The group of volunteers led by Claire Tomlin and including Sigrid Koph, Sandra Seifert, Becky Singer, Rosalie Baker, and sometimes others, will continue to meet on Tuesdays at 10 a.m. for worktime in the garden in front of the Southport Town Hall. This Tuesday, April 23, the gardens will be fertilized with aged alpaca manure mixed with soil donated by Anne Gobes at the Cape Newagen Alpaca Farm. Following the fertilizing, the gardens will be mulched. Head Selectman, Gerry Gamage, has given permission to repaint the green walls behind the gardens. On Thursday, April 25, the group will have a surprise guest speaker at our 10 a.m. gathering at the Southport Memorial Library. Thursday, May 2, some of the members of the Southport Climate Action Team (SCAT) will attend our meeting and bring our group up to date on SCAT’s activities on Southport. All are welcome to help with the gardening and at these meetings.

Be sure your calendars are marked for the annual Island Clean Up on April 28, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Meet at the Southport Central School for instructions and a free hot dogs and chips to enjoy before you head out to pick up trash along our roads and in our neighborhoods. The Southport Central School’s sixth graders will be hosting a bake sale to help fund their class trip to Boston, so you might want to have some cash on hand for a sweet treat! The rain date is May 5, at the same time, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

From the Yales, who have a good perch from their home above the Southport Bridge, I learned that the ospreys have returned and are attempting to rebuild their nest. From past bridge work the DOT has told me that humans may remove the nest as long as the birds have not yet laid an egg, and I assume that is what was done after the birds left this winter. Now you may notice plastic ribbons, tied in proximity of prior nests, flapping in the wind. Also an orange cone is placed where the nest once was. Yet each day when I cross the bridge more of the sticks the birds use to assemble the nest keep appearing. This Tuesday two biologists will meet with the Cianbro workers to make plans to resolve the problem. Stay tuned.

More news was sent by Principal Lisa Clarke about progress on the natural play area behind the school. John Copeland (Kennebec Trail Company) has been working behind the scene at the town garage, where he's spending a considerable amount of time stripping trees of their bark, in anticipation of their use in our woods. He's also been traveling to northern Maine to acquire more cedar logs, which have been harder to come by - warmer winters make it difficult for logging trucks to get into the woods to retrieve them. I think we'll begin to see significant progress soon.

Friends of All Saints by-the- Sea chapel showed up at the chapel on Thursday, April 18 and Friday, April 19 to begin cleaning up the debris from recent storms. Many thanks to Finn Carroll who lent a pickup truck to take the material to the dump. Work began at 9:30 a.m. both days. Heavy work was done by chain saws and heavy pry bars, but much much light work, such as raking leaves, seaweed, and picking up small debris and branches, was also accomplished. Volunteers brought their own tools to add to the additional tools available. People were warned to wear thick-soled shoes as many nails stick up in the wood washed ashore. High boots were also handy as one could step on what looked like solid ground, but sink suddenly into the muck. With only two months until the chapel opens for Sunday worship service on June 16,
much needs to be done.

More new developments at the Southport General Store. New local products such as brewed coffee, pasta and sauces are on display as well as eye catching Southport cupcakes baked by Sandie. As you enter the store look for the antique ‘sweet treat case” on the counter to your right. Those of us with long memories may recognize it as part of the candy case that used to be in the back of the store when it was Pinkhams. Our children looked forward to clutching their pennies and nickels, running into the store, and returning with a fist full of candies.

Banners honoring our Southport veterans are going up around the island again. So good to see the pictures and names of so many of our friends and neighbors who have served our country.

News from the town office is that mooring invoices will be mailed by the end of the week to the lucky folks who have Southport moorings. And again, reminders for your calendars: April 25 is the date for the Southport Central School’s talent show beginning at 6 p.m. at the Southport Town Hall. Then on June 5, again at the town hall, the school children will entertain us with a spring concert beginning at 6 p.m.

Also a reminder that May 3 is our next election day. Not as vigorous a day as will be coming in November, but still we have the opportunity from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. that day to cast our vote for Nell Tharpe, who is running again for the At Large seat as a Water District Trustee. Her election is not really in doubt, but to cast a vote for her is saying we appreciate the time she devotes to this job.