It is either brrrrr or it is too hot for this time of year. That is what we are now experiencing. Now is the time when we open the windows to warm up the house because it is too early to turn on the heat and it is warmer outside than it is inside. Then, by this weekend we are going to hit the high 70s again. Love it.

Hummingbirds are surprisingly abundant for mid September. A request for information sent out yesterday generated 19 responses, 14 of which still had either females or immatures at their feeders on Sept. 16. Wow! I did not expect that many responses. Charlie Kernick was the only one to report that a male was still present, so the males have apparently left already. The other five responses had observed hummers either last week or over the weekend. Thanks to all the respondents; there are too many names to list them all.

Well, Sunday is the first day of the fall season and we are thankful for all of our summer memories as September is slipping away as quick as you can say Jack Frost! We know he is waiting just around the corner but it doesn’t seem possible with the beautiful Indian summer weather we are having. The shoulder season of transit service will cease on Oct. 8. Colleen Morris reports that Monday she will be celebrating Johnny Appleseed Day. Folks are busy harvesting the last of their vegetables from their gardens and what few berries that may still be available for canning. We are settling into our fall routines as the sun is now setting around 7 p.m.

Chilmark is enjoying several bright fall days that make everything look shiny. Our roadsides appear to have survived the busy summer, looking less dusty and worn than other years. Must have been the rains. Folks are still on the move and good weather has attracted visitors.

The northeast wind stopped by early this week just to remind me that she’d be back later to rattle my windows and sandblast my shingles. Thanks, northeast.

The skunks and geese have returned as well, and won’t be leaving any time soon. The skunks arrive green side at my golf course to enjoy a ripe crop of grubs rustling just below the surface. The geese are content just to hang out, poop on stuff, chit-chat, and stumble about (like my nephews). I’d call them lazy but I understand that they fly quite a bit and maybe deserve a rest.

We thoroughly enjoyed the warmth of the weather over the past week. However, by Wednesday morning it was nearly freezing. Fireplaces are already burning the remnants of last year’s woodpile, summer clothing is heading for winter storage, parking spaces are more abundant, lines in the stores are less long, and you finally have time to actually have a conversation with your family and friends whom you have missed over the summer. The goldenrod is abundant, beach plums were nonexistent this year, yet there will still be a few good beach days left to enjoy.

This Sunday, Sept. 22, its Kid’s Day at the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby. This means children of all shapes and sizes get to fish from the Oak Bluffs Steamship Wharf from 6 to 8 a.m. In days of yore, most everyone fished from this wharf, but that was a long time ago, when the Island was still a lawless backwater.

The New County Road, between Edgartown and Holmes Hole, is in a good state of forwardness; that portion lying within the Tisbury boundary, we believe, is entirely completed.

We recently held our seventh annual evening of music on the Lagoon at our home in Oak Bluffs. In the past the proceeds from donations from these musical evenings have benefitted the Lagoon Pond Association, the Steeple Fund Capital Campaign of the Federated Church, and the ongoing music ministry/organ program at the Federated Church.

Before I leave the Island for the long winter, I would like to thank the Chilmarkers for all their services that make our summers so pleasant — the Chilmark selectmen who provide a ball field for our Sunday games; the entrepreneurs, Joel at the Chilmark Store, Jenna at the Tavern and the Larsen sisters, who let me get fresh fish early in the morning.