The changing of the seasonal guard is told not in the skies but in the lands and the sea around us. The gathering of fall turns thoughts ahead to the golden weeks of late September and soon October, to warm days and cool nights, to high ocean skies and flecks of glitter in Island waters. This is a season when the clarity of light pushes the horizon back to infinity.

It is not difficult to recognize autumn’s arrival. You will notice the season in the first turning of leaves in the woodlands, in chimney smoke from the first flicker of fire on a cool night, in the browning of old meadows, in the colors of beach grasses, and in the harvest of squash from the fields. Autumn returns open parking spaces and brings time, more time for absent friends to get together after a busy summer, more time for reflection, for thoughts about the future of the Island, about the need to preserve its fragile resources, its rural way of life, its character that so sets this community apart from others.