March is a coming out time for the Island, a month that writes winter's obituary and introduces spring, our prelude to the season of summer. This is always a disorderly time of year, when the Vineyard struggles with a seasonal chaos that blurs the line between winter's end and the advent of spring. But this weekend will raise even the darkest spirits. At 2 a.m. this morning we leapt forward into Daylight Saving Time.

The coming of this spring will seem especially sweet, for it follows a winter of northeasters, rain and cold. Now the search begins for those first signs of spring, for the color of crocuses, the song of pinkletinks and soon the cream and pink of shadbush or wild pear, the golden flash of daffodils and forsythia.