studiokusko: Late Summer, Augustus, and Abe

Late Summer:
As fall approaches we are finally getting some glorious east coast weather. We were able to have breakfast on Sarah and Matt's porch a few weeks ago and to go blackberry picking on their property.

Here's Sarah just two weeks before giving birth to Abe. You can see Sarah and Matt's beautiful farmhouse in the background. I've been hitting up the farmers market each weekend for great produce but the berries are not very abundant (and are very pricey) so it was fun to pick some berries right off the bush. Judson had a rule...two in his mouth and two in the bucket...this is my kind of rule.

Tom and Jud were the dynamic berry picking duo. With Jud on his shoulders Tom would swoop down to give Jud the best berry access. This was a super pleasant day because it was sunny from sun up to sun down. Summer has gone by quickly, though and there are definitely signs that autumn is imminent. Lots of trees are just starting to change color. We're hoping to at least have a few more weeks of warm, sunny weather so we feel we got a little taste of the east coast summer we were hoping for.

Augustus (aka Gus):
After breakfast on the porch, we went over to the Upper Valley Humane Society near where Tom's parents live in NH and we wound up finding a cat to foster. His name at the shelter was Riley, but we've decided to name him Augustus and call him Gus for short. Gus is named after Augustus Saint-Gaudens, a sculptor who lived and worked in the Cornish Art Colony along with others artists such as Maxfield Parrish. Tom's father grew up in this area and his family was lived among these artists. Maxfield Parrish's home is right down the street from where Sue and Dave are building their new home (on the spot where they had their family cabin since Tom was a baby). Lots of Dave's family still lives in this area. Since we found Gus nearby we thought this was an appropriate name; we also found him in August which makes it doubly appropriate.

We are just fostering him for now to see how he gets along with Odin, but things seem to be going well aside from a bit of batting and a few little fights we had to break up. They seem to want to be near each other most of the time, though, and have been sleeping on our bed together at night. Odin was pretty freaked out at first, but ultimately we feel like it will be good for him to have a buddy.