It's hard to believe we're nearing the end of September. The leaves are turning rapidly, and that's normal, we've had a couple of light frosts, and that's also normal, but yesterday and last night temperatures were in the 60's and 70's - even most of the night. It may have gone slightly below 60, but I didn't see it. Temperatures like summer. This morning we've had some cloudy periods, but it's still very mild and when the sun comes out, the colors are beautiful. There is that pungent fall smell in the air - the wet, decaying leaves sort of thing that will last through October, and perhaps beyond. Like spring, but in reverse.

No more new-mown grass smell at our house. Fred mowed for the last time this week and Harry (Harry's Small Engine Repair in Walden) will be coming any day to pick up the mower and the snow blower for yearly servicing. It's an annual ritual, along with bringing in the dry wood and ordering, then stacking next year's supply.

I'll be bringing in everything from the garden fairly soon, I suppose, but will leave that as long as possible. I still have a few zucchinis coming, lettuce is still good, beets and turnips ok, tomatoes still ripening at a nice pace. I pruned some trees last week and Fred moved that ornery hazelnut for me. The flower bed it came out of looks pretty bad, but I have plans for that next spring. More mulching to do, and a few shrubs to wrap up for the winter, but that won't happen until late October.

We find lots of our Joe's Ponders have set October 1st at their departure date. But each year there are a few more folks who stay later or make the decision to spend most of the winter right here. Our winters haven't been as cold or snowy lately, but I'm not convinced that a lasting trend. Billy Rossi says he thinks the reason we all tend to believe we don't have as much snow as we did years ago is because we were all shorter then. He may be right. He pointed out we also have different methods of moving it, too. Instead of shoves and scoops, we have plows or blowers - thankfully! Some of us still enjoy playing in it, too.

I received a newsletter from Nolan Doesken at the University of Colorado, head of the CoCoRaHS project I report precipitation for. He's saying weather people are watching La Nina carefully. It is cooling the surface of the tropical Pacific, and that could have a real impact on the world's weather. No predictions yet, but apparently it could account for weird weather patterns.

He sent a link to maps showing regions affected by drought, and I was surprised to see two counties in Vermont, Bennington and Windham, reporting drought conditions. Here is a link to that map and from there you can go to other states, as well: Drought Maps
Click on the state you're interested in learning about.

Nolan included another site that shows weather patterns daily. I found it interesting - take a look: US Navy, Weather

This little guy was living dangerously this morning. Fortunately, Woody (our cat) was off hunting in some other area while this squirrel was feasting on the apples under our tree. There are plenty for everyone even though we have the doe and her youngster there quite often, and I suspect later we'll have some turkeys and perhaps even a bear come to help clean up under this tree and the crab tree.

I nearly forgot to mention that Fred has found out more about the cell tower on the Sousa silo on Cabot Plain. He spoke with a member of the family yesterday and found out cell service should be up and running in two to four weeks. ATT is anxious to get it running, but the have another piece of equipment to install. We weren't able to find out if internet service will be available from the tower, but apparently contract negotiations are on-going regarding this. We'll have to wait and see how it develops, I guess.