So it is April at last. The daffodils are up, but not all in bloom yet. There are a few mini ones near the foundation of the Wasserman house on Music street in West Tisbury and some brightening Chilmark roads. Forsythia is adorning Vineyard Haven streets. Johnny Athearn’s grass seed has been planted on Music street and covered over with hay to keep the birds away. Little blue vinca can be seen on Rosemarie Ovian’s lawn. Allen Whiting and Arnie Fischer have newborn lambs in their West Tisbury flocks.

Since I am still recovering from fractures incurred picking up a paper cup from the roadside, I am taking shorter walks than usual, and see fewer of the first signs of spring this year. But I have been consulting Richard Inwards’ book of Weather Lore, Jerry Mack Johnson’s Country Wisdom and the Farmer’s Almanac to see what I might be missing.

I paid no attention last month when I was still walking Middle Road every Sunday as to whether the Canada geese across from Mermaid Farm in Chilmark were walking on the top of the snow — a sure sign of a muddy spring, according to Country Wisdom. I have also learned that if the weather is unsettled until 11 a.m., it probably will continue to be all day.

We all know that April showers bring May flowers, but I have learned from Weather Lore that “When April blows his horn, It’s good for hay and corn.” At least this is the case on Britain’s Isle of Man, but the Vineyard is an Island, too, after all. I also learned from Country Wisdom that a thunderstorm before seven in the morning in April foretells a wet summer.

This year’s Farmer’s Almanac, sadly, supplies little information of anything but a general nature. It does suggest that if I chose to raise bees, since they are on the decline it would be a nice thing to do. It points out, however, that I should take precautions against being stung. That seems obvious.

Then I learned that April 2 and 3 will be warm, but April 4 to 8 will be chilly. The almanac gives some fishing tips and a recipe for the perfect lemon meringue pie, but I recall a time when the Farmer’s Almanac had much more colorful things to say.

I hope before long I will be putting away the books and going out on long walks again — seeing for myself the patch of lilies of the valley on Middle Road, and the skunk cabbages erupting in damp places and the skunks themselves coming out from their winter hideaways.

I’ve not heard the pinkletinks yet, but am told that others have heard them on Parsonage Pond in West Tisbury and at Indian Hill and that I should keep my ears tuned for the songs of red-winged blackbirds.

Witch hazel gleams here and there. There is some near the Polly Hill Arboretum, and a purple azalea is in bloom in Chilmark near the Keith Farm. Chickens are laying more eggs, Caitlin Jones tells me.

Two swans appear to be courting on Mill Pond. A visiting male swan was attacked and driven off by the male in residence. West Tisbury police, animal control officer Tony Cordray and Gus Ben David came to his rescue. The swan is now recovering from his spring fever spree and minor injuries to his head at Gus’s property in Edgartown.

Osprey are returning to their nesting poles.

In my childhood, when pipe smoking was popular and Prince Albert Tobacco was sold in cans, April Fool’s Day was the time to call a tobacconist and ask if they had Prince Albert in a can. If the proprietor said yes, we would then shout excitedly over the phone: “Then let him out!”

This is much too sophisticated a time, of course, for such a joke to work over the phone, but April Fool’s day, or any April day is a splendid time for walking in an awakening Vineyard woodland.