This morning I sat here at my computer and watched the sun fading in and out on the maple trees in our back yard. When the sun was bright on the maples I was bowled over by the vivid colors against evergreens and dark threatening sky. I finally turned off the computer and grabbed the camera. I wanted to enjoy the colors up close, smell the wet leaves and watch the huge storm clouds lurking over Walden way. I made a large circle starting in our back yard with the view I see from my window daily, and going as far as I could on our lower lot until I reached the wooded area that is too wet right now to walk in without sturdy boots. Since lots of you cannot be here in Vermont to enjoy the foliage, I thought you might enjoy seeing some of our foliage, too. Whenever the sun came out I tried to get a picture of what I was seeing. I followed the hedgerow that parallels the road and ended my walk by climbing the hill near our hydrangea bush. It was time for lunch when I got back, but I downloaded the pictures to the computer for later.

Fred was at camp winterizing the pontoon boat this afternoon, so I added a picture he took. By then the weather had changed and he got rained on a little, so he had to quickly finish up the boat and didn't have much time for pictures. This evening we've had several drenching rains and earlier some wind, so our beautiful foliage may not last much longer. Here are some of the photos: Slides, Autumn Colors

Let me tell you what happened Saturday. We were invited to Bill and Monika's for dinner Saturday evening and that morning I decided it would be nice to make an apple dessert. I went down to the apple tree Fred discovered a couple weeks ago on our lower lot. The tree was loaded with apples - nice ones, transparents, we decided, probably seeded by accident from a tree my father had nearby many years ago. We had never noticed it before and at least a couple times had cut back the brush where it was growing, so we were pretty impressed that it every grew to maturity. I'd tasted one of the apples and they were sweet and firm, but not quite ripe then, but on Saturday I expected they would be just right. When I got to the tree I found one of the larger branches had been broken over (picture at right), and when I looked closely I realized there wasn't a single apple left on the tree. I couldn't see any further damage - there were wild rose bushes and goldenrod that seemed to be intact, but no apples, even on the ground. I climbed the hill back to the house to tell Fred we wouldn't be having fresh apple dowdy after all. I took this picture this morning - you can see the limb wasn't very large and the tree needs pruning, but this wasn't what we had in mind for shaping and taming the tree.

Of course we can't be certain, but it sure seems as if it could have been our neighborhood bear - the same one that raided the choke cherry tree a couple weeks ago, probably. I found a couple small scrapes on the branch, but it was too small to show much - old bruin probably just got up there and leaned on it or maybe shook the tree to get all the apples down and broke the branch. It's a wild tree and fair game for wild life, I guess.

There was another small cherry tree broken over (photo at right) several weeks ago, and we wondered if our cat, Woody, had been climbing on it. He's about 14 lbs. and we've seen him go too far out onto a small limb and watched as he clung there, sliding and squirming until he'd finally fall to the ground. But we are sure he's not responsible for this sort of damage - and the claw marks (see below) we found on the larger cherry tree last week were way bigger than he'd make. All this has us wondering how we can protect our apple trees another year. Or maybe the bear will have forgotten by next spring . . .

The cherry trees aren't anything we care particularly about - there are lots of them around our lawn - but I really don't want a bear smashing down apple trees or climbing on our grape arbor. I do wish we'd seen the bear (or whatever) at work, though. That would have been a good picture.

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Sadly, there is a notice in today's Caledonian Record that Al Zeller, of St. Johnsbury, died. Al was a well-known furrier for many years there, and for many years joined in the sailboat races at Joe's Pond. He was a nice man and had lots of friends both in St. Johnsbury and here at Joe's Pond who will miss him. Obit

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Dinner and Concert to benefit the Cabot United Church

Concert by MAYFLY: Cabot’s own Katie Trautz in concert

Friday, October 9^th 7PM

at the new Performing Arts Center

Katie and her Mayfly Group with Julia Wayne on banjo and guitar and guest Kathleen Moore of Marshfield on guitar and base bring their energetic mix of old-time Appalachian tunes and original folk songs. Katie on guitar, fiddle and banjo and her group who play throughout Vermont and Northern New England, bring their inspiring music to Cabot for a free (donations requested) concert to benefit the Cabot Church fuel oil fund.

A free community dinner (donations accepted) next door at the Church beginning at 5:30 precedes the 7 PM concert. Delicious spaghetti dinner with tangy meat or vegetable sauce, bread, salad, and dessert.

The Cabot United Church is located on the Town Green, Route 215 North in Cabot.

For more information call 563-2278.