Perhaps it's premature, but the warm weather this week turned our attention away from winter. Sundog, the Edgartown clothing store, runs ads counting down the days until spring on the Gazette front page. This Friday marked 19 days 'til spring. But even as we welcome the advancing warm season, we can't help feeling cheated a bit by this winter that mostly wasn't. Winter brought its darkness to the Vineyard, but that season of early evening gloom is already past. What we never really received was the chilling grip of snow and cold. Mind you, winter hasn't finished with us yet on the Island; we can remember fierce blizzards even in March. On Island, the buds on trees are fat almost to the bursting point, and snowdrops and crocuses are blooming. Horses on Island farms have shed their winter coats, and baby lambs in Chilmark are showing a spring in their step that gives the lie to winter.