The year is in transition and the talk of the Island these days is of change, of the last two weeks of the derby, of the coming of warmer autumn days and the slow turning of foliage. Around here we measure seasonal change by a slower pace of Island life and not by all those political promises bandied about in a presidential election year.

T-shirts give way to sweaters and in farm fields squash and pumpkins take over from the last stands of sweet corn. Sunflowers bow in a final salute to the gathering of autumn.

Welcome, October.