Usually about this time of year things quiet down at our house, but it hasn't worked that way so far this year.  With cooler weather, I think more people are staying inside and playing with their computers.  I'm getting more mail than usual - a good share of it people looking for information of some sort.  So far this week I've helped reconnect two high school friends from the 1950s; received a message about a clothing donation for the historical society - vintage clothing that belonged to Eliza Fisher in the 1800s, which we are happy to accept; received a digital photo of a store in Lower Cabot and was able to identify it's former location and owner; confirmed dates on people buried in Cabot cemeteries . . . and it's only Wednesday.   In between, there's been the usual daily stuff like getting together meals, doing the usual walk up the hill at noon and putting in a little time sorting the abundance of "stuff" we've collected in the basement into "give-away" and "throw-away" piles.  Plus we had a meeting of the West Danville History Committee on Monday that was very productive.  It's been a good week so far.

We're in the process of getting things put away for the winter - the deck furniture, lawn mowers, gardening tools, etc., and yesterday I brought in two Christmas cactus plants that had spent the summer hanging in the grape arbor.  I had a feeling the nights were getting too cold for them, and I was right - they were somewhat water-logged and I'm not sure they'll make it.  They don't like being soggy and cold any more than I do.  I wish I'd checked them sooner . . .

In the process of gathering the plants, I noticed a fairly large pile of bear scat in front of the grape arbor.  The grapes haven't done well this year, so perhaps leaving a "calling card" was bruin's way of showing his disappointment.  I'm glad the grape crop was not good - if it had been, our old rustic arbor would no doubt be in shambles.  There are still plenty of apples and choke cherries for the bears, deer, turkeys and various other critters.  

I'm trying to spend a little time each day in the flower gardens, cutting back, weeding and mulching for winter.  Every year I say I'm going to make smaller flower beds, but so far that hasn't happened.  Fred is cleaning out brush on our lower lawn and I expect next spring there will be flowers showing up that my mother planted years ago that have become overgrown by goldenrod and bushes. This top picture is where Fred started a couple of weeks ago - we hadn't seen these stones for literally years.  There was some willow in there, red osier, and weeds.  He hopes to be able to mow most of it next year to keep the weeds from growing back again.
He's trimmed out other spots and it's looking really nice.  He also cut out bushes by our mailbox (see above) so we can now see it from the house.  There were some fall flowers in there he didn't know about - they hadn't flowered yet - but that's ok, they and the lupines will come back next year, I'm sure.  Slowly but surely, we're getting ready for winter.  That's what's nice about fall - the cooler weather gives us a push to get things done before snow flies.