I've been on the blog a couple of times today to make brief entries. Now I'll mention more sad news. Frank Hovey of St. Johnsbury died rather suddenly on Monday. I didn't know him personally, but according to the information in the Caledonian Record today, he was a friend and relative of some of our Joe's Pond Association members. Here is his obituary: Franklin G. Hovey Our condolences to his family and many friends.

In a matter of a couple hours, at 11:09 p.m. this evening, summer will be officially over and autumn will begin. As I worked at my computer today, I realized that the leaves in our back yard are turning almost as I watch. This morning there were only a few splashes of color out there among the shades of green; but late this afternoon I could see a huge difference. Perhaps it was how the light was striking the trees, but there was certainly more reds and oranges than just a few hours earlier. I mentioned it to Fred and he had noticed the quick change, too. Some of us had worried that the color wouldn't be as bright this year because of the unusually warm weather; and some thought the maples might just turn brown and never show any vivid colors, but I think we're going to have a splendid display, and right on schedule. By the first week in October, it should be beautiful.

Fred went to recycle this morning, but just outside of Hardwick he came upon this long line of vehicles going nowhere. There were some emergency vehicles coming and going, but he couldn't tell what had happened up ahead. Hazel Greaves was in line, too, and both she and Fred decided to turn around and, at least in Fred's case, return home. Hazel knows alternative routes to get to Hardwick, but Fred said he'll just go tomorrow instead. We'll probably find out in the newspaper or on TV what happened to stop traffic.

Either Tom or our nephew Dean took this picture. This handsome dude was casually hanging over the fence watching the crowd at a fair near Gilford, CT this weekend. He doesn't seem to be getting much attention, but a gaze like that would be hard to ignore, I'd think.

We watched two deer under our apple tree tonight. One was a nice healthy looking doe and with her was what appeared to be a not yet full grown yearling. The young one got frisky as they were about to leave and sprinted in a circle around the doe and began to suckle, at which point, the mother simply gave a little hop and stepped over the youngster and continued leading the way back into the woods. It took a minute for the young one to process being rejected, but then it followed, scampering playfully out of sight. Mothers have to be firm sometimes, in order for life's lessons to be learned.