What a rainstorm last night! The remnants of Hurricane Fred. Things had gotten very dry so that was good that we got the several inches of rain that we did. It is tomato season. If you like tomatoes and didn’t plant them in your garden, your friends with tomatoes will probably soon be giving you tomatoes to enjoy.

We notice when the migrating birds arrive in the spring, but we sometimes don’t notice when the migrating birds return to their winter homes. In case you haven’t noticed it, the red-winged black birds have left. The Otto household wrens left several weeks ago, although there were still some wrens in the neighborhood. Soon the swallows will leave.

Have you noticed that many CEMETERIES have HYDRANGEA bushes that are currently in bloom? I wonder why so many cemeteries have hydrangea bushes.

FIELD OF DREAMS. I hope that you got the chance to watch the Field of Dreams ballgame last Thursday night. Awesome evening. The cornfields were amazing, the weather was perfect, Kevin Costner was great, the Star-Spangled banner, the fly over, perfect evening, except if you were a Yankees fan (the Yankees lost).

Penny Social, Saturday, August 21st, Callicoon Youth Center, doors open at noon. Kiwanis Club.

As I write this column on early Thursday morning, I am mapping out my day and plan to attend a farewell event this evening at THE FAT LADY CAFE in Kauneonga Lake. Owner Judith Maidenbaum has decided to close the doors of her restaurant. Although I have never owned a restaurant, I have had my own business for more than 20 years. They say that unless you own your own business, you really don’t have a full appreciation of how challenging this can be. I tip my hat to Judith and thank her for her contributions to the Kauenonga Lake restaurant scene and the Town of Bethel.

Leslie Loeffel, the unofficial Kenoza Lake Historian, sent me Chapter Two of KENOZA LAKE HISTORY HIGHLIGHTS, as follows:

1. August was time for the Kenoza Lake Carnival, the biggest social event of the summer season. The first carnival, in 1907, featured hundreds of Japanese lanterns strung along the houses and streets with a bunting-trimmed arch to welcome visitors. Boat races, foot faces, a decorated boat contest, and a bareback horse race entertained the estimated 3,000 attendees.
2. Back to school time! The Kenoza Lake, then called Pike Pond, one-room schoolhouse was located on the left (south side) as one starts up Fulton Hill Road from the village. Nathan Moulthrop, the town’s major landowner, sold the schoolhouse land to the trustees in 1850 for twenty-five dollars. However, a school likely existed before that time. A history of the Kenoza Lake United Methodist Church claims that a log schoolhouse was used by traveling Presbyterian missionaries before 1840. However, so many objects were thrown at one of these preachers that he decided not to return.

No column next week.

FULL MOON, Sunday, August 22nd, Sturgeon Moon and this full moon is a Blue Moon! See below excerpt as to why a Blue Moon:

THE ALMANAC RULE (definition) of a BLUE MOON. Back in the July 1943 issue of Sky & Telescope magazine, in a question-and-answer column, there was a reference made to the term “Blue Moon.” The unusual term was cited from a copy of the 1937 edition of the now-defunct Maine Farmers' Almanac.

That explanation said that the full moon “usually comes full 12 times in a year, three times for each season.” Occasionally, however, there will come a year when there are 13 full moons, not the usual 12. The almanac explanation continued:

“This was considered a very unfortunate circumstance ... and it upset the regular arrangement of church festivals. For this reason, 13 came to be considered an unlucky number.”

And with that extra full moon, it also meant that one of the four seasons that year would contain four full moons instead of the usual three. When a particular season has four full moons the third was apparently called a Blue Moon so that the fourth and final one can continue to be called the “late moon.”

Please note that the above definition of a blue moon is different from the “two full moons in a month” definition of a blue moon that is so popular today.