Red, yellows and oranges cover the mountain side behind my house.  I have been waiting for awhile for this time to come.  I took a nice hike up the hill yesterday to notice all the colorful leaves and to play in the stream that flows along the path.  I had to climb a steep hill to get to it though and then I played in it for awhile.  It is a stream made of all shale rock and there is no sand or fine particles as you may find in a river bed.  This stream flows over the shale rock and erodes it away and someday, a long time from now, there will be sand and smaller particles, but that is going to take awhile.  I have also been to Billings Farm and Museum in Woodstock, VT (http://www.billingsfarm.org/) this weekend.  What an experience.  I got to taste pumpkin bread, taste test four different types of apples, see the jersey cows in the milking barn, look at the farm exhibits, try to eat an apple off a string without using my hands and try pumpkin ice cream!  Billings Farm was started in 1871 and today it is apart of the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, the only national park to tell the story of conservation history and the evolving nature of land stewardship in America.  I have really enjoyed this break, but it has been hard trying to study when it has been so nice outside.  The weather has ranged from low 80s to low 70s this weekend with some rain here and there, but overall it has been a perfect weekend.