What a difference a week makes.  Driving home from Wellfleet, I could see the results of a hard frost, dead fields, sunflowers drooping and black.  Home to reality of winter setting in.  Even the juncos are back, and I turned on the heat for the first time.

Wellfleet was wonderful, in spite of a lot of rainy days.  It is the most beautiful spot in the world, I am convinced of that.  Watching the tide go in and out from our front window, is a sight you never get tired of.  We had birds, a new one, red breasted nuthatch.  The Cape Cod paper said there are flocks of them in the area, apparently due to a lack of pine cone seed up north.  A fox came to the deck to eat the seeds as well, a real beauty, with a fluffy tail ending all in white.  We saw seals at the ocean and even in the bay side at Duck Harbor.  And of course, the Cape Cod food, the best scallops, clams and oysters you can ever eat.

The festival was very crowded, probably even more so than last year.  People watching is my favorite sport there, after drinking the dark beer and eating oysters, and listening to the bands.  There are not many kids there - parents realize the crowds make it difficult to keep them near.  The people with kids park them at a bench and it is fun to watch them amuse themselves, some by dancing on top of the tables (I expected one little girl dancer to fall on her head any moment, but she didn't) or others acting up by tormenting each other.
Two boys across the table from me starting throwing popcorn at me until I gave them my church face.  The best time was seeing my old friend Caleb and giving him a hug.  "Are you my girlfriend?"  he asked and I said I sure was.  He is a special reminder in my life, and seeing him was a gift (maybe from Ria).

So we're back, another yearly ritual successfully completed.

Well a whole month to get caught up on, in a nutshell, so to speak.  Timmy and I went to Bard to hear Ralph Nader speak in a conference that was titled "Do we need a President?"  He was excellent, spoke for over and hour standing up, without notes.  (The standing up part is astonishing to me with my bad knees.)  He spoke on our compliance, our reluctance to get invoved, and he urged more vigilance, more involvement to know what your district's representatives are doing in Congress.  When he said there are more birdwatchers than Congress watchers, I laughed out loud.  But he is right.

Then our guests - I guess I could nutshell it in "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" and enough said.  We did have one guest that was very nice, very complimentary and gave me a geneous tip - the first of the year.  So I guess that equals out. 

We did a street painting last weekend, Laura did Hansel and Gretel, Sabra's family did a Halloween cat scene, with their own personal cats, Regina did the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland, and I did a witch on a broom.  Lots of fun, and it is great to see all the people on the street, painting away.  Lots of memories of Maria and Margaret helping me with the street paintings, doing demos all over the place.  I put their names in the corner of the witch.

Our street had a bit of excitement when we were told some of the residents no longer wanted street lights on Clay Hill Road.  Sabra and I reacted the same way...what are they thinking?  The street lights give us safety and security, the ability to walk downstairs at night - not in complete darkness.  On a winter's night you can peek at the light to see if the snow has stopped.  Anyway, one light was dismantled (no one knows who did it) and Central Hudson put up another one almost at once.  I guess that's the end of the street light controvery.

I'll end with Ria's grave, the flowers are beautiful and I had to cut the mint, it was taller than the stone, but thick and lush, and a wonderful smell.  The pilot's grave has a new addition - a real mail box, so his children can write to him...Isn't that wonderful?  I am thinking about writing to him myself.

Well, Sunday we are off to Oysterfest, our 12th year attending.  I am excited.  There you have it, September 2012 in a nutshell.