I read with more than a passing interest the article, “Looming Federal Cuts May Impact Already-Strained Elder, Education Services” in the March 1 issue of the Vineyard Gazette. The Vineyard Nursing Association (VNA) is a critical health care provider for elders on Martha’s Vineyard and should be added to the list of providers impacted by the sequestration. In fact, the VNA faces larger and more immediate cuts than were discussed in the article.

Have you noticed that the League of Women Voters Candidates’ Forums had to be canceled in Edgartown, Oak Bluffs and West Tisbury due to lack of contested elections? We have just learned that there are no contests in Tisbury and Chilmark, either, so those forums have now been canceled. The filing deadline for Aquinnah has not yet been reached.

We are holding a benefit chicken dinner for Liam McCarthy on March 23, 2013 at the P.A Club located off Vineyard avenue in Oak Bluffs. Liam is in desperate need of a walk aide device that his insurance will not cover and it is very expensive. Liam and his four brothers and sisters are all students in the Martha’s Vineyard School System and they live with their mother Kelly McGuiggin.

As Chappaquiddick residents we have recently been sent a five page document entitled “Appeal to the Chappy Community” which asks that we support Comcast’s build-out of infrastructure for Chappaquiddick’s proposed high speed internet service. We are being asked to endorse the expenditure personally and through our taxes to subsidize Comcast’s costs for equipment that they will own when completed.

My family and I are following the high drama of the encroaching and angry Atlantic as it closes in on the Wasque property of the Schifters. As with so many other problems the world has experienced over the recent past, much could have been done to mitigate or eliminate the disaster if a more prudent decision in the public good was made just a few short years ago.

For the past 10 years art teacher Janice Frame has met with students after school on Tuesday afternoon in the school library. She and the students meet to review poems, short stories and artwork for the Martha’s Vineyard high school student literary magazine Seabreezes. Ms. Frame, along with English teacher Bill McCarthy, acts as an advisor for the magazine.

From the Vineyard Gazette editions of March 1971: To most reasonable minds it appears that in the long run the interests of all-year residents and seasonal residents of the Vineyard are nearly identical.

Well, last weekend the weather was bright but on the cold side. It rained a lot on Monday, though that still was better than the seven inches of snow that fell in Boston. Winter is having a hard time leaving us this year. The flowers are budding out most everywhere and spring began on Wednesday, but someone forgot to tell Mother Nature as it is projected to be on the cold side for the remainder of the month.

Chilmark is snow-less under bright sunshine as I write. We know it is still winter in spite of the date . . . beginning of spring. It is still cold! The hearty spring flowers are encouraging us all to think of spring as they continue to come into bud.

The cold weather has made us all put off our outdoor chores for another week, so please note that many indoor activities still offer us diversions.

Spring has arrived. The forsythia are starting to bloom, there are pinkletinks practicing their chorus at night, skunk cabbage is in full attire, the crocus and daffodils are sprouting, and DQ has opened. I was beginning to believe that we would never seen the warmth and sunshine again.