Last weekend's storm and its carpet of white confirm that snow belongs in the countryside, not in the city. Snow is the companion of open fields and peaceful land, of hearthsides and the gray shingle of Island homes, of rolling moors and stonewalls up-Island, of the coastline that is our boundary with the sea. The snowfall reminded the community that something extraordinary happened Saturday.

And then the sun rose over a Vineyard sheathed in white, bringing with it hues of lavender, pale blue, yellow and pink. The snows will return in the wintry weeks ahead. But on the Vineyard it is the heavy snow, as old as the chill of winter, that arrives to the fresh astonishment and wonder of all.