I was out hunting berries again today and found some maples that were pretty well along as far as color is concerned. Our fall foliage display is generally the last week of September through the first couple weeks of October, but it sure looks as if it might happen a bit earlier this year. The colors aren't as bright as I've seen some years, but perhaps that's because it's still early. It does seem to me I'm seeing more color earlier than usual, though.

It was a beautiful day to be outside and I really enjoyed my walk even though I didn't find any berries to speak of. The road crew was out with the grader and that was a welcome sight. The roads have had some pretty serious pot holes and bumps.

For those of you who are interested, the minutes of our Joe's Pond Association meeting are now posted on the web site. You can go to the home page and find them under "JP Assn" on the main menu.

We are saying goodbye to some of our Joe's Pond friends this week as they leave to get kids back in school. Labor Day is a real cut-off date for lots of folks to get their boats out of the water and, even if they don't need to leave right away, they'll be starting to pack things up and wind down. Even those of us who hang around all winter shift into a different mode. For me it's trimming back plants in the flower beds, cleaning out bird houses, stuffing some of the lawn furniture back into the storage shed. It's still very nice sitting out on the deck, so we won't clear that off for a few weeks yet. We'll also need to put away stuff in the garage that's collected over the summer and get ready to put the wood under cover. We also like to keep room for the snow blower in the garage. If we have just half as much snow this year as we had last, Fred will be glad to have it handy for those several trips each day needed to keep the driveway clear.

The nights are getting colder so I'll need to bring in my large house plants soon. I usually cover them for a week or two, and that extends their time outside well into September. Each summer they get larger (two Scheffleras and one avacado tree) and it's a problem deciding where to put them. I've had them so long they are almost like family, so I don't want to discard them. I have smaller stuff to bring inside, too, but those aren't nearly as overwhelming. I'll begin making room for them all soon.

I received photographs today for a book I'm putting together on the Blodgett family, long-time residents of Cabot. Rev. Fred Blodgett wrote two exceptionally informative manuscripts. The first was about the Cabot he knew as a boy. It has details of buildings and people long gone. The second is a record of his family, complete with genealogy going back to the 1600's. Rev. Blodgett's wife donated the first manuscript to the local library and I was able to copy it recently for the Cabot Historical Society. I learned of the second manuscript from his niece, my friend Mary Blodgett Fearon, who was generous enough to donate it to the historical society. Mary's sister, Helen Blodgett, has photographs of many of the family Rev. Blodgett wrote about, and I spent much of today copying those to include with the manuscripts. I am combining everything into a hard cover book which will be available in our research center, and the original manuscripts will be properly preserved. One day, we hope to have this kind of material also available on line. The Blodgett papers are just part of a wonderful collection we now have of genealogies, journals and historical writings.