Blogs from Needham, Massachusetts, United States, North America

I love fall in New England. Every day I look outside my apartment window at the bright yellow tree less than a yard away, and remind myself just how few places get foliage like this. It’s still bright late in the month, a small sign of one of the best foliage seasons in years. Today dawned bright and warm, creating the irresistible desire to hike. Local foliage was still at peak, so I wanted something close. I went to the popular Noanet Reservation less than twenty miles from Boston. Noanet lies within Dover. It’s one of those wealthy communities where everything wants to look like a horse farm. No tract housing here! The town has an extensive network of conservation land, of which Noanet forms a centerpiece. Once off the main highway everything became twisty, slow, ... read more

So here is what's happening: The most stressful part of our move is over. The moving crew was here and burned through all our belongings in about a day and a half. After we fought a battle with ourselves over what to keep and what to throw away, we managed to bring (I estimate) 7-800 pounds of stuff to the town dump. Now all our belongings are in the moving van, except for a small fraction in our own mini-van. And we're still married!!!! ... read more

Leslie here. We've all been cautiously optimistic that this whole deal will actually go through. It seemed more concrete when the buyers signed the whatever-it-is a few days ago, but I am not surprised to find that there was another hoop or two to jump through. If all goes well, Mom and Dad will be homeless vagabonds in exactly one week. One last minute glitch -- the radon test came back positive, which means the reading was too high for the presence of radon, so we have to get the radon mitigation guy in here to get rid of it. This is fairly routine, I hear, so it won't delay the closing on Dec. 16. This is Lindsay. Radon mitigation is a cinch, so no worries. Mom and Dad will be toolin' on down to Dixie ... read more