We are getting some much needed rain.  I measured 1.92 inches this morning that had fallen since 9 a.m. yesterday.  We were in St. Johnsbury yesterday morning and there was a short sunny break at one point about the time we were leaving for home, but it didn't last and mostly the whole day was overcast with a misty rain.  Last night, as predicted, we got heavier showers.  Today we're back to misty rain, and it's cooler.  I'm seeing 46.6 degrees with a gusty NNE wind that makes it feel a lot colder, especially with the mist in the air.

Most of the foliage is down except for a few bright yellows of poplars and lower level trees that are sheltered from the wind.   This top photo is from our big living room window looking down at W. Shore Road towards the pond.  You can see there is fog over the pond.  The middle picture is looking down our lower lawn, also towards the pond.  It's beginning to look pretty bare, but on the back side of the house (third picture), we still have some color on the hillside.  The taller trees have lost their foliage.

We are grateful for the rainy weather.  Brooks and rivers in our area have been running very low.  I think the pond has been a bit lower than it would usually be allowed to be, but when there's not much water coming in, it's hard to keep the level up.  This stretch of rainy weather will help, and even if it turns to snow as is predicted, it will all help.

Yesterday when I stopped in at the store in West Danville, Garey gave me a postcard to scan for our West Danville History book.  It was sent on October 21, 1909, to Miss Alice Page in Danville, from her sister, signed only as "S. P. P."  I think Alice was the daughter of Henry and Cordelia "Delia" Page.  Henry worked in the shingle mill.  Alice's older sister, was Sadie, born about 1889.  Alice was born in July of 1891, and was a teacher.  I didn't find Sadie in the 1910 census, so I suspect she was married by then and "Evelyn" with the "awful cold" was probably her daughter.   The catnip she hoped her sister would send would have been made into a poultice to help Evelyn's congestion.  It was an old time remedy used for a lot of things, and apparently worked pretty well.  This shows the front of the postcard.  That is one sick looking puppy!  I wonder if Alice decided she wanted some of those postcards her sister was offering to order for her birthday.  

The postcard was given to Garey by Albert May, or "Sonny" as most of us know him.  He is the son of Albert May, auctioneer, who staged auctions on Saturday evenings years ago at his auction house overlooking Molly's Pond.  This photo shows Albert Sr. in the white shirt and Albert Jr. sitting at the lower right.  The man moving something in back of Albert Sr. is probably "Dude" Thompson.  This picture was not at the Molly's Pond auction, but may have been at Lower Cabot.

Albert's auctions used to be well attended by Joe's Pond folks - the entertainment was great and the bargains many.  Albert Senior was a character, but he was also a shrewd business man who "dickered" on a lot of things - household goods, furniture, arts and crafts, vegetables, livestock or land, and apparently made a decent living at it.  Albert Sr. has been gone for quite a few years, now, and it's been a long time since the auctions.  We are glad Sonny thought to pass the old postcard on to Garey.  It's a nice bit of West Danville history.