When a man called the Sweet Life Café to make a reservation for six people, explaining he was proposing to his girlfriend and both his and her parents would be there so he requested the back room, owner Susan Guerin knew something was up.

Iron skillets sailed through the air, tractors pulled their hardest, knives shucked away at oysters and saws worked their way through logs this past weekend at the 149th annual Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society Fair. And although the rides have headed to the ferry, the animals have all been returned to their barns and the artwork is off the walls of the great hall, the people who participated in all these events will be back for more next year.

Debris from heavy winds and rain that swept across the Vineyard yesterday left at least 2,000 Vineyarders without power, roads blocked, dinghies stranded and a schooner destroyed.

The storm caused damage across the Island, with power outages from West Tisbury to Oak Bluffs, where Beach Road was closed from Ocean Park to Harthaven due to a fallen telephone pole.

Fresh corn, tomatoes, potatoes, squash, greens and other veggies dot the farmers’ markets across the Island. Nothing compares to farm fresh eggs, sometimes you’re even able to buy Island-raised beef, and most recently locally raised and slaughtered poultry. But what about melt-in-your mouth mozzarella made with Vineyard milk, or forgetting the spaghetti and sinking your teeth into a large chunk of Parmesan, maybe even skipping the salad and going straight for the feta?

As a landscape painter, Allen Whiting can feel the seasons. He has an eye for light and movement that can make you hear the wind howl in the dead of January at South Beach, or feel the spring sunshine bounce off the oak trees in Chilmark in April. Mr. Whiting has been painting for almost 40 years, and he knows his strengths and weaknesses.

And for him, summer is not a time to paint.