Red Buds

The woodlands are brushed with the palest colors these days as an early burst of warm weather throws nature into a tailspin: new leaves in apple green, shadbush blossoms in pink and cream, oak buds in pale red.

Faint scarlet, the feathery emerging buds of oak trees are stunningly beautiful right now, silhouetted against an early evening sky and illuminated by the first rays of sun as they creep up over the extreme eastern edge of the Island.

Tisbury Split Down the Middle

The good people of Vineyard Haven fought to a draw last week in the collective duel over whether to allow beer and wine sales in restaurants.

It was by all accounts an extraordinary outcome — six hundred and ninety votes to six hundred and ninety votes — which now will be recounted at the formal request of the group which supports the measure, made up in large part by restaurant and business owners.

The question of election irregularities also remains to be put to bed.

Roofs for Education

In educating the youth of the Vineyard, Island teachers provide a crucial public service.

Yet Island schools now face the alarming prospect that they will not be able to hire and retain teachers to teach certain subjects.

A confluence of two trends — one economic, one academic — has led the Vineyard to this unhappy turn.

Too Much of a Good Thing

The proposed redevelopment of what is being called Bradley Square in Oak Bluffs blends an impressive list of components and initiatives: affordable housing, space for working artists, historic preservation, an office for the Vineyard NAACP and a multicultural center.

But the project as proposed is too impressive, packing too much onto too small a piece of land in a mostly residential neighborhood already under commercial encroachment.

Cape Wind’s Bad Play

The town of Edgartown and the Martha’s Vineyard Commission are right in their request to intervene in the case against Cape Wind. This is an important case which goes to the heart of the powers of the Cape Cod Commission and by extension the Martha’s Vineyard Commission — the only two commissions of their kind in the commonwealth.

Spring Slips In

The English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote about “spring coming slowly up this way,” and his words hold clear meaning on the Vineyard in early April. Raw winds cut across the faces of passengers disembarking from Steamship Authority ferries in Vineyard Haven; horses seek shelter in pastures in Chilmark and West Tisbury; Main street in Edgartown, splashed with late-afternoon sunshine, can be filled with eerie silence.