Utah's vibrant Fall Colors

It's difficult to choose only a few from Provo Canyon's Alpine Loop!

  A favorite kids park is on Canyon Road in Provo near Rock Canyon

                Our first snow dusted the Wasatch range on Friday

Sophie Wendenburg, German cousin and exchange student with the Taylors cooked a delicious German meatballs and potato dinner.

Sabr, Emily & Sophie(above); Andrew, Madina,Elijah & Sabr(below)

   Sophie's Madrigals and A cappella choir concert at Timpview HS

We are so grateful for the inspiration, guidance, wisdom and devotion of our gentle and beloved President and Prophet Russell M. Nelson, who passed away at age 101 on September 27. He was a remarkable church leader (the oldest current religious leader) and a brilliant, renowned heart surgeon. May his messages of compassion, love, kindness, understanding and especially his plea for peace resonate in this world of turmoil, division and hatred. 

       Happy neighborhood kids waiting for the morning school bus.

Sabr and 2 of her 3 three youngest children, who have been staying with me, moved into their new apartment about one mile away.

Elijah's flag football team after the final game . They came in second

The fabulous BYU Philharmonic performed Schubert's Ninth Symphony. I'm so grateful to be able to enjoy the talents of the highly gifted students and conductors at BYU.

This year, October 13, 2025, is Canadian Thanksgiving, the last day of Sukkot, and Indigenous Peoples' Day, and also officially Columbus Day. It should be a time of coming together to celebrate our common humanity.

Columbus Day is a national holiday in many countries of the Americas and elsewhere, and a federal holiday in the United States, which officially celebrates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival  in the Americas. He went ashore at Guanahani, an island in the Bahamas, on October 12, 1492. On his return in 1493, he moved his coastal base of operations 70 miles (110 km) east to the island of Hispaniola in what is now the Dominican Republic and established the settlement of La Isabela, the first permanent Spanish settlement in the Americas. It is a lovely site I was privileged to visit.

Our history has been fraught with wars, exploitation, slavery, racism, and every imaginable form of persecution and discrimination. It is time to espouse the pure teachings of Jesus Christ and every other religious founder, to be peacemakers, to enjoy the amazingly beautiful world created for us by our Heavenly Father, to examine our hearts, to resist evil and to love and serve all His children. Try to see each other as God sees them now and for their potential.

 The Last week of September 2025

My son Marc and family live in Daybreak/South Jordan near the lovely Oquirrh Mountain Temple, with a wide view of the valley

        Cousins Cordelia de S. (and sisters ) Hannah and Evie de S.

           Fun to watch my sons Peter and Marc play piano together

September 23, I flew from SLC to Boston via Denver to visit daughter Anne and her husband Neil

Anne is an executive with Takeda Pharmaceutical company located in the heart of Cambridge's biotech industry, next to Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.

While Anne was working Neil and I took an (American Revolutionary War) Freedom Trail tour with a wonderfully knowledgeable and enthusiastic guide, Maura (recent graduate of Boston College).

           The Granary where 100's are buried (several layers deep!)

A brick commemoration of the Irish who fled the famine in the 1800's

The Old State House, 1713, the oldest surviving public building in Boston

                         Paul Revere's house and his monument 

In the Harvard U. Natural History museum is an amazing detailed permanent collection of Glass flowers. Beautiful and anatomically correct. Botany students come to study here.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' Institute building, Cambridge, and across the street is...

The historic home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Cambridge, MA

After a wonderful dinner in Cambridge with Anne's good friends and colleagues Jane and Cassie, we left early the next morning to drive (3.5 hours) to Dorset, near Manchester in southern Vermont where Anne and Neil have a beautiful home.

Anne found an amazingly appropriate for our times painting of the Greek muse Clio who preserved the history and records of her time. Here, banned/burning books, deportation of immigrants, and basic discounting of science (the titles of all the books are significant)

his wonderful painting depicting our times. See the immigrants lea

            The Dorset General Store is very old and charming

We drove to the Clark art museum in Williamstown, MA. It was wonderful but we just missed the exhibition of British women artists of 1875-1945, which was our goal. I loved the Homer, French, English. America classical and impressionist art.

American artist Elizabeth Nourse's The Kiss c.1906. As the youngest of 10 children, she often depicts siblings

         Felix Valloton's (1865-1925)Wheat Field in Brittany, France

                             Odilon Redon's Woman with a Vase of Flowers
 Sterling and Francine Clark who founded the Clark Institute of Art in 1955, regret not buying more Degas (and other) works

          French sculptress Camille Claudel's Abandonment, 1905

Pierre-Auguste Renoir's View at Guernsey, 1883

   Constant Troyon's Going to Market on a Misty Morning, 1851

          Theodore Rousseau's Farm in the Landes       

                        Jules Dalou's Wisdom supporting Liberty

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (British, born in the Netherlnds) 's Preparation for the Festivities

                              James Tissot's Chrysanthemums

I truly love Clare Leighton's wood engraving illustrations and pictures included in her anthology The Rural Life.

                           Behind the Clark are lovely grounds

           Williams College has some wonderful colonial buildings

We enjoyed a wonderful farm and bought pumpkins from a delightful 82 year old man who was the 1971 national snowmobile champion, Keith Armstrong, inducted into the national hall of Fame in 2024!

We drove through spectacular countryside to the Southern Vermont Art Institute and enjoyed a practice session of the young musicians from the Kinhaven music programs and had dinner at the art institute

                    Dorset farmer's market

In the creek picking up beautiful smooth marble, granite, other stones

While Anne was working Neil and I visited the Merck farm and nature preserve. The Northern Appalachian Acadian Bio-region (82 million acres) includes all or portions of 5 northeastern states and 4 southeastern and Maritime provinces of Canada. It is the largest intact temperate mixed broadleaf forest remaining in the world. It includes ocean shorelines, mountain ranges, River valleys, wetlands and grasslands.

           Maple sap house and animal barn 

Front and side of Anne and Neil's beautiful home in Dorset, Vermont

             This and the following are of their back yard/property

Old covered bridge, fields of harvested wheat, and lovely southern New England homes

What a great relaxing and interesting trip and visit!