We had a short reprieve from the routine of having a fire in the wood stove every evening, but tonight we decided we'd like one again. When we came in from covering the garden and shuttling potted and hanging plants into the garage for the night, the house felt very warm. The air outside was a chilly 64 degrees. However, experience has proven that once inside and quiet, I like to have the house temperature at least 72, so Fred built a small fire to last through the evening. Nice.

I hope the garden survives. We picked four ripe tomatoes, but there is still lots out there that I'd like to leave for a few weeks longer. The zucchini is just starting to come along, and there are lots more tomatoes on the vines I hope will ripen. I just looked at the indoor/outdoor thermometer and it's reading 51 degrees outside, so it may not get down to freezing. It's usually coldest just before sunrise, though, but I'm not likely to be awake to read the temperature then. Quite often Fred is, though, so we'll know have a report in the morning.

We were in St. Johnsbury this morning. The debris on Main Street where the fire was a few weeks ago has been cleared away. There is a large space that lets the morning sun shine onto the street and exposes a large window I think is called Gothic style, in the church. It appears to be covered to protect it - probably because of the demolition work and reconstruction that will be happening. I'm pretty sure some people unfamiliar with St. Johnsbury except to drive through occasionally would be surprised that the church is even there. I think it would be nice to leave space there so we could see the church. Not having a building so close to obstruct the light must make a huge difference inside the church.

As far as I know, the town planners in St. Johnsbury haven't come up with a plan for rebuilding in that space.

While we were in St. J., because I momentarily forgot we were should turn north onto Railroad Street from Maple for our haircut appointments, out of habit I turned right and headed south as if we were headed for White's Market. In order to get turned around, I drove down to what used to be Hovey's Shops parking lot, at the back of the buildings and just off Portland Street bridge. We were surprised to find a neatly fenced skate park at one end of that now unused parking lot. We had heard about it, in fact, I think when Peter Glen Store was on Railroad St, they were part of its creation, and the new owners have continued it. The park is open only certain times, and we didn't stop to investigate, but Fred took a quick picture.

Late this afternoon, I went out to finish up some trim on the tractor garage we've been painting. While I was up on the ladder, I was surprised when Woody appeared above me on the roof. He'd climbed up a board I'd leaned against another small shed in back of the garage and jumped from it onto the roof near where I was working. Now, THAT startled me! I didn't expect to see a furry head with bright green eyes peering down at me. I may not have mentioned this before, but he has a bit of Siamese in him. It shows up in the velvety black of his heels - and in his ability to run and jump. He can spring straight up several feet from a crouch. That's 14 +/- pounds of cat flying through the air. Better not be in his path.

I was in Cabot yesterday and stopped at the town offices. I'm getting ready to reprint our Joe's Pond directory and had a question about the numbering on one of the cottages. In the process of getting that straightened out, I learned that Gina Kurrle, 68 Meadow Lane has bought the cottage at 64 Meadow Lane that belonged to the Smith family.

We will be watching the weather this weekend, with the storm "Danny" coming up the coast. It seems likely it will stay far enough away so we'll only get the rain, but things could change. Anyway, it doesn't look like the best of weather for the weekend here at Joe's Pond. Too bad, with the summer nearly over and having been so short, we could have used one more nice weekend before Labor Day. We will probably get some nice weather after this, though. September can be a really nice month. Everything seems to be a little off kilter weatherwise this year, so no predictions from here.

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