuesday to file state returns) and there used to be long lines at the post office with folks getting their returns postmarked before the deadline. But now you can file them online in a snap and save a lot of time.

Amy Hoff, over at the library, reports that on Sunday from 4 to 5 p.m. the library hosts its biannual community poetry reading featuring community members reading their own poems and/or the poems of others. Help keep the tradition alive by attending as a reader or a listener or both! This event is hosted by West Tisbury’s poet laureate, Emma Young. As always, numbers will be drawn from a hat to determine the reading order.

Katie Carroll would like to remind you at this time of year that towns adopted new lawn fertilizer regulations at last year’s town meetings in an effort to help protect our environment. You can find the regulations for each town by going to the Martha’s Vineyard boards of health website at mvboh.org. For more information contact your board of health.

On April 20, 1942 a large wild fire started accidentally from a pile of burning brush in the field to the east of Mabel Johnson’s house. It was fanned by a brisk wind and easily jumped the Edgartown Road and spread rapidly over seven acres of dry grass and into the woods. Prompt arrival of fire trucks from Vineyard Haven and the state forest, along with a crew of men from Oak Bluffs and Edgartown who happened to be working on a road project nearby, were able to get the fire under control in short order. The homes in the path of the fire belonged to Laura Lee, Margaret Howland and Flora Jordan. The barn on the Cleaveland estate, now owned by Sidney Riggs, caught fire but was saved from serious damage by Antone Alley, who noticed the smoke while working in his garden up the street.

Happy birthday to: Paris Major, Mike Post, Deborah Magnuson and Ann Bresnick Friday; Janet Bank, Ted Kramm, Linda Vadasz, Nancy Clair, Michael Watson and John Burrows Saturday; Maggie Schwartz, Anne Maley, Tom Wetherall and Britney Stone on Sunday; Norman Lobb, Lynne Whiting, Laurie Pereira, and Marina Sharkovitz on Monday; Rosemarie Tedeschi, Mary Dinitto, Diane and Lucas Emin, Lee Revere, Martha Flanders, Lorraine Eldridge, and Justin Kelleher on Tuesday; Ralph Jones, Kathleen Stevenson, Jeremy Berlin, Rykerr Maynard and Rebecca Ward on Wednesday; and Joyce Maxner, Lauren Martin, Terry Keech, Danny Segal, Elizabeth Greene and Robert Herman on Thursday. Belated birthday wishes to Diane Nolan.

Well that is all of the social news for this week’s edition. If you have any news please call or e-mail me. Have a great week.

Send West Tisbury news to alleys@vineyard.net.