EARLY SIGNS OF FALL

We had our first frost last week on September 9, 2003 and some of the leaves are beginning to turn while the geese look for corn in the recently cut corn fields prior to their trip South

Above is a very early picture of what is to come. I am not sure just what causes some trees to start to turn so early, but this particular one appears to be because the tree is old and maybe, just maybe one of the branches appears to not be as healthy as the others.

This shows the full tree and the parts that have colored.

In the mid 1960s, my younger sister gave Maryann and I the above statue of The Blessed Virgin - It remained in the wooden box until we built our new house in 1968 and we set it up. This past summer, with the addition of the new garage, it ended up being in the back of the garage under what is now a rather large maple tree. We decided to move it and put it in front of the house. Since there were no flowers around it, we looked around locally for some Hardy Fall Mums. We found some beautiful ones down at The J & L Hardware Greenhouse down here in Fairfax Commons. It does look rather nice and peaceful if I can just keep the Mums looking as good as they do now for the next month or so.

The above photo was taken early one morning when I went out to get the newspaper. We converted our old attached garage into a handicapped accessible bedroom, bathroom and office area with a ramp in the back of the house and added a detached garage. We still need to get some vinyl shutters for the old converted garage and have everything else just about done. It has been a true blessing for Maryann as she is now able to go outside whenever she wants and enjoy the true Vermont peaceful beauty. She has even casually mentioned that this winter, I snow blow a little path for her to enjoy the winter also.

The above photo shows the bedroom which is one of three rooms, all handicapped accessible with large 42" pocket door, for easy access with a wheelchair. The bathroom has a 5' x 4' wheelchair accessible shower with a countertop only for the vanity, again to make it wheelchair accessible. One of the three closets in the room is designed with two doors that could be removed and racks and shelves are in a U shape, also for acess with a wheelchair if need be. At the present time she is not wheelchair bound, but should the occasion ever arise as we get older, we should have no problem remaining in our home which we truly enjoy. We had the room designed by Architect Mike Dugan from Essex Junction - Brad Meunier and his crew did all of the renovations and The Pigeon Brothers, Joey & Todd did all the excavation. Premiere Paving from Georgia did the blacktop driveway. It has been a long process, but these young men did a great job and we certainly are very happy with their accomplishments - They catered to our every whim and did everything they could that we wanted without questioning our reasons, making sure that Maryann was able to get in and out of the house at all times.

Henry A. Raymond
vtgrandpa@yahoo.com
September 15, 2003