I am writing on Monday afternoon still extremely grateful to have power. I cannot begin to imagine life in a city during a major weather event with no electricity. I am fortunate to have a wood stove and a gas range. The bad news for me, however, is having a well, which of course means no water without power. I have jugs and buckets everywhere filled with water.

During the summer I sell produce grown at Beetlebung Farm every Saturday morning at the West Tisbury Farmers’ Market. I don’t find it necessary to have any signage identifying our farm other than an old chalkboard with our name across the top that leans toward the front of our produce display. We use the chalkboard to advertise what we think is best that day, push products that are selling slower than others, or to express ourselves with a rotation of messages both clever and useful.

Her flower studio looks more like a temporary movie or stage set than a place of business. Filled with silver vases, vintage glass bottles, ribbons and buckets of fall blooms — among them stunning red, magenta and saffron-colored dahlias — this is the front office for Krishana Collins, flower farmer. The building is an old farm structure that looks like a miniature house, with aging shingles weathered white trim and casement windows, and one long side wall completely chopped off.

It’s been a busy week on the job sites. I’ve been pruning some of the shrubs. The hydrangeas, although they still look wonderful, are in need of some clipping. I’ve cut back those branches which are rubbing on the house. A word to the wise about foundation plantings. Plant them farther from the house to start. Trust me, they will grow and grow.

Roasted chicken is a comfort food I enjoy any time of the year. It is a simple pleasure that is accessible and easy for nearly all home cooks and provides a cost-effective meal for the whole family or for the individual with leftovers to be eaten for days and a carcass to be coaxed into a stock with endless potential. Even when purchasing a local bird for the average price of $5 a pound and up, the price per serving, with leftovers and soup included, is still in most shoppers’ price range.

Last Friday evening’s mini cold snap caused a bit of anxiety in the garden world. It got down to the mid-30s. Naturally, I was totally unprepared for the event of an actual freeze. There is so much to be done. I like to save my geraniums and begonias. I just yank them out of their summer homes in pots and boxes and place a bunch of them in one pot to winter over in an unheated area of my house. It doesn’t freeze in there but gets pretty cold. I only give them enough water to keep them barely alive until about mid-March.