It is September and summer is ending and I am packing to return to Massachusetts tomororw. Such mixed feelings!  I have a very busy fall coming up and it is hard to leave these long solitary days and the occasional visits from good friends.

When I'm gone I will be still be tended here by Mark, who is doing some carpentry for me; and Craig, who made the masterpiece of a sign...not yet installed...that will go over my barn door; and John, who is painting the house and barn this fall; and Lucia, whose crew will put the gardens to bed for the winter.

The gardens! They know fall is coming, too. Here is a wonderful hydrangea that begins as white, then seeps onto pink, and now, in September is a deep rose that matches the light at dawn.

And a Chinese larkspur who decided to bloom again, one more time, just for the heck of it, and a delphinium as well...I guess they wanted to show off their wonderful blues one more time...

THe birds are still breakfasting at the feeder but I will take it inside tomorrow for the last time.

I am always a little sad, leaving Maine, though I have lots to go back to and see all sorts of interesting things on my calendar...lunches with friends, theater tickets, a Red Sox game, plus of course the book events which will take me first to the National Book Festival in Washington DC. and then a whirlwind of cities.

Plus writing to do. Of course.

And now: to get on with cleaning out the pantry and removing everything that MICE will want to nibble this fall.