After a cold spring that felt endless this year, including a baby blizzard in April, suddenly the Island landscape is lush and dabbed with color like a painter’s palette. Dazzling yellow dandelions dot greening farm fields. Graceful pink and white wild dogwoods arch over rural roads. Shadbush is in bloom. Lilacs are in bud. Cherry blossoms were especially brilliant, their deep pink hues worthy of pulling the car over to stop for a long look.

The wind has been a relentless companion this year, roughing up seas, scattering blossoms in dooryards, toppling dead trees in woodlands, knocking hats off heads on downtown streets.

May Day was Saturday. On Monday children at the Chilmark School celebrated their longstanding tradition of dancing around a maypole, the bright streamers floating in the breeze.

Sunday is Mother’s Day — so here’s a special shoutout to all the moms of the world.

Next stop, Memorial Day.