If you were a visitor here in recent days, and you came to this fabled Island expecting to splash around in saltwater while deepening your tan, I am so sorry. I hope you brought a warm jacket.
If you live here, with a piece of land around you, you are probably grateful for the rain. The cool weather keeps the flowers in bloom a little longer, and all that moisture turns the grass and tree leaves into rich, deep shades of green. Moreover, as the cherry tree blossoms begin to fade, the lilacs are popping open. What a delicious scent they offer us, as we patiently wait for spring to get here.
Our neighbor Phyllis Meras was feted several times in celebration of her 95th birthday last weekend. Phyllis was wined and dined at the Harborside one evening, at another friends’ home earlier in the week, and toasted at a Mother’s Day brunch Sunday at Richard Knabel’s house. Phyllis still walks resolutely each day around the neighborhood, frequently entertains friends at her home, and is kept busy writing a memoir about her life which has been filled with adventures. I can’t wait to read it.
Just three weeks until the high school’s senior class graduates and those young people begin to live their own adventurous lives. Here are a couple of plans and decisions we have heard about:
Zyler Flanders, whose singing voice delighted the Minnesingers concerts in Italy this spring as well as at the high school this past weekend, will attend UMass and continue his studies in music.
Nova Smith will attend UMass, taking a couple of pre-med courses, with a possible career as a veterinarian, or maybe a doctor for humans.
Pickle Eville will attend Yale University, where her brother Hardy graduates from this weekend.
Chilmarker Emily Boyd will be off to Wellesley, and Elle Mone will attend Middlebury College.
Congratulations to all.
Vicky Bijur and Ed Levine arrive from Manhattan Friday to spend an extended summer at their home near Tiah’s Cove.
Richard White, founder and manager of the Soft As A Grape retail stores on the Vineyard and in Falmouth, happily announced that four young women arrived this week from Ukraine to work in his shops. The women have all been attending colleges in neighboring European countries, and will spend the summer here thanks to the J1 visa program, also known as the BridgeUSA program, sponsored by the State Department.
The young women do not come from the active war zone, Richard reported, but have plenty of horror stories to tell as the Russian invasion pounds on. Another reason to count our blessings for living where we do.
Happy birthday Friday to Everett Whiting. A cluster of West Tisbury folks will celebrate their birthday on Saturday, May 16. They are Lydia Fischer, Jim Osmundson, Bob Kimberly, Nina Ferry and Sarah Richards. But not in that order.
Thomas Stackpole is the birthday celebrant on Monday, May 18, and the above-mentioned Nina Ferry’s son Oliver Montanile will blow out nine candles on Tuesday, May 19.
Congratulations and happy wedding anniversary to John and Katie Hough on Friday, May 15.
This article appears in May 15, 2026.