Rain, at last.

It rained hard and long yesterday - the first rain after weeks of none - which has been wonderful in one way in that it has provided a stretch of beautiful, mild fall weather, but it has also led to draught, which has caused the level of water in our spring to go down, which has been a concern. It has not been low enough to turn off the pump and haul water, as we have had to do in some past years, but low enough to conserve water = i.e., use dish water to flush the toilet, not flush with fresh water unless absolutely necessary, use as little water as possible in washing dishes, wash clothes less often and make at least occasional use of the laundromat, take fewer showers, etc. THat has paid off - the level has not only not gone down, it actually was up a bit when we last checked it. I say,"we" checked it - John checked it for us on Tuesday. John and Cynthia stayed with me while Ellen hade a 3-day trip to Swarthmore, Sunday-Tuesday. Ellen was visiting Sarah, Harry and Wallace, her dear friends there near Swarthmore. She dropped me at the Guilford Church Sunday morning and went on her way, I attended church, but did not stay for the Annual Meeting of the church afterward. John came and picked me up at about 11:15am and brought me home. I also gave up going to the Windham-Union Association meeting in Ludlow, VT Sunday afternoon because the church building in Ludlow sounded a bit demanding in terms of getting to various levels. I haven't had a lot of energy lately, and that sounded like too much. I was sorry to miss the meeting, because it sounded interesting and I am a strong supporter of the Association. But I need to pay attention to my energy level because if I get too tired, I could easily fall. One thing in a day is usually enough - in this case, going to church. Thursday, however, I had three things: I had my retired clergy gathering to discuss a book on "aging" in the morning - we have moved on to Aging with Wisdom and Grace by Wilkie Au, after spending six sessions or so on Joan Chittister's The Gift of Years. In the afternoon I had a foot care appt. at 4:30pm, and then a Hallowell rehearsal at 6:15. That could have pretty well done me in. None of those things are strenuous, but they all involved getting in and out of places. Fortunately legs held up. While John and Cynthia were here, Cynthia put together a slide show of pictures she has taken up at the top of Black Mountain behind the house. I can't hike up there any more, so that was wonderful to see. It is a beautiful, magical place. Time has made a change in it since my last trip up there, several years ago. I don't have her photos on my computer, but maybe she can send me some. LATER; It is Friday noon, and about ten people from GCC are here to stack wood. As I said above, it rained hard yesterday-which was great for the spring, but now it is partly cloudy, which is perfect for stacking wood. Yay! Ellen got a photo. Pictures later - I'll publish without photos for now.

Two views on Black Mountain from the Nature Conservancy website.

Here is a picture of some woodstackers!