The picture on the right is pretty blue sky, right? It was supposed to be a picture of a very large bird - but after losing sight of my subject and then fumbling endlessly to focus and shoot, this is what I got. If you click and enlarge it, there's a small spec in the lower right corner . . . but don't bother. The bird was flying high over Rt. 2 by the time I took the picture. I had been sitting in my favorite chair by the windows in our living room reading the newspaper when something caught my eye just below our house. When I first saw the bird, it was very close, but by the time I got out on the deck with the camera, it was gone. I figured it was a large hawk and, knowing their flight pattern, I focused on the sky north and west of me - but just as I was about to give up, I saw a shadow cross the road by our mailbox. Ah-ha! I whipped around and stared into the sun. Apparently the bird had been circling directly over my head, but probably saw me and changed direction, circling further and further away to the southeast. It was clearly a case of ineptness; I fumbled the gadgets on the camera, turned it off instead of getting zoom, and finally just held the camera pointed in the general direction and snapped it. It was probably a large hawk, but the one good look of it I had showed white on his head and (I think) wings, but with the sun in my eyes I couldn't say for sure. What I do know for sure is I'm no wildlife photographer. Ray Richer (our resident professional wildlife photographer on Sandy Beach Road) has nothing to worry about as far as I'm concerned!

This morning my brother-in-law called. He usually chats with Fred, but since Fred was in Hardwick recycling for us and our neighbor, Louise, we chatted for a while. Tom wanted to know about our weather. He and Ellie live in Laconia, NH in the summer and they move to Colorado where Tom is a ski instructor each winter. It's what he does now he's retired . . . and he reads the blog. He wanted to know about our frosts and how cold it's been.

So, for those of you who are wondering how our miserably wet summer ended, it's truly beautiful here now. We've been having days in the 70's, but it's gradually become more often 60's, and cool nights in the 40's until a couple nights ago when we had our first "killing frost" when temps went into the mid-20's (or perhaps lower up north in Essex County) in some places in the Northeast Kingdom. Here at Joe's Pond, I haven't heard of temps quite that low, but certainly the last couple of nights were cold enough so we had white frost showing on everything. Most of our neighbors either covered or took in tender plants or vegetables left in the garden, and it sounds as if that will be the norm for the next few days. We're expecting day temps in the 60's and nights in the 30's so I expect we'll have scattered frosts from now on, but there is always quite a variation, depending on where you are. One indicator that it's getting colder is that Woody, our cat, hasn't been spending quite as much time outside at night lately. He often comes in around 11 p.m. and seems content to stay by the fire until morning.

With the Fall Foliage festivities beginning on the 29th, we're hoping for more nice weather to show off the leaves. We always plan outdoor activities for Cabot's day to host the visitors (Tuesday, Sept. 30th), which includes a hike up to Nichols Ledge and a hayride to a local sugar house, so warm, sunny weather would be appreciated. I'm not a tour guide this year, for the first time in many years, but I'll be on hand at the Cabot School gymnasium to help folks plan their day and find where things are. I'll no doubt meet even more people than usual and do lots of talking, but I won't need to shout to be heard over the noise of the tour bus, like most years, and may not lose my voice for a couple days as I have in the past. We'll see how it goes. There's a complete schedule of area events on the web site under "Events" where you'll find Fall Foliage and can click on any of the links at the bottom of the page. For a projection of the progression of color over the state, see the Foliage Meter at the bottom of this page: Foliage Meter.