It seems appropriate to start off with a typical July-in-Vermont greeting like, "Hot enough for you?"
     This is the fourth day of an official heat wave and by my count, the 16th day with no rain.  This has been a strange year, even here in Vermont.  The spring and early summer was  wet and chilly, and now we're having the weather we should have had in July, with temperatures in the 80s.  
    We haven't seen much color in the maples yet, either.  I saw a few splashes early in September, but now there is only a bronzy glow over most hillsides.  Here in our yard, some of our older maples are shedding brown, dead leaves every day, while the younger maples are still a vibrant green.  I admit there are a few splashes of red, but they are very isolated.  
     The forecast is for this hot, muggy weather to change abruptly tonight.  Tomorrow will be much cooler and at night temperatures will drop down around the freezing mark.  That may be enough to start the colors, finally.
     I was at the Danville Historical Society building yesterday while Fred was having his first chemo treatment.  I went through about 10 years of town reports, hunting for little bits of information that will help us with the history of West Danville.  It was mercifully cool in the little back room where I was.  After Fred's treatment, which went very well, we had a couple of errands to do, so had to spend a little time in town.  It was very hot on the streets, and we were grateful for a cool house and a bit of a breeze when we arrived home.  Fortunately, as soon as the sun goes down, so does the temperature, up here in the hills, but not so in St. Johnsbury.
     I noticed in the town reports that Danville paid Cabot for plowing a short stretch of road most years.  That would be the end of West Shore Road between Barre Avenue and Route 2.  It was a small amount - $30 in the 1952 report.  It always seemed silly to me that Danville town plow has to travel along Route 2 just to do that short piece of road - whether plowing, sanding or grading - and Cabot turns around at Barre Avenue.  It makes sense for Cabot to continue another few rods to Route 2, but that's not how it works in recent years.
     Another interesting bit of information I came across was that in 1948, Danville widened a Joe's Pond Road known as "White Birch Road," and lengthened it by some 800 feet to accommodate new camps being built.  I may find some record of that road name in the old records of Joe's Pond, but for now, I haven't a clue where that road was.  We have noted Birchbound, Birchwood and Edgewood roads, but no White Birch that I can remember.  No doubt someone will.  1948 wasn't that long ago!
     Also, in 1949, there was a state-wide program to eradicate blister rust in our white pine forests.  Gooseberry and current bushes are the culprits that host the bacteria causing blister rust, so the state paid workers to hunt down and destroy those bushes.  The program lasted several years, but eventually most of the pine forest in Danville was inspected and the host bushes eradicated.  I don't suppose there are many wild gooseberry or current bushes surviving anywhere in the state today.

Enjoy the summer we didn't get in July - fall should arrive tomorrow.