Chilmark will be feasting this week. We share best wishes with each other for a happy holiday weekend. I am venturing off-Island to practice driving in traffic and to avoid having to do holiday cooking myself.

The town is enjoying mild weather after a good soaking rain on Monday last. However, the winds of the past weeks have shaken most of the leaves off the trees and we now have the gray, bare tree look that will prevail for several months. We seem to get used to anything after a while.

There is a lot going on in spite of quiet roads and a general sleepiness that seems to prevail. The food truck is open for business in the Home Port parking lot on weekdays. Stanley Larsen keeps the Menemsha Fish Market open and the Basin Road shops remain open most days. The Allen Farm shop is open also.

The Chilmark School students plan to do their annual reading of Stone Soup and then the Turkey Trot walk down Middle Road. A Thanksgiving tradition continues.

The Chilmark library will host a second reception and sale by the Up Island Bead Makers on Nov. 28. The display of Wampum work made by the Bead Makers will continue to be shown at the library until Dec. 3.

The Chilmark Community Church will be offering their soup suppers beginning on Tuesday, Dec. 1, at 5:30 p.m. at the church meeting room. All are welcome for a hot meal and good company.

Congratulations to summer resident Vernon Jordan, who received the Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award in Birmingham, Ala. this week. Although his presence here in summer is low-key, he is known to many across the Island.

The Mayhew-Meinelt house on South Road is back on its new foundation. Now it is having the walls of the first floor restored . . . an alarming sight but part of the restoration.

The first of the musical potluck evenings will be Nov. 28 at the community center. The festivities begin at 5 and continue to 10 p.m. Please bring food to share and, if you play, a musical instrument, so that you can join in on the fun. All are welcome.

Short column this week. Welcome to all who have come to share the holiday with Chilmark and cheers to all the cooks who will get a rest on Friday. Please share your news with all of us by emailing me. Thanks.

Send Chilmark news to slaterjn@comcast.net.