We've enjoyed a rainy day today.  I know, it doesn't sound right admitting enjoying bad weather, but it was reasonably warm, even though the weather people were saying we had "below normal" temperatures today.  It was in the 60s, and when you are busy that isn't a bad thing.

Besides that, we went to Juniper's to meet Fred's cousin and her friend for breakfast, and that was a great way to start the day.  They are good company and like we were saying as we drove away off Darling Hill, every time we meet them we learn something new about Fred's family - well, his mother's side of the family, that is.  It's really proof that most people don't get much interested in family history until they are older and, sadly there are fewer people left to tell their stories.  If we had only listened better when we were younger . . .  However, Cousin Ora is the family historian and she is doing a remarkable job of preserving the family history with photos in nicely done booklets using Snapfish.com.  

But back to breakfast and the rest of our day.  It wasn't very busy at Juniper's today - I think guests who are staying at the Wildflower Inn are usually the only breakfast customers.  It was very pretty, even though there was a foggy mist obscuring the normally spectacular view - the flowers around the place were striking, their colors enriched by the wetness.  

After breakfast, we said our goodbys and wished them safe journey back to Rhode Island - we probably won't meet again until next spring.  Fred and I headed back to St. Johnsbury to do our grocery shopping.  It was raining off and on all morning, but never very hard.  We thought perhaps construction had progressed on Main Street and Western Avenue to the point we could head home the usual way, and it wasn't bad at all.  We had only a slight wait on Eastern Avenue to get onto Main Street which was all dug up and nasty, but from there on, traffic moved along well.  We will probably still avoid that part of town whenever possible in the future, just because the next time we might not be as lucky and could have a long wait depending on what stage construction is in.  It's hard to believe they'll have things put together before snow flies, though.

Back home, the flickers were paying us a visit this afternoon.  I guess the rain brings out the bugs in the grass or something because there were five or six birds busily feeding on the lawn early in the afternoon.  Then the wind picked up for a little while this evening thrashing the big maples down by the road and we wondered if we were in for a really hard storm, but it didn't last very long and I don't think there was much damage, at least in our area.  According to my gauge, the highest we had was 20 m.p.h. - obviously it looked worse than it was.

Speaking of being wet - I took this picture of a frog in the puddle at the poorly functioning culvert by our mailboxes.  Every time we go to get the mail, two or three of these guys plop into the water from the grassy bank and even though I've come to expect it, they always startle me a bit.  Yesterday I spotted one sitting on the bank and managed to get by without disturbing him, so after lunch I went back with the camera to see if he was still there.  He wasn't, but after spending ten minutes or so searching in vain, I finally spotted this guy calmly sitting in the shallow pool, his green head out of the water, probably feeling securely hidden. And he was.  He was in plain sight, but blended so well with the reflections and the bottom of the puddle, I almost didn't see him at all. We had seen the tadpoles earlier this summer, and now there are lots of frogs!  Today was good weather for them, too.