Reminder: Monday, Nov. 11 is Veterans Day, a holiday. Public buildings and banks will be closed. Take time to remember the sacrifices veterans have made for us.

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Indoor garden report: The Thanksgiving cactus has turned into a Halloween cactus. Some buds are ready to open. The begonia also has a striped red-white bloom.

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Agnes McCraven of Pelham sent me an email about an exhibit of her artwork that will be up for a month at the Lathrop Community in Easthampton. The opening reception is Nov. 10 at 2 p.m. She had been a music teacher at the Crocker Farm Elementary School for 25 years, but after retirement focused on visual arts. Her art work has been exhibited in galleries and libraries as well as juried exhibits. Besides painting, she creates cards and calendars of her artwork.

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Historic Northampton will feature a lecture by Tamar Shadur, “Paper Cuts and Tapestries: A Mother Daughter Collection,” on Wednesday, Nov. 13 at 6 p.m. The program is in person and on Zoom.

Register at 584-6011 or www.historicnorthampton.org.

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Tracy Zafian of Amherst sent me a email about the Amherst Regional High School’s PGO winter coat drive. New and gently used winter coats/jackets in teen and adult sizes can be left at the ARHS lobby, Amherst Middle School lobby, Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce office and Greenfield Savings Bank. The drive ends Nov. 15. The collected coats will be available at the ARPS Family Center for students and families to come look for what they need, she wrote.

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Lucy and Dan McMurrer of Amherst sent a postcard of Trondheim in Norway. They wrote that they hiked and kayaked in Trondheim and ate delicious smorrrebrod. The fiords and mountains are incredibly beautiful, they wrote. They also went to an International Short Story Festival and independent Film Fest in Ireland.

Joyce and Allan Austin of Amherst emailed me a photo of the tower of the massive mosque in Casablanca. It has patterns in green on the beige stone.

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I had 103 visitors on Halloween. The costumes were really great this year. One group were Disney characters. The little girl was Jasmin in pale blue, the adult male was a genie in turquoise turban and matching patterned shirt and pants. The vizier was all in black and Snow White was part of the group.

One family were unicorns complete with horns and tails. One boy was in a baseball card of himself that was as big as he was.

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