A Golden End

With all the rains in the beginning of the year and then the heat, never really got that hot, and the dryness you wouldn't have thought that this fall would be so brilliant in color in this area.  We do not get the colors of Michigan, Wisconsin, West Virginia or the northern eastern seaboard.  But this year has been very generous in mother natures color.

I must put out a tribute to a blogger from Maine.  His name I never knew until just yesterday.  He a 7th grade teacher in literature and the arts for 41 years at the same school  until retirement.  He never missed a posting in over a year or two....maybe even longer than that.  I should look that info up.  I read his post of 10/17/15 and then notice either the next day or Monday that he hadn't posted anything.  Well, I just learned his name a day ago when I checked the Portland, ME obits and found he had passed away suddenly on 10/17/15.  Mark Norton, also referred to as Birdman.  His blog was pORTLANDcITYdAILYpHOTO.  He grew up in Portland and would take you through memory lane every so often, talking about his paper route, playing baseball in the summer or just hanging out as boys will on lazy summer days, well, at least back then.  I know, that's what we...my brother and I did back then.  He told stories of how he met his wife, she had just graduated from college with an art degree and applied to where he was teaching.  She was from New Hampshire and had no place to stay so after staying with friends and something like the Y she moved in with Mark as a roommate.  Fate took over from there.  They ended up living in Buxton, ME on a small piece of land just to get out of the city.

So, this is my Golden tribute to a guy I never met but wish I had.  We did converse every now and then through our blogs...it was fun.  He will be missed.