October in Chilmark, When Martha's Vineyard Gives the Island Back
By late October the ferry from Woods Hole runs a thinner schedule, and the people stepping off it carry groceries instead of beach chairs. Martha's Vineyard in this month belongs to the year-rounders and the stubborn. Plenty of seasonal kitchens have shuttered for winter, and the stone walls up-island have gone the color of weak tea, lined with bittersweet and the last rust of the oaks.
The image I keep is the light at four in the afternoon, low and sideways across Vineyard Sound, turning the water a hard pewter while the fields above it stay gold. You see this best from somewhere high, which is the argument for the Striking 5BR/4BA Chilmark Contemporary with Views of the Sound: a big house, a quiet month, room to spread out with a sweater and do very little.
When you arrive, drive to Menemsha, buy whatever the fish market still has, and watch the sun go down from the harbor. Then see the full guide.
