There's a gentle rain just beginning, and everything is quiet.  Fred finished mowing the lawn as the first sprinkles began to fall.  I had done some trimming with the push mower, which runs much easier now that Harry (Gammel) fixed it last fall.  The wheels had worn so they splayed out and let the mower blade down much closer to the ground than was good, and although it ran perfectly (always started with only one or two pulls), now that it's fixed it is much easier to mow with.  I hadn't realized how dilapidated it had become.

As I was heading out for my walk around noon, I saw a beautiful yellow butterfly - first one this spring - but of course I didn't have the camera with me.  Then, this afternoon, as I was finishing putting garden tools away, I found this moth on a work shirt hanging in the garage.  He clung to my finger while I took him outside where I left him on the cedar hedge.  I don't think he liked it there - perhaps he's the night variety and it was too bright for him.  I thought he'd be better off outside than closed in our garage.

Yesterday we had errands to do in Littleton and then St. Johnsbury, so we had lunch at a favorite spot, Miller's Cafe.  We learned it has new owners, Andy Kilmer and Ann Bocash, but they are serving the same really good food, and it was very pleasant eating on the deck overlooking the Ammonoosuc River.  Our only problem was finding parking.  There seems to be ever-present construction going on in that area next to the river, so after a couple of tries at parking near the cafe, we settled for a metered spot on Main Street and walked to the restaurant.  It was well worth the hike.

Back in St. Johnsbury, we had to calculate carefully how best to reach our destinations - one off of Main Street, which is mostly torn up with construction, and then to do our grocery shopping.  All went as planned in town, but when we finished shopping at Price Chopper, we made the mistake of heading north to the interstate to reach Route 2.  There has been construction on the interstate for weeks now, but also on Western Avenue, so getting out of town is not always easy.  We knew that, but in our haste to get home, we both forgot and had to sit for maybe 20 minutes in waiting in traffic before getting on the ramp which was where they were working.  Once off the ramp it was smooth sailing, but had we thought about it, our strategy would have been to go back into town and navigate some of the back streets to avoid Main Street and Western Avenue - or simply go south through St. J. and get onto the interstate by the Comfort Inn.  Oh, well, next time we'll be more cautious.

Yesterday I bumped into a friend from the days when I worked in the St. Johnsbury School Superintendent's office.  That was before the schools were consolidated into one and there were smaller schools serving various neighborhoods - Portland Street, Summer Street, Lincoln Street, Adams School, St. Johnsbury Center, Arlington, etc., and of course the Junior High School where the  very enlarged K-8 St. Johnsbury School is now.  The superintendent's office, now gone, was a small separate building a little west of the Junior High School.  

We had a great group of people working in the school system - teachers, administrators and support staff - and we had regular staff meetings and also met socially quite frequently.  Some of that group continued to meet after they retired, but gradually became smaller, and as my friend was telling me, there are only a few left now, and some of those are in nursing homes or too infirm for social gatherings.  My friend and I are the same age, within a few months, and she said every morning when her feet hit the floor she is thankful she is still well and able to be in her own home.  Me, too.  Remembering those years is bitter sweet and filled with nostalgia.  So many good people.

Back to the present - here are more pictures.  Fred took this of a little female humming bird yesterday.  Today I got some of the flowers blooming in our gardens right now, so I made a  very short slide show.

If you have been watching the osprey web cam, you know one egg has hatched.  We got a good view of the bald little guy this morning.  I expect within a day or so another egg will hatch until all three chicks are here.