We've been having such nice weather during the daytime, I don't even mind having to cover my garden to protect things from freezing at night. We didn't have a frost last night, but we did Friday - just a touch - and I think we may have a touch again tonight. I covered the cukes and the tomatoes, just in case. At this point I'm hoping the zucchini and summer squash take a hit so I won't have to deal with them any longer.

Ted Decker sent me this really nice picture he took on Friday of a big blue heron. Sounds like it may have been hanging out near Ted's until he got this shot of it further down the pond. They are such a great bird to watch. I remember when we were living at camp we had one that would fish off the end of our dock. We had the pontoon boat tied up alongside the dock and one day the dumb bird apparently got so absorbed in watching for fish, or maybe he leaned too far over the water - anyway, he lost his balance and fell between the dock and the pontoon boat with lots of flapping and splashing. Talk about clumsy. He immediately regained his composure and took off. I guess it didn't bother him much because he came back within a day or so. Here's what Ted wrote about "Big Bird":

Jane,

Took these this afternoon. It was hanging out around the south end of the pond for a change.

Ted

I guess Big Bird was enjoying the nice weather, too. I've been working in my flower beds. Everything grew amazingly fast this summer and I had awful tangles of flowers and weeds, so I'm digging, weeding, separating and reconfiguring the beds so I won't have as much to look after next year. I'm digging up most of the irises and right now the plan is to throw some grass seed on some of the beds and next year Fred will have more lawn to mow. I hate transplanting and separating stuff. I had an overabundance of lily-of-the-valley that just took over in one area. It snuffed out even the bee balm, and that's almost unheard of, so I've been digging that out, too. My back is telling me I'd better finish this operation pretty darn soon or I may pay a painful price. If I can have another couple or three days of good weather, I think I can finish what I've started. Then it will be fun to see what comes up next spring. I have no idea I've been able to eradicate the lily-of-the-valley, but hopefully it will be at least contained somewhat.

I watched "You Can Quote Me" today and was impressed that Governor Shumlin has appointed Neale Lunderville, a Republican, as Chief Recovery Officer to deal with the damage done by Hurricane Irene. I was thinking how nice it would be if the dunderheads in Washington could get over themselves long enough to put politics aside and just get to work and do what's best for the nation, just as Vermonters are doing to get things back to normal after the flood. Washington seems to have more dysfunctional people not working there and earning lots of money than anywhere else in the country. Makes me wonder what sort of catastrophe it will take to get them to shape up.

By the way, you'll notice pictures here are now presented in a different way when you click on them. I can't take credit for that - it's some change that the folks at blogger.com have put into effect. It's pretty nice, though. Perfect for that picture of the heron Ted Decker sent me.