Hard to believe that a week ago we were in the White Mountain National Forest of New Hampshire and the weather was unbelievably hot and humid. Today we woke at home to heavily overcast skies and an infinitely cooler temperature that wouldn't budge above 16C, although yesterday's high under a bright sun was 24C. Even so, it felt cool and we wore long-sleeved shirts and light jackets. Today we needed warmer clothing, and even Jackie and Jillie wore light little shirts against the cold.

 

Jackie and Jillie overlooking the Baby Basin

 

At the cottage there was a housekeeping element in that every day the kitchen waste was collected and a new trash bag accompanied the fresh linen we received daily. We would render back the four bath towels, four hand towels, washcloths and tea towel every morning, and receive in return freshly washed-and-dried replacements. A two-bedroom cottage doesn't take much to tidy up every day and we'd leave for whatever adventure we had planned for the day, returning in the late afternoon to the cottage to rest and prepare dinner.

 

 

One of our day trips was the short drive from the Waterville Valley to the Franconia Notch and one of its star attraction that didn't include ascending to a mountain peak -- the Basin. There were quite a few other people around who had come to see one of bountiful nature's many geological splendours. The Basin is a granite bowl scoured out of the granite side of one of the many mountains, over the aeons. The water rushes downstream off the mountains, swirls wildly about the bowl, and continues on its way down to the Pemigawasset River below.

 

 

We usually take a narrow, root-staircased sidetrail to the Baby Basin before approaching the 30-ft-wide Basin. It's a miniature of the larger one and doesn't attract many people because of the moderate difficulty of access. Most people who visit these sites tend to be older and not in very good physical shape comparatively speaking.

 

 

This morning brought us several hours of steady rain. When it stopped and most of the laundry had been done, we went out with Jackie and Jillie who were giving us their usual anxious messaging of wondering what was taking us so long before heading out. One of our neighbours was having a specialty lighting company install permanent LED Christmas lights on the perimeter of his roof, so he would no longer have to undertake the usual annual installation of conventional lights.

 

 

The puppies didn't mind wearing light jerseys and they poked about everywhere as usual. Jackie, who usually lingers by our side more than Jillie does, has been doing a lot more independent exploring, racing ahead more often just as his sister does. Mostly responding to the irresistible lure of odours on the forest floor in the inner reaches of the forest. And the far more visible presence of squirrels these days of oncoming autumn. 

 

Yesterday's French onion soup suited the coolness of the evening and today I'm planning a fish paella, hot and spicy and nutritious. Swinging fully into the cuisine of colder weather. Although perhaps we've yet to enjoy a week or so of Indian Summer later in the month or at some time in October. Not as uncomfortably hot as last week, to be sure, but a pause before the really cold late-fall weather sets in, as an introduction to winter...

 

The garden still resembles a late-summer garden. Some things have died back, but for the most part, annuals like begonias, petunias and zinnias are fairly hardy to cooler temperatures and they're continuing to bloom brightly. Some of the roses are also re-blooming, but certainly not all of them. The Canna lilies won't bear any more blooms, but they worked hard at it all summer. Even the hydrangeas are looking weary, but the Morning glory vines are still scrambling upward and onward, happily blooming.