The leaves are about three weeks late this year and it does affect some. I saw a large skunk trying to catch a meal just before sunset today and he was scooting around in an area that usually hides any critters in the underbrush. I wonder if he knew how exposed he was?

Chilmark never ceases to amaze. I must admit I have never been to a less-than-memorable town meeting here — all standing out for different reasons.

Chilmark has pushed the go button. A couple of hours of sunshine and we are off and running toward our busier seasons.

Chilmark has been reminded that it is a small town in a big country as the word has reached us that the Army Corps of Engineers will indeed be dredging the channel between Menemsha Pond and the Sound.

It was the Chilmark pound, not pond, that the late Peter Darling always kept in order. The pound is along the roadside in Quitsa. It is a stone enclosure with a rail fence entrance.

Chilmark is a howling place as I write on Wednesday. The winds are blowing and the snow is flying around just like February, and not like the end of March. Where is the lamb in all of this? It appears in this year of global warming that March came in like a lion and is going out like one! So far the power has blinked once but remained on all morning. We are grateful for that. The snow is drifted up against fences and doorways and has required several passes with the plows . . . maybe six inches or so.

Chilmark is more than ready to welcome spring . . . whenever it decides to arrive! Today started off with a temperature in the teens, but by noon has made it to 40 so we are hopeful for more.

Chilmark is grieving today for the loss of a very respected and beloved member of the community. Louis S. Larsen died March 11 while at his winter home in Florida.

The townsfolk have managed to keep up with their chores...workmen have missed only a few days of outdoor work on the new house growing on Crick Hill; the U.S. Coast Guard boathouse is still under construction; shell fishermen have harvested and transported oysters and mussels; school buses and VTA buses have kept to schedule most days and the business of the town has gone on regularly at town hall.

Chilmark welcomes the lion this year as March will begin with snow and cold, and has us looking forward to the early spring. Folklore promises March will go out like a lamb. My prose is seriously affected by this long, cold winter, and by the deadly silence that is Chilmark this week of school vacation and, traditionally, the week when everyone who can, finds a warmer island to visit!