Pancake Man takes on HP (the books, not the company)

Pancake man returns, having been on an extended vacation... (no doubt you were hoping that he'd been lost forever, but alas, he's back).

Scary school bus notices

Lydia rides the bus to school; this fall they sent her the following notice:

Her reaction of course: "4 AM? How will I ever get up in time?" :-)

Cider Making

We made some apple cider while visiting my dad in Tyringham this past weekend. Weirdly early for apples-- normally they aren't usable until a good deal later in the fall. This year, though, it seemed as though every branch was packed; there were trees bearing fruit that I had never seen with apples before.

Also a few interesting mushrooms and fungi:

These ones below are puff-balls: quite edible (and tasty to boot).  We had some for dinner our first night.

Joanie made a delicious lamb recipe from the NYT. Here is a recipe link. I'm going to try making it myself (it was yummy and it doesn't look too difficult).

The peach trees were also loaded down. A lot of the trees had lost limbs because of the weight of the fruit:

It was a very nice weekend... the weather was a bit warm but quite cooperative overall. Ethan and I had a couple of good long runs, and the kids spent countless hours in the swimming pool with their cousins Ken and Janet.