Another very mild day today, but that's about to change. By this weekend, we may have snow on the ground. It has been very nice to have this mild weather for the past several days. Everything is wet - the leaves that are down are beginning to decay and there's that unmistakable pungent smell of fall in the air. We don't rake leaves at our house. We kind of consider it's a waste of time and energy and prefer to leave them to decay and feed the grass. Come spring, after the first mowing, there is no sign that they ever existed. We don't feet the lawn with any other type of fertilizer - since we're on a hillside, it would run off into the ditch by the road and ultimately into the pond, and that would not be good.

I received pictures today from Liz Pearl Sargent. Liz said she and her nephew, Henry Pearl, were working at the island earlier this month. They had Henry's two young sons, John (5) and Willie (3) with them (see photo, right). The had a picnic there and thoroughly enjoyed the day. Liz took some great pictures and shared them with me for the blog.
  Liz said they painted the end of the little cottage that had been recently repaired. She sent before and after shots - left, the unpainted cottage, and  right, after a nice coat of red paint. Liz says that's a very bright red and she thinks the will tone it down a bit, so will be putting on a second coat later.

The other pictures are taken from the island - beautiful still water and foliage around the pond was lovely that day.

Really nice shots, and thanks to Liz for sharing them with me for the blog.

Fred and I went to North Woodstock, N.H. yesterday to meet Fred's brother Tom and his wife, Ella. We had lunch at the Woodstock Inn and Tap Room, and it was very good. We always enjoy seeing Tom and Ella. Usually we get together with them on our way home from Maine, but we decided not to go this fall. We went in the spring and when we tried to figure out a good time to go this fall, there just wasn't a good time and now the weather is going to be getting cooler, so we kind of lost interest. Once the history book is finished, we'll be able to better accommodate that kind of getaway. Right now, I want to concentrate on that - and a day off here and there works.

We took these pictures on the way through Franconia Notch. We had nice weather as we drove through Littleton, and then it rained through the Notch, but in the Woodstock area it was quite nice again. Same thing when we came back through. The mountains seemto have their own little weather zone.

 Tom and Ella will be heading for Colorado again at Thanksgiving. Tom is a ski instructor at Beaver Creek. The Denver area was getting a lot of snow today - but I don't know if it will stay in the mountains or not. The report I saw was that they have had 12 inches in the past 72 hours at Beaver Creek. One report predicted a less than normal amount expected there this year. But that could change. Who knows what the weather will be a month from now?

 For us, beginning Friday, the temperature is going to drop and any precipitation could come in the form of snow. Probably not enough to bother anyone, but it's a hint that maybe you should think about getting your snow tires on. We have an appointment to have ours put on in a couple of weeks. That should be about right. I'll be surprised if we have much snow before that.

I recently wrote here about Danville thinking of putting an addition on the school. There is more school news. There was a report in today's Caledonian Record that there may be meetings between Danville, Cabot and Twinfield in regard to collaborating in some sort of unified education process. Sounds like this may be a different kind of co-education program in which the three schools would remain open but share courses in order to better serve the individual students. This arrangement would be for high school students only. Apparently the Cabot School Board approached Danville first to see if they might be interested in working something out, and it seems they may be; then the Superintendent will approach Twinfield. The original merger proposal would have closed Cabot School, and that was not accepted by Cabot - and when the proposal of a merger with Cabot was presented to Danville, voters there were not interested, either. This may be a more logical and acceptable solution for all three schools.