Autumn days this year have been wonderful with mild temperatures conducive to all the best the Vineyard has to offer: hiking through long woodland trails with the soft crunch of newly fallen leaves underfoot, dip-netting for scallops and hauling a basket home to shuck for early Sunday supper, gathering armfuls of russet and teal hydrangeas from the garden to bring indoors, taking one last sail, one last paddle, and for the brave, one last bracing swim.