The Edgartown highway department has begun work on the dirt portion of the ferry point parking lot. Please remove vehicles from that lot after the barricades go up. The entire dirt parking area will be graded, plastic honeycomb grid will be installed, and gravel will be spread over the whole surface. The concept is that the plastic grid holds the gravel in place so you don’t have to keep grading the surface.

Thanksgiving Day is right around the corner. If you would like to have the day off instead of toiling away the day over a hot stove, I have a suggestion for you. Check out The Chappy Kitchen, thechappykitchen.com. All you have to do is drool over the photos of offerings for a moment to realize that you should leave the cooking to them. The owner is Chappaquiddicker Katie Kidder and she will take care of everything, including delivery to your house. I’ve had quite a few of her creations and they are out of this world. The cooking is done right here on Chappy with locally grown or caught ingredients. You can contact the kitchen through the website or by calling 508-627-1247.

The next Chappy Community Center potluck will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 16. Ellen and Bob Gurnitz will be the hosts. Please bring a dish to serve six. With the end of daylight saving time and full darkness occurring now at 5:30 it may seem a little late to be going out but it’s always a cheerful place and a friendly group to spend time with. The recently full moon will have just risen as you are heading home from dinner. The forecast at the moment for that night is for rain, which in my experience tells me that actually means clear skies. All in all it’s a nice way to spend a mid-November evening.

For those of you who must savor Chappy from afar I can tell that there is agreement that this is a very colorful autumn. The beeches are standing out splendidly with the maples putting on an impressive show. Even the oaks are showing many more shades of brown than usual. When the noontime sun shines down into the woods they appear to be lit from within. We’ve had a few frosts, which has separated the hardy mums from the more pansy-like varieties. At night the owls have been quite talkative and by day the crows seem to be expressing great concerns to one another. This is the time of year when four-footed critters start to invite themselves indoors to reconnoiter the options for spending the winter in a warm place.

As a species we seem to have an urge to tidy up. We don’t seem to have the patience to let all of the leaves fall from the trees before we start raking. I estimate that only about a quarter of the leaves have fallen so far. I like seeing them covering the lawn. It’s a nice change from plain green. It has the same effect as a snowfall. It certainly hides the bare spots and the holes that the dogs have been working at. I am fortunate to have lots of procrastinating bones in my body and any desire to rake now is blessedly absent. I maintain that raking should be done on a cold clear day when you look up at a blue sky through completely bare branches. My theory is that if you wait long enough most leaves will blow away into the woods or into your neighbor’s yard.

I think it’s safe to say that we have escaped another hurricane season. Now we just have snowstorms to look forward to. It’s not too early to call the person who plowed your driveway last year just to say hello. We always act so surprised when the first blizzard of the season arrives. I personally love snow. The only snow removal that I do now consists of pushing the snow off the deck of the ferries. I cleared enough driveways as a kid to fulfill my lifetime quota. My desire to drive on bare ground is waning. It just makes mud when the sun comes out. Nearly every vehicle for sale now is all-wheel or four-wheel drive so traction isn’t the big problem that it used to be. Remember tire chains? Anyway, I’m sure that your snowplow person would love to hear from you!

Send Chappy news to peter@chappyferry.net.