Noel pictures, taken on our September visit

Noel and Grammy at the Dallas, Texas zoo on a very hot day, September 7. She loves her visits to the zoo. The family has a membership and makes frequent visits. Noel was a good guide, and she knew which animals resided in each major area. Her favorites are the giraffes and the elephants, although it seemed to us she liked all of the animals. She is sitting on a statute of a large tortoise.




Noel started taking hockey lessons in May. She had been learning to skate before she moved to Texas. She took skating lessons in Texas, and then in May was ready to begin lessons that would teach skating techniques for hockey. She is enjoying the lessons, and is the only girl in her class of five and six year olds.





Noel has a complete hockey uniform provided by the professional team, the Dallas Stars, who are encouraging children and adults to learn to skate. There are many skating rinks in the Dallas area, and a new one has just opened in McKinney, Texas where she lives. The lessons at her level do not include use of the stick, but are teaching the kids all the skills of skating backwards, forward, cross overs, balance, etc. Skating is year round in Texas, whereas the local rink in North Adams only operates in the winter. In the hot summers, it is no wonder so many people are enjoying skating in Texas!

Preparing for winter...leaves, pine needles and lady bugs

These last few weeks, Barre has been diligently working outdoors to have the lawn, trees, and greenhouse ready for winter weather. He patiently waited for most of the leaves to fall, and mowed the lawn and leaves, then after a week or so, mowed the last leaves that had fallen. He does not rake leaves, but the wind blows the pieces into the gardens for mulch. Previous to this job, he had cut back all the day lilies and irises for the winter. The longest and most tedious job, is adding an extra layer of heavy plastic to lower the ceiling of the greenhouse, and add more protection to the sides so more heat will remain inside. He also had to replace one of the panels at the end of the season. Now the greenhouse has been "put to sleep"

This year he wrapped only a few young evergreen trees that he had just planted. He mulched others with pine needles, and declared it is time to test their survival after a few winters living "out of their zone". We are at zone 5, and he has a redwood tree (zone 7), and a sequoia (zone 6), as well as hardy banana trees which produce no edible fruit. Our large evergreens in the backyard have produced all the needles needed to protect the other trees.
The last project Barre attempted was to collect lady bugs to live in the green house for the winter. After the first frost, the lady bugs swarmed on the house for a few days, and he collected at least 500 of them. However, within a few days, he no longer saw them in the greenhouse. Now he wonders where they went, because they seem to be invisible!