Samwise & Emily Consider the HMS Beagle

Our brief glimpse of the best parts of summer was fleeting. The heavy, smothering air and humidity returned, and we are doing our best to dodge it. Our early hikes are all by the water and a mile or two shorter than usual. Our evening walks at the pond are briefer or outright canceled.

I was caught red-handed dreaming of autumn, but I swear something is in the air. Fryeburg, Maine's Westons Farm, found a July pumpkin today for the first time ever.

These are not pleasant weather days for man or beast, but we have it so much better than our Vermont friends, who are dealing with catastrophic flooding, or the people in California, who are faced with a wildfire that is only 18 percent contained and is already half the size of Rhode Island.

To keep things interesting for Samwise and Emily, we're doing what we used to during the pandemic. We're taking rides around the Mount Washington Valley. We've only put more than 40 miles on the HMS Beagle once in the last five weeks, but I am learning h…