In fact, our tour guide, Paul Kuhn, has just finished explaining about the bald eagles around the lake when our skipper, whose name we believe was Doug, pointed out the bird which was just a bit ahead and, obviously, above the boat.

It was then announced that it was a mature bird as both the head and tail were white. With that, the bird very nicely turned so that we could all see the white head and white tail. It then proceeded to fly down the lake in the direction of Cooperstown amid much joking on the boat as to whether or not it was a staged appearance on the part of the bird. All in all, it was a delightful trip as we always enjoy not only the lake but also the shoreline from a different perspective.

After the boat trip, we enjoyed a box lunch at the Herder's Cottage and then toured the Otsego Lake exhibit at The Farmers' Museum. All in all, it was a most enjoyable day and certainly reminded us of one of the many reason why any number of people choose to visit our area.

Several weeks ago now, we had the opportunity to have lunch with former Cooperstonian Diane Fetterman.

And although we stay in touch with Diane via e-mail, we found catching up in person on all the various events of the year to be a much more satisfying experience than our e-mails. But we suspect that we will always find a face-to-face conversation the best form of communication going. And so, even though we will stay in touch with Diane, we will, nonetheless, be looking forward to the next time when we can once again get together.

One of the things which we have spent some time recently doing is trying to catch up on our reading. For some reason, we always seem to be behind. While going through some back issues of the Kenyon College Alumni bulletin, we found in the spring 2004 issue we found an article entitled "Literary Midwife: Jerry Kelly '96 runs a one-man publishing house," written by Dan Laskin. Since the wee-we also graduated from Kenyon in we started reading the article which talks about the various books and authors which have been published by Xoxox, Mr. Kelly's publishing house.

We were somewhat surprised when we read: "More typical, perhaps, is Grace Kull, an octogenarian homemaker from Cooperstown, New York, who came to Kelly though his network of writer friends. In 2000, Kelly published Dear Bert, a collection of letters by Kull to her sister-in-law. In 2003, he brought out Traces: A Soldier Writes Home, a collection of war-time letters by Kull's brother, John R. Rames, who was killed in the Battle of the Bulge in 1945. In both cases Kelly was drawn by the personality and humor that shone in the letters, as well as by the way the letters' mundane details evoked a particular era while innocently touching universal chords." Of course, had we paid any attention when reading Grace's books, we might have picked up on the fact that they were published by someone who graduated from college with the wee-we.

Not long ago, Barbara Pope shared with us a little pamphlet entitled "A Little Directory of Women's Industries in Cooperstown, N.Y." Unfortunately, there is no date on this particular pamphlet, but we must admit that we found the contents fascinating. The list, "Beginning at East End of Village" of all the various industrial undertakings of the women of the village includes "THE WOMEN'S EXCHANGE, 26 Main Street, Elizabeth Cooper Keese, Hand-made Articles of Every Description, Polly's Candies; MRS. PAUL COOKE, 8 Lake Street, Knitted Goods; HENRIETTA STONE, 61 Main Street, The Specialty Shop, Art Embroideries; "THE SMITHY," 53 Pioneer Street, Eleanore Van Sweringen, Book Binding and Leather Work; "THE LITTLE CHAMONIX GALLERY" at "The Smithy," 53 Pionner Street, Exhibitions of Paintings and Prints; THE HELEN A. CRANE TEA ROOM, Corner Chestnut and Susquehanna, Hours, 12-8, Except Sunday, Special Arrangement for Parties; LOUISE RENNIE, 20 Chestnut Street, Interior Decorations, Consultation by Appointment; "THE ANNA LOUISE SHOP," 177 Main Street, unusual gifts, Exclusive Articles of Women's Wear; DORIS MADEN, 29 Nelson Avenue, Australian Pianist, Lessons from July 10-September 9; MRS. S.W. CONKLING, 27 Nelson Avenue, Table Linen, Embroideries; and "AU PETIT CHAMONIX," Incorporated, Coffee House, Antiques, THE GRAY GOOSE POTTERY, THE LITTLE WEAVE SHOP, THE LITTLE CHAMONIX THEATRE, 97 Lake Street."

"A Little Directory of Women's Industries in Cooperstown, N.Y." is a delightful little pamphlet and we thank Barbara for sharing it with us. And, although we have heard of a number of these women's undertakings, we are not able to put even an approximate date on the pamphlet. Can anyone date it for us? Please let us know.

In closing, we note that the next meeting of the Literary Discussion Group, sponsored by the Women's Club of Cooperstown, will meet on Thursday, September 23, at 2:30 p.m. at the Village of Cooperstown Library. The book for discussion will be Walking the Bible by Bruce Feiler. The meeting is open to the public.

We remain,

In these Otsego hills,

Where nature smiles,

The Ellsworths

NOTE: The Ellsworths may be reached by mail at 105 Pioneer Street, Cooperstown, NY 13326, by telephone at 607-547-8124 or by e-mail at cellsworth1@stny.rr.com. They look forward to hearing from you.