A canoe

Noah has been talking about getting a canoe ever since we moved into this place. It is ideal, right on a little pond, lots of water birds and other wildlife.

Yesterday he bought this one. It's yellow... 15ft long... by Great Canadian... Noah is in love! The guy who sold it to us was very helpful in getting the canoe strapped to Subaruby (who was in her element yesterday, by the way). We took the side streets (aka LONG WAY) home from Madison, CT, which is out east of New Haven. No trouble getting it back to the house.

Then we had to let Tag investigate it.

Lori tried to talk Tag into the canoe, but he wasn't buying it. So we carried it down to the water and prepared to launch.

Noah, true to form, took time to explain where he thought would be the best spot to put her in the water (complete with hand gestures).

And we put her in!

Tag stood by to oversee the whole process. And off Noah went in his yellow canoe!

Here is Tag waiting to help us bring the canoe back in after Noah's maiden voyage around the pond.

And a very happy Noah with his new favorite toy.

Today was much chillier and cloudier than yesterday. We ran errands in the morning, went to the bookstore and the art store... had cupcakes for breakfast...

And when we got back from our errands, Noah took Lori and me out in the canoe for a little spin.

Lori sat in the front and helped paddle while I took photos. She kindly snapped this photo of me as well :)

This is our house as seen from the pond in a yellow canoe:

And this is the abandoned factory on the other side of the pond. It's actually owned now and a developer is hoping to renovate it into loft apartments... one day... when the housing market resuscitates... for now it still looks cool and abandoned.

The factory is the reason the pond and our house exists. In the late 1800s, the factory was built to make screens out of animal hair. They dammed the creek to make "Factory Pond" and in the 1920's built a row of duplexes as housing for some of their staff.

Now we enjoy the pond and the many birds and beasts that frequent it, and live in one of those duplexes.  Pretty nice for us!

Noah plans to take the canoe out every morning before work. Hmmm... we'll see how long that lasts ;) In the meantime, fall is quickly closing in on us here in the Northeast. It's lovely to see the season change, to pull out my sweaters and eat soup and plan what books I'll read and paintings I'll do once it gets too cold for trekking with Tag.

Tag enjoyed hiking at Huntington State Park with me last week, but he's come down with kennel cough and so he's bored because I've been keeping him in the past few days. Kennel cough is not really dangerous, but it is contagious... so we'll be happy when he is through it and we can go back out hiking.

This week Lori is here. She's been hired to work at a new REI in Norwalk and is going through training. She'll live with us for a while as she works part time... and when she's not working probably will venture back up to MA to visit her family, that is, if I let her. Having her around is extra-entertaining for me. Now if only I could entice Leslie back out here, my happiness would be complete :) 'Til then I'll content myself with ventures in cat-training and perhaps finishing my short story.