“The sun is shining! The snow is melting!” is an observation that rose from the crevasses of my memory this week. The passage is from about 45 years ago, when I read Frog and Toad aloud to my daughter so many times. “Think of it,” said Frog. “We will skip through the meadows and run through the woods and swim in the river.”
Not so fast, Frog. We are still quietly admiring the melted droplets dribbling off the eaves and the shriveling of the mounds on the outdoor tabletops. That snow now is smudged and dirty at the edges, and feels more like rigid Styrofoam insulation than fluff. Maybe soon we can stop backing up out of partially-plowed driveways. Soon there will be places to walk other than on the road.
Nonetheless, I ran into Sunderland Smith at the post office. She told me she and her husband John Previant were heading up to New Brunswick.
“John hasn’t had enough winter,” Sundy reported, without casting an eye-roll.
As for getaways, the prize goes to Sundy’s brother David Smith and his wife Joan Apt who missed the worst of our winter. They recently returned home from an unforgettable trip off the coast of Baja California. It was an exceptional whale watching voyage on a ship with fewer than 60 passengers, operated by the National Geographic Society. The expedition was timed to match the whales’ birthing season, and what David called “the sweet and curious” gray whales who poked their heads up to greet the visitors. The animals fearlessly approached the ship, showed off, nursed their new calves, and virtually smiled and waved and blew kisses, he reported.
David added that the boat sailed from the village of San Ignatio on Baja, a village much like Menemsha in the 1890s. The fishing industry there has declined and the local economy is switching to tourism.
Back home, this weekend is the beginning of the school vacation week, traditionally when some Vineyard families head north looking for snow, and many others head south looking for warmth. Parents of high school seniors are schlepping those teens all around the northeast, looking at colleges. This coming week is the emptiest, the quietest, you will ever find on Martha’s Vineyard.
School vacation week also foretells the month of March. But don’t count on skipping through the meadows and swimming in the river. Not in April either.
Meanwhile, the West Tisbury Public Library not only promises to entertain all ages of school children, but feed them as well. Each weekday, the library offers free lunches of hot soup and bread.
Happy birthday Saturday, Feb. 21 to Lila Fischer. The big day for Evan Bettencourt and Sarah Omer is Monday, Feb. 23. Barb Cushman and Justin Ahren celebrate on Tuesday, Feb. 24. Deena Mazer and Hudson Lee will be feted on Wednesday, Feb. 25. And on Thursday Feb. 26, the celebrants are Sara Colanari, Mason Fischer and Jennifer Cottle.
This article appears in February 20, 2026.