Hermine Hull

1 week 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.

2 weeks 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.

3 weeks 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.

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.

1 month 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.