Hermine Hull

Martha's Vineyard

West Tisbury Town Columnist at The Martha's Vineyard Times

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Articles

West Tisbury Town Column

2 days ago | mvtimes.com | Hermine Hull

I’m looking out my windows, not wanting to miss a moment as spring changes from its early subtlety to the thickness of summer. We have had just the right combination of sunny days and rainy days to make new leaves appear overnight through our woods, and everything seems to bloom in a rush before it gets too hot. Or too dry. Or too whatever the summer will bring. Harriet Bernstein invited me over to see her cherry trees. It’s always an iffy pleasure.
West Tisbury Town Column

1 week ago | mvtimes.com | Hermine Hull

I am writing on my first day out after being sick. It’s a lovely spring day, pleasantly warm, with no wind. Mary Bohan was here from Old Saybrook, showing her brother and sister-in-law, Micky and Chris Kelly, around the Island for a few days, and having a little time with James, Steph, and Iyla. Blue and I were invited over for breakfast, and it was nice to sit outside eating James’s blueberry pancakes.
Visiting Vet: Diabetes in cats

3 weeks ago | mvtimes.com | Hermine Hull

I’m an old dog. There’s no denying it. I like to do things the way I have always done them. But I also like to keep current on the latest practices, and veterinary medicine is always changing. My feline friend Mahatma came to see me recently. Five years ago we discovered that Matty, as I call him for short, was diabetic. His blood glucose was elevated and he was losing weight. In order to understand what happened next, let’s review diabetes mellitus.
West Tisbury Town Column

3 weeks ago | mvtimes.com | Hermine Hull

We were treated to a beautiful Easter Sunday after another wet, windy, chilly week. Still, every day brings the appearance of another sign of spring unfolding. The three garden centers in town were filled with all the colorful pots of pansies and bulbs one could desire. They made perfect Easter gifts, or were bought to ornament one’s own porch steps. There were egg hunts everywhere.
West Tisbury Town Column

1 month ago | mvtimes.com | Hermine Hull

After a few nice days, we seem to have returned to winter. It was windy and cold much of the past week. Rainy, too. It’s never smart to put away your sweaters and flannel sheets too early in the spring. A large group of family and friends, wet and bedraggled, gathered at the West Tisbury Cemetery on Sunday afternoon, as the Rev. Cathlin Baker presided at the burial of Johnny Athearn. We reassembled at the Grange afterward for hot coffee and a service with lots of recollections and encomia.
West Tisbury Town Column

1 month ago | mvtimes.com | Hermine Hull

We are finally getting some much-needed April showers. Daffodils are blooming all over town. There are tiny green leaves showing on the earliest autumn olive and multiflora rose bushes, the first pale blossoms on magnolias and cherry trees. Don’t forget to watch the new trees that were planted on Brandy Brow and around the town center last year. I remember having invited Debby Athearn and Betty Haynes over for lunch and to see the daffodils I had planted the previous fall.
West Tisbury Town Column

1 month ago | mvtimes.com | Hermine Hull

I was waiting for Iyla at the Chilmark School last Thursday afternoon, watching all the activity, listening to children talking and laughing. Kate was serving snacks at a table, then everyone laid yoga mats on the floor to exercise. Books, games, lots of Legos, and art supplies were all to hand. What a contrast with my own elementary school days. Miss Isabel O’Shea, the principal of Veteran’s Park Elementary School, was a tyrant. She patrolled the halls with a ruler in her hand.
West Tisbury Town Column

1 month ago | mvtimes.com | Hermine Hull

It’s officially spring now. My first daffodils are blooming. Snowdrops and crocuses are everywhere. After complaining about my eranthis a few weeks ago, I have found patches of it in unexpected spots around the yard. But best of all are the hellebores. Hellebores have become rather the rage the past few years. Most of my gardening friends are obsessed with them, as am I.
West Tisbury Town Column

2 months ago | mvtimes.com | Hermine Hull

I am writing a late column this week, on Monday morning. Rain is pouring down, and the wind is blowing hard enough to almost flatten light shrubbery and saplings in our woods. Abby wasn’t interested in going out until Mike donned his rain jacket and walked to the door. I can’t imagine she was eager for their customary morning walk, but she trotted out behind Mike, and came back totally soaked a few minutes later.
West Tisbury Town Column

2 months ago | mvtimes.com | Hermine Hull

March’s roaring lion arrived with winds that kept our woods in perpetual motion and sent leaves blowing everywhere. It was warm one day, then cold the next. Our woodpile is getting shorter, and I am grateful for every sunny day that heats the house enough to not need a fire through the night. Lambs have been born at Allen Whiting’s, 15-plus at last count. They are late this year at Flat Point, expected over the next week.