JANE N. SLATER
508-645-3378
Chilmark is gearing up for the annual town meeting scheduled for April 26. Everyone please note that the starting time is 7 p.m. The special town meeting will be at 7 with the regular town meeting following directly after. The special town meeting will require your votes so you are needed at the earlier hour.
The beautiful daffodils that we waited so long to enjoy are already moving on and we are now watching the lilacs around town as they prepare to bloom. I was lucky enough to find a wide patch of mayflowers this week. In quieter times it used to be a spring adventure to go out looking for these elusive groundcover blooms. They are tiny pink and white flowers that hug the ground, usually surrounded by moss and dead leaves. I believe they are considered endangered and are also the state flower. The town is greening up ... all the trees in the sunny areas are very leafy now and the rest will be along soon. The pace of life is picking up fast.
The first striped bass has been caught, the herring are here and lobsters are in local traps. Fire up the grills!
Betsy Larsen and her staff are busy preparing to open the Larsen’s Fish Market on April 29.
We send condolences to the family and friends of Emmy Jacobson Jacobi, of New York city and Chilmark, who died last week in New York. She was 85 years old and had been a summer resident of Chilmark since the early 1930s. She was devoted to her Windy Gates home in town. Emmy was a distinguished literary agent who was still working with Curtis Brown, Ltd., the agency she joined shortly after she graduated from Radcliffe College in 1946. Her husband, Fritz Jacobi, plans an informal ceremony to be held at Windy Gates on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, with the time to be announced. Her many Chilmark friends will miss her.
The cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland prevented Mary McConneloug and Mike Broderick from flying to Yorkshire, Great Britain, for the first World Cup competitions of 2010. They are very successful mountain bike racers. We hope they get there in time to participate.
Bob and Carol Haskell of Royaton, Conn., opened their home at Stonewall this weekend.
Robert and Wendy Cavanagh were at their North Road home for an early spring visit. Bob’s sister, Ann Sutherland, also came from Winchester to open her North Road home for the season.
Todd Christy is traveling this week to Seattle to celebrate his mother’s 80th birthday. His daughters, Eloise and Wren, will accompany him.
Congratulations to Menemsha seasonal resident Don Berwick, who has been nominated by President Obama to be the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The job is central to the success of the new law overhauling health insurance. The Washington Post carried the details this week. We are happy for this honor to befall our neighbor, and we hope it will still leave him some time to enjoy his Menemsha home.
Ethel Whitman is back at her home on D.H.’s Hill after spending some of the winter months with her daughter, Jane Tierney and her family, in Little Compton, R.I.
The Wednesday library program for April 28 will be a lecture by Chris Wiley of Vineyard Gardens. She will talk about starting your own vegetable garden. The program begins at 5:30 p.m.
Susan Larsen wants to thank all of Chilmark and beyond who helped her to achieve her goal of $10,000 before she goes off to walk in the Avon Walk for Cancer on May 15 and 16 in Boston. She is still in training and will welcome any more contributions we wish to make. All contributions must be made to the Web site at avonwalk.org/goto/susan.larsen. This weekend she is attending a workshop — by invitation of the Avon Walk for Cancer organization — in Boston where she will learn more about the disease and the tools to continue the fight for a cure.
The Women’s Symposium will meet on May 1 at the Community Center from 9 a.m. until noon. The subject for discussion this time is Rearranging Priorities. There will be speakers, discussion and refreshment. A donation is welcome to cover costs. This is a popular meeting and it is wise to arrive early.
The Martha’s Vineyard Library Association and the Vineyard Playhouse present a program for children, Alex the Jester, on Saturday, May 1 at the Vineyard Playhouse. There is a program at 11 a.m. for ages four and up and one at 2 p.m. for ages nine and up. Tickets are $5.
The Sustainable Book Club will meet at the Chilmark Library on May 12 to discuss the book Dawn Light by Diane Ackerman. They meet at 5:30 p.m. All are welcome.
Don’t forget: town meeting on Monday, the 26, and elections on the 28th from noon to 8 p.m. at the community center.
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