Spring is trying very hard to arrive. We have had some nice weather, and it has been warm, except the Ides of March is a little late. The wind is the big story and what is keeping us in our winter jackets. Well we will take the sun because before long it will all fall into place.

Happy birthday to all who celebrated their day this past week. Big balloons go out to Brant Maynard who celebrated his day April 16, Kaylee Brasefield, Isabella Florio, Kenneth Hatt, and Sania Magaraci, who all celebrated their day April 17, Anna Alves, Dyana Burke, and Olivia McCormack, April 18, Isadora Cordeiro, April 20, and to Sophia Alves, who celebrates her day April 22.

With the rain we had a few weeks ago and not the warm sun the trees are starting to open their buds. I love the delicate leaves that start out and start coloring the nursery and the yards.

There was a time when nearly everyone on the Island was involved in whaling. In the Giant’s Shadow: Whaling and Martha’s Vineyard, the Martha’s Vineyard Museum’s latest exhibit opening April 22, will explore the impact of the whaling industry on the lives of individual Islanders in the 19th century.

During much of the 1800s, whaling was the center of Martha’s Vineyard life. Men often left the Island for years and sometimes never came back. Women traveled with whaling captains on their trips around the world or stayed home to care for their estates and families. In the Giant’s Shadow explores how whaling affected the people who went out to sea and those that stayed here.

The museum curators are highlighting a number of Vineyarders who played significant roles in the Island’s whaling story. Featured in the exhibit are Captain Thomas Worth, who was murdered in a mutiny; Dr. Daniel Fisher, who became one of the wealthiest Islanders during the whaling era; Captain William Martin, who was one of the only African American whaling captains whose career was well recorded; Amos Smalley, who struck and killed a white sperm whale on the Western Grounds of the North Atlantic; Antone Fortes, a native of Cape Verde who survived a mutiny; and more.

In the Giant’s Shadow will open on Friday, April 22 with a reception in the museum galleries from 4 to 6 p.m. Admission to the exhibit opening is free to members, and $8 for non-members. The exhibit will be open through March 2017. Check mvmuseum.org for programming related to the exhibition, and special thanks to the Farm Neck Foundation and the Permanent Endowment Fund for Martha’s Vineyard for supporting this exhibition.

School vacation is happening this past week. I know there are big and small trips that families have taken. Please share your story with me and the readers.

Have a great week and keep the home candles burning.

Send Edgartown news to kathleencase@comcast.net.