Even less color now

All that's left now are the golds of the tamaracks and the ever-darkening beeches.  It was a beautiful day, felt warm even though it was only in the 40's.  The sun was warm and there was no wind.  Did I take advantage of this?  Sort of.  I did a few outdoor chores; got my deck cleared and ready for winter, put the lawn mower away, dumped my flower pots, did laundry and cleaned the bedroom.  Man oh man do those dogs ever throw a lot of hair.  I swept under the bed (how embarrassing) and put away some of my summer clothes.  I haven't completely unpacked from my RI trip.  What am I waiting for?  My next trip?

I had a nice weekend, slightly productive.  I did get rid of my old television, dropped it off at Julie's house on Sat.  We had book group on Sunday night, hosted by me.  I got the house in pretty good shape--well, the 3 rooms people would see.  We had book group Sunday night, though we're down to 3 pretty much for winter.  I made a meatloaf that wasn't very good.  I thought I made good meatloaf but this one pretty much sucked.  I've been nibbling on the leftovers without enthusiasm.

Tomorrow I go to the dump with 2 garbage bags from camp--I closed both main camp and the boat house on the weekend, yay.  I keep hearing "Why is it your responsibility to close camp?" and there's no good answer for that.  Because no one else will do it, I guess.  It doesn't really take that long.  Anyway, after the dump I may go to the Historical Museum to see if I want to resume volunteering there this winter.  I took the summer off, and as Bill pointed out, summer has passed.  I'm not sure I want to do anything there and won't decide that until tomorrow morning.  I'll have lunch with Julie then come home.  Thursday is Pat's birthday and we'll have dinner in Plattsburgh at the seafood restaurant.  A big crowd, I'm sure.  Friday I'll have lunch in Plattsburgh with Barb.  It's supposed to be warm on Thursday so maybe I'll dig some holes and plant the bulbs Linda left behind.  She bought 200 daffodils on sale and we've doled out a bunch of them to various people but I have a ton of them to plant here.  I don't know where I'll put them all but I need to refresh my daffodil crop, it seems to be fading instead of spreading.

Not really much going on, just life in Hawkeye.  I'm happy.

Not much color left

I got back from visiting my mother in Rhode Island--I was there from last Thursday until this Tuesday.  Traveling was easy, no traffic.  I made really good time on my trip home, cut nearly half an hour off my best time.  That was a treat.

We had a good visit, spent time at the beach.  I went with my mother to a favorite spot and we sat there for a while.  Mark & I took the dogs to the beach on a cold morning when there was no surf and mist on the ocean.  Very pretty.  I took my mother grocery shopping, banking, shoe shopping, more grocery shopping, and to the fish market to get lobsters.  Lobs were pretty cheap and very tasty.

I thought the trees would be bare when I got home but there is still some color in the woods.  Not much, and it's all golds and a few yellows.  The tamaracks are starting to turn and they're pretty much the last of the color we get.  I like looking into the naked woods--I'd forgotten how much I appreciate that.  Lots of leaves on the ground, lots of brown and gray in the woods.  Very peaceful.

Today I went to Lake Placid to have lunch with my friend Julie.  The NY librarians are having their annual conference there this week so the place was crawling with librarians.  Yikes.  And I used to be one of those people.  It was funny seeing so many people with their nametags and blue NYLA bags walking around town.  We went to a restaurant far from the convention center but there were still a few librarians there anyway.  I visited with the people at the public library, who miss me and my work routines (things have changed a lot since I left)(and I don't really care).

Yesterday I went to Plattsburgh, needed some groceries and got some banking done.  I do like being in town on weekdays.  There was no real traffic on my trip today, I like having the roads to myself--who doesn't?

All the summer people are gone.  Linda was the last to leave, on Friday.  We email daily, often more than once a day, it's not the same as being together but not a bad substitute.  I email my sister daily, too.  Anyway, without the summer people the neighborhood is quiet.  Not much traffic on OHR, that's for sure.  I've been walking Treasure to the mailbox every day--I have to have to have to get more exercise and lose weight.

I keep getting messages from my dog breeder delaying my puppy play dates.  I'm hoping to get over there next week.  One of her bitches just had 7 chocolate puppies, but those are too young for me to play with.  I guess I'll probably return to the Keene Valley library next week to do more work in the archives--that depends on the director's schedule.  Those are my 2 volunteer activities for this fall.

This weekend I'll clean the house for book group Sunday eve.  There are only 3 of us now that the summer people have left.  It's funny to call it a book group when it's a trio but we do read a book every month.  I'll also deliver my old television to Julie in Keene.  I bought a new (cheap) one to use with Roku so need to find a home for my old one.  I'm hoping to get a bunch of stuff cleared out of the downstairs, but the upstairs sure is getting full of stuff.  I have to clear off my deck.  My plants all froze while I was gone.  It was in the teens and snowed twice here.  Time to dump out the planters.  I've put out food for the birds.  Must bring in the rug that Mark sent me home with, which will go in the living room.  Oh there's a long list of tasks.  Linda bought 200 daffodil bulbs and distributed a fair number of them but there are a ton left.  I'll give some to Julie, some to Pat, and plant a lot along my driveway.  Yeah, sure I will.

Life is good.  This is the first fall I've been retired and I sure am enjoying it.

Home again home again

 Trip to the beach with my mother.  She likes to sit by the sea and look at it, which is the main reason she moved to Rhode Island in the first place.  It was a sunny day, with a warm wind.  At this beach there are often people surfing on very small waves.  There was no one else there this time, so we had the beach to ourselves.  It was nice.

 My mother actually took a picture with a digital camera (that turned out).

This is what the dogs spent a lot of their time doing while we were in RI.  My mother bought 2 new couches and we agreed that they work well for 2 dogs.  They work well for people, too.

Fall color

 The Silver Lake Mtn bluffs.  Better color than this shows, but still not the brilliance we expect.

View along the road in Wilmington.  Again, good color but not what we usually get.  Pretty anyway.

Right now the wind is blowing and leaves are flying off the trees.  There are a lot of bare trees out there, a change from yesterday when there were a lot of bright yellows and the woods were glowing.

I've been helping Linda get ready for her homeward trek, which starts tomorrow.  Today we took massive amounts of stuff to the dump.  The other day we closed Upper Camp.  Last night we went out for dinner (wait, is that helping her get ready? well, sort of).  I'll go there tonight for a final drink and farewell.  I was supposed to go to the dog breeder's this afternoon to play with her puppies but that didn't work out.  Postponed until next week.

I'm leaving for RI tomorrow, a visit just to entertain my mother and Mark.  I'll stay until Tuesday, not a very long visit, and hopefully I can help her get ready for Jenica's visit next weekend.  Liza is looking forward to seeing Jen and especially the baby.  Cute little girl, that one is.

I did a little bit of closing the boat house, mostly just took a look around and made mental notes of what needs to be done.  I guess I'll probably close main camp, too, but not this week.  Those things don't really take much time.  Jamie took out the water but the camp dock is still in (not my problem).  There are still a few other docks in the lake, but not many.  Linda and I had some nice dock time this week, more than an hour of sitting in the sun watching nothing in particular.  It was relaxing and pleasant.  Water is way too cold for swimming, although Sue did swim while she was here, and Annie Klassen says she was in the water this week.  brrrr.

I went to a tea with my friend Julie on the 4th of this month.  It was pretty funny, in a newly-opened coffee place in Keene Valley.  You had to make reservations, and there were 2 tables occupied in the first seating, with 2 more set for the second seating.  Well it was a good experiment, but was probably too expensive for anyone but fools like us. 

Last Sunday I went to the Keene Valley farmers market by myself.  It was great fun and I didn't spend much money, just got a few things.  It was the last market of the season.  Columbus Day weekend wasn't as busy as it usually is, there weren't many people around.  Linda did have some dinner parties and that was fun.  The week before Annie was here with her brother & his wife so I got to spend time with them.  They played with Annie's chain saw and cut some small trees around my driveway.  There is a LOT, a WHOLE LOT more of that needing to be done, especially close to the house.

The dogs are fine.   I was supposed to go to the breeder's this afternoon to play with (socialize) her puppies, but she had a vet crisis so it's been postponed.  I'm considering this my volunteer activity for the winter.  That, plus I spent a couple of hours at the Keene Valley library, working on the books in their archives.  I'll get back to that, I enjoyed doing it and we've set it up very loosely so I can go whenever I want to but there's no great pressure.  At least I'll feel productive.  Maybe.

  The weather has been wonderful, just turning cool lately.  We had a few cool nights and I kept a fire going but mostly it's just warm and sunny.  It's supposed to get very cold (20's) this weekend with a chance of snow, but I'll miss that.  It always snows in October, just a dusting or an inch of wet snow that disappears quickly.  I'm counting on that.

I'll have a good time in RI , always do.  I'll help my mother run errands, visit with her, visit with Mark, read, and relax.  Relax from what???  My life is so non-stressful, what a wonderful thing to report.