I find in coastal southern New England winter starts a lot later then everyone seems to think. Everyone schedules stuff for the summer, and activities/festivals grind to a halt when September 1 hits even though 90F days are more common then Snow in September. The inevitable September heat wave always surprises everyone. Everyone goes into full-on winter wonderland mode in November (or late October)...but most of the serious snow around Boston and Rhode Island comes in January or February. Generally people get sick of the winter wonderland stuff before REAL winter hits most years. We have this image (conjured by Christmas cards and the traumatic memories of a few bad winters) of the ground being continuously covered in snow all winter, but that is rarely the case around Boston or Rhode Island. Late Summer: Beach Season, Music Festival Season, Summer Vacation, mosquitoes, miserable heat waves in the city. People go into gardening mode even though it is a terrible time to plant trees. Early Fall: People go into mourning, cancel social events, and wait, terrified of impending snow while sweating in heat waves. School starts. Lecture Season. People should be planting trees and bulbs but don't. Late Fall/Early Winter: People realize it isn't terrible, come out of their holes, and start scheduling stuff. People have forgotten how to deal with snow so overreact to any that occurs. Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas blitz. Late Winter: Real Snow storms hit when people finally think it isn't going to happen this year. People are sick of snow. Oddly they schedule more stuff then in the balmy days of early Fall. They feel like old pros where snow is concerned. Early Spring: Occasional snow storms confuse people. Mud Season. Late Spring/Early Summer: Great weather when it isn't raining. Mosquitoes. Mother's Day/Father's Day/Graduation Season. People start planting trees, shrubs, and bulbs way too late.

I am glad you enjoyed the pancakes. I wish I could have sent some frozen wild Maine blueberries to go with, but couldn't quite manage that! Stonewall Kitchen makes amazing treats. I have not tried the roasted garlic and onion jam yet but I will do so soon. We buy their ketchup exclusively, it is fabulous. I was thinking of you today as we ate breakfast and watched the birds in the backyard at the feeders. We have a storm coming in thus the feeders were extra busy. We watched one chickadee up close when it perched on the grapevine by the window less than 3 feet from us. I need to try and hand feed them.

Thanks for posting the article. DH came home with news of the sale last week after hearing about it on the radio. I couldn't believe it. We've been shopping at Tuttle's for decades. DD's first paying job was working in their gift/floral dept. summers during HS. My first adult job was working at a Dover bank where Hugh Tuttle served as a Trustee. He was one of the nicest and most respected people in the area. No one had better corn, and I still make a special trip down for the fresh mozzeralla and feta cheese they stock. So sad to see the end of this era.

Well, to be honest, I haven't seen a whole lot of bats, there is another scraggly one at the C&S nursery, not sure I want to "adopt" that one...I took a second look at my dark green one and it has some pattern to the leaves, just nothing as clear as Katrina's. Dunno, thanks to both of you for helping try to name my batty.