Sad news this morning, our dear friend, Mimi Pilo, Walter Ruf's sister, passed away yesterday morning in Florida.  Mimi finally lost a long courageous battle with cancer, but her spirit and gentle nature will remain with those of us who knew her.  There will be a memorial service in Florida on Wednesday.  I will share any further information as I receive it. Our thoughts now are with Walter and his two remaining sisters.  We will all miss Mimi; she was a dear soul with many friends here at Joe's Pond.  If you wish to send condolences, Walter's address in Florida is:  Walter Ruf, 407 Signorelli Dr., Nokomis FL 34275.

This morning is drab and would be considered a bit chilly except it is mid-May, and that makes it about normal.  We have a little rain in the air, but I measured only .01 in. at 9 this morning.  When I made my CoCoRaHS report, there was a link to a Guide for Master Gardeners - actually, it's for any gardeners, or just people who are interested in weather patterns throughout the nation.  It has some interesting charts and a little about what to expect from climate change.  I had a little trouble reading the line graphs, but I was reading it on-line rather than downloading it.  Either way, it's interesting.

I'm getting my things together for the Cabot Historical Society (CHS) Annual Meeting at 2 p.m. on Sunday.  We encourage anyone interested in Cabot history to come to the meeting.  You do not have to be a member of CHS.  Of course, we always welcome new members.  One of our members recently told me, "You have to get old before you begin to appreciate your history," and while I know on some level that's true, I also think young people (and those older but younger than I!) would find our Cabot Museum very interesting, and might want to help preserve our past.  We would like to be able to pass the torch to younger, more energetic members, knowing our work will be continued.  There are so many old tools, relics and artifacts, it is more a museum than just storage space for dusty books and papers.  There are some of those, too, but we also have new books and many pictures, genealogies and memorabilia that would take hours if you were to examine it all.  Our meeting will be brief, and we'd be happy to show you around afterwards.  This will be the first year for a very long time Blanche Lamore will not be with us for the meeting.  Blanche was treasurer for many years - I think she may have retired when she was 100 or 101.  She is now 103 and living in a nursing home in Derby.  I'm sure we will all be thinking of Blanche and her dedication to the Cabot Historical Society and the town in general.  The above photo was our 2012 meeting, and that's Blanche on the far left.