For our Non-New-England Friends

Nice.  As I'm sure you remember, we get colors down here in what, December?  And they're kinda limited.  I sure do miss the fall colors.

Lane, I once surprised my son in Florida with a UPS shipped box of our Autumn leaves!

Niiiice!

An Autumn leaf care package......that's pretty cool...

I'll try to get a few more shots today when I do my bike ride.  Been waiting for the town common to turn for that quinticsential "New England" picture......

This town is just as nice as Beaufort, with as many opportunities for pleasant photo ops, but it gets a bit cooler in the Winter  

But is MUCH nicer in August.

Had the thermostat set at 50 degrees in the house....the heat kicked on this morning. Here it comes

GORDON I THOUGHT U MOVED SOUTH

Yeah, Gerd.....we did, but the kids started having grand-kids and, at 1,100 miles distant we felt like we were missing out on a lot of family stuff.  'Bout that same time my folks both died, along with my older brother, and the extended family started to unravel so we moved back to Massachusetts permanently to be close to family.  Suddenly, the youngest son who vowed to "never grow up" became the family elder.  Who'da thunk?  

It was 38° F here at Five Cent Racing's, Intergalactic headquarters this morning.  No frost yet, but beyond chilly.  Been running the heat pumps for an hour when we first get up and that's been enough.

I'll pop up a few pics of the town common in my next post - it's a pretty cool place.

Ok, here you go:

The Town Common, where parts of the movie, "Ah!  Wilderness!" was made back in the '30's:

Zooming in on the central Bandstand (given to the town by the movie company):

And, just for the heck of it, a shot across the street from my house (no, you don't have to go far for great color, here!)  BTW:  ALL of the leaves on that tree on the left fell within the last five days.  Lots of leaf raking going on over there, today!:

We learned long ago that raking leaves is boring stuff so we just round them up into a pile with the riding lawn mover then hire young chics to put them in bags. They don't charge much but they do like to party...

Gordon - It looks like you transplanted a couple of things from SC.

Yeah, it's been chilly here in the mornings too.  I think we've gotten as low as 53 or so.  There were even times when the A/C didn't come on for hours.

I know, I know...   I'll be whining again next summer.

I can understand that. My son passed the bar exam in Chicago so I don't think he is coming back to Calif for sometime and I want to be with him when he has kids.

boy I would hate to clean up all those leaves

If you move to Chicago you can stalk Marty and Sandy.  Think of the fun!

ILL STALK SANDY NOT MARTY

So......I was out riding my bike yesterday and rode through Southborough, Mass, about half-way to Boston from my house and found THE most beautiful foliage scene I have ever seen in New England.  

It happens to be the "Peaceful Cemetery", just 1/2 mile out from the center of town (the town center isn't as nice as Grafton center, but Southborough has St. Mark's Academy, a very expensive college prep school).  It covers an area of about 15 acres bordered on one side by a lake and the other side by a country road.  The entire area is dwarfed by huge sugar maple trees, resplendent in their reds, golds and yellows, that look as though they are melting onto the lawns below. 

Here you go: