Two pleasant surprises this week brought visitors and resulted in a lot of reminiscing. A high school friend, in Connecticut for his college reunion, Daniel Skandera, took time out to spend an afternoon at my house. He was wondering if we could contact another schoolmate, also from our high school days. So we called Evelyn Thompson Burns and she came right over and we had a small class reunion!

Danny was a star golfer on the Danbury High School team who went on to become a pilot in World War II. He lives in Norcross, near Atlanta, Georgia.

Evelyn is as vivacious as always. She has discovered a talent as an artist since coming to the village, and her work has brought forth much acclaim. Her paintings often are of animals, and they appeal to me.

When three people who haven’t seen one another for many years try to fill in all the gaps between high school and the senior years, an afternoon is not long enough! Evelyn has kept her infectious giggle, and Danny has a great capacity to recall names and tidbits from the past.

When we said goodbye that afternoon, we promised to stay in touch more often, and I think we will.

The other visitors were friends from Monroe – Julie de Leon, a teacher whom I have known for over 40 years, and Rosemary Wishneski, another teacher, who had attended the same reunion dinner that Danny Skandera had come north to attend. It was an absolutely perfect autumn day, and we oohed and aahed our way through the fall foliage up to Woodbury. Lunch at the old inn, “The Curtis House,” lasted at least two hours and we also caught up on news of one another and many mutual friends.

When Susan, on vacation all week, came to take me to get a haircut and do a bit of birthday shopping, I ended up at one store and did, also, four Christmas gifts. After being unable to get out to shop for exactly five months, I was right in the mood.

Everyone had thought foliage time wouldn’t be as beautiful this year. It fooled us all. Dame Nature provided a real riot of color and beauty – a compensation perhaps for the horrible weather of the long summer.

My very small patch of yard has been a place of unusual activity the past week. I am especially nervous because several juncos have arrived from up north and have settled into an eating pattern under the spruce tree. I have never known them to arrive until just before an early snowstorm. May this year be the exception!

A nature writer up in Vermont has written about the abundance of chickadee activity this fall. They confirm what an area nature writer has commented about. There are many more chickadees than usual in my yard and there are titmice and nuthatches and several varieties of sparrows. But the very best “find” this week was an active red-breasted nuthatch. I had these lively and friendly birds two winters in Monroe, and a flock of them spent all day at the feeder in our son’s yard in Andover, Vermont. They are smaller than the white-breasted variety we have always had here and have a shorter tail.

I have learned to deal with the ever-present squirrels by providing them with some cracked corn at the edge of the yard. One determined fellow is being a real pest this fall.

Layers of white frost on the neighboring rooftops signaled the end of many garden plants. Such a brisk day also encourages folks to get fall chores done. I have heard of a project to clean the windows outside, take down the awnings, bring in all the houseplants, clean up the garden and yes, get out the snow shovel. The juncos coaxed me into that thought; meantime, get out and enjoy every last nice day of this special season.

Last week’s quotation was from “Rock Me to Sleep” by Elizabeth Akers Allen.

Who said, “Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself”?

(Editor’s Note: Jean Loveland will celebrate her 80th birthday on Halloween, Sunday, October 31. Though she will be celebrating privately with her family, those wishing to send birthday greetings may write to her at 34-B Heritage Village, Southbury, CT 06488)