Chilmark is looking very much like spring is here and the snows of winter are history. Daffodils are up and budded in many sunny spots; the witch hazel tree is blooming in nearby North Tisbury and yards and fields are definitely green already.

This is the month of Easter and the Chilmark Church asks us to remind you of the holiday services scheduled for this month. Good Friday service will be at the church between 5 and 5:45 p.m. on Friday, March 26. Easter Sunday service will be at 9 a.m. on March 28 with special music and the annual egg hunt for children after the service. There will be Sunday school that Sunday as usual. All are welcome to join the services.

We are happy to share the good news of Patrick Dunk, a past teacher of tennis at the community center and currently a junior at Hobart College majoring in physics. He has been elected captain of the varsity tennis team. Next week he will be competing in a tournament in Orlando, Fla. He is the son of Kevin and Anne Harrison Dunk and the grandson of the Doctors Howard Harrison and L. Elizabeth Burns, of Menemsha and Florida. Cheers from us all!

Chilmark artist Linda Thompson is displaying some of her recent paintings at the Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse art space. The works will be hanging until March 31 and the space is open to the public on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 2 to 5 p.m. The Playhouse is at 24 Church Street in Vineyard Haven.

The Friends of the Chilmark Library are offering the public a free hour of French conversation on the following Wednesdays: March 16, 23, and 30 and April 6 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. All skill levels are welcome. The program is lead by Margaret Penicaud, who has taught the language as well as raised a bilingual Vineyard family. She promises French refreshments at each session!

The Saint Louis University in Madrid has erected a billboard on a Madrid highway. Not news unless you recognize one of the students as Danielle Nourok. She is a summer Chilmark resident and daughter of Scott and Julia Nourok and granddaughter of Helen Gorenstein. I am sure if you Google the University, you can find the billboard! Congratulations!

Here is an early reminder that the next Women’s Symposium will be on May 7 at the community center from 9 a.m. to noon. This will be the 37th convening of the symposium and the subject for the speakers this time will be Dancing Around. I will remind you again but this is a popular event and always well attended so best to mark your calendars now.

We send condolences to the family and friends of Florence Flanders, who died at Windemere on March 4. Florence was close to her 100th birthday. She is well known to many in Chilmark, the mother of Allen, Graeme and Brian. She was the widow of Leslie Flanders who was born in Chilmark. There will be a graveside service at the Abel’s Hill Cemetery in Chilmark on March 9 at 11 a.m..

So back to a few more words about my trip to Melbourne, Australia…second largest city there and the second largest port of that country. It is a very clean and healthy country where everyone looks like they are members of successful sports teams. We were there in their summer with very dry warm days that made sightseeing easy. One day we drove four and a half hours to Phillip Island Nature Park to witness the nightly return of the little blue penguins to their burrows in the sand dunes. The location is at the tip of Australia closest to Antarctica.

We were joined by about a thousand tourists who were all well-behaved and, sure enough, as soon as it was dusk, back the penguins came from a day of fishing. It was worth the trip to see them toddling back with bloated bodies full of fish! The population of this species of penguin has tripled since the nature park was built. It is in many ways a laboratory, making an ongoing study of their behavior.

More to come…with a Vineyard connection!

Send Chilmark news to slaterjn@comcast.net.