'Tis the Season

We awoke this morning to a world of white. The feeders are full of birds from goldfinches to blue jays and chickadees. Gary has finished the outdoor decorations, and they look lovely in the snow. We are happy that the snow will only be with us for a month, as we will head south after Christmas.

Thanksgiving

This week has included a visit from Bob over the weekend, and a Thanksgiving celebration. Bob and Matthew went up to the camp for a day of work, cutting fallen trees and cleaning up for the winter. Here we have a couple of pictures of the sawing and the fire.

Today was Thanksgiving and we much to be thankful for. We had a lovely dinner today with Jessica and Andy. These pictures were taken at the end of a lovely turkey dinner.

Knitting

Louise is spending as much time as she can knitting these days. At last count she has six Christmas gifts on the needles,

in various degrees of completion. She can't post pictures of those as it would ruin Christmas surprises. She has also done some charity knitting these past three weeks. Completed are 3 hats for the troops in Afghanistan, and six pairs of

mittens for RSVP. In addition to the six she has made, two other members of the library knitting group pitched in, and 18 pairs have been completed in all. Some children will have colorful mittens keeping their hands warm this winter.

A Tribute to Steve

Steve is gone. This wonderful, beautiful, intelligent cat has been part of our lives for 13 years. As a kitten he was adopted by Bob, named Steve McQueen, and taken off to Massachusetts to become a city cat. He spent his kittenhood there, and then came home to join us. His brother Puff had been hit by a car and didn't survive very long. Steve filled the empty spot and added his personality to this family. Who could ever forget his head butting, and putting his head under your chin as he curled up to sleep? He never forgot his cuddling nature. When Louise had her knee surgery a couple of years ago, she slept down stairs for a a few weeks as the knee healed. Steve would curl up and purr by her pillow. He seemed to love yarn, and when we came home from school he would have balls of yarn lined up in the living room. Once he took a half-knit sock down cellar and hid it behind the wood pile. Even this morning as we came downstairs, Steve waited for us. He perched on the chair arm and purred his heart out. He has been sick for a while, and couldn't eat or drink anymore. He will be sorely missed. He was the most special cat we have ever met.

A November Ride in the County

The big news in town is the burning of the McCains freezer. The smoke smells bad,

and it is still smoking away down there. We offer you two pictures of what is left of the freezer building.

We decided to go for a ride today and went to Perham and

Woodland, out the Tangle Ridge Road. We spotted a couple of interesting spots, an old potato house and some old farming equipment.

Finally on our way home on the Woodland Center Road, traffic was stopped for a few minutes by two moose who took their time going from one side of the road to the other. They posed nicely!

That's it from the Cole Corner today. Gary worked in the garden beds and Louise is still knitting.

It's November

There is not much excitement here to write about right now. The outdoor work is about done, the gardening is done, the camp is closed for the winter, and we have settled into a routine. Gary is still having physical therapy for his heel three days a week. We swim most mornings. Louise is in a knitting frenzy as Christmas gifts are in every corner. This week she was visited by RSVP to set up volunteer work knitting. When told they needed 2,000 pairs of mittens by December 1, and had just 20 knitters working on it, Louise started knitting mittens for children in Head Start, local schools, and similar circumstances. On Halloween we were visited by some interesting creatures, and captured a picture of a pumpkin! We have a Christmas cactus that has become beautiful, even if it is confused about what month it is. The snow that hit southern Maine missed us today.