Hurricane/Tropical Storm Sandy is on her way. Mom and I went to Thicut to check on the house.Predictions are for lots of rain and gusty winds.

• I moved the small tables and green metal shelves off the porch to the back of the barn
• put the garbage can and recycling bin in the garage
• The yellow mums are beautiful in the garden in front of the barn
• There's NO wind today; it is very still and peaceful
• the leaves are mostly down off the trees
• And as I walked toward the pond, I heard but didn't see, a frog jump in.

Bob, Mom, and I went to Thicut today

• the yellow house looks wonderful against all the colorful fall leaves!
• we mowed thoroughly
• cut down the brown peony stems/leaves
• Mom enjoyed the scenery and activity from Bert's windows: the temperature was a nice 64 degrees
• firepit looks good: field is a little long but Bob says it will survive the winter

Welcome Fall!
Aunt Sandy and Eric drove to Bethesda on Monday. I stopped by yesterday to 'just check on things':

• the basement looks AMAZING! Eric and Aunt Sandy really took a lot of stuff out (Eric burned some in the fire pit!) and the floor is swept. 
• all garbage bags,etc fit in Bert (our SUV) and disposed of at our dump
• the oil tank reads 1/2 full
• I turned off the water heater
• The house temperature set at 50, storm windows all in and down (I didn't check the attic: will do that next time)
• found a boiled egg in a pot on the stove. Thanks, Aunt Sandy: it was a nice addition to our stir fry dinner last night :)
• the fall colors are peaking and very beautiful 
• the Catalpa leaves have dropped ('foomp'), so we'll rake them up next time (bought a new rake to replace the one I broke!)
• probably will need to mow once more
• there was mail in the mailbox; I'll send that along