With a shiny brass espresso maker and French countryside decor, Rickard’s Bakery on North Summer street in Edgartown opened this week. Owners Kate and Gates Rickard are starting with what they call a soft opening at the shop which will sell bread and other baked goods, sandwiches, soups and espresso. “Everyone’s been ducking in to welcome us to the neighborhood,” Mrs. Rickard said. The shop is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. It will close Feb. 26 and reopen for good on March 7.

Mark Twain said, “Everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it.” In these days of climate change that’s no longer strictly true, but most people recognize the sentiment. And as much as weather, community is one of those things that everyone talks about and everyone feels strongly about.

Their alarm goes off while the moon is still high.

It is the wee hours of the morning, 3 a.m., but pastry chefs Kate and Gates Rickard have just arrived at work. As the corners of the sky turn their first shades of pink, the husband-and-wife team fire up their oven. Soon, the tops of the sourdough loaves, ciabatta rolls and long baguettes they shape by hand will have turned a golden brown.

Julianne Vanderhoop’s front yard in Aquinnah features a modest house and small pond fed by a Black Brook underground spring.