With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, perhaps it’s apt to recall a series of incidents that occurred during the full fall splendour of last Autumn.

Jane Wardle was entertaining her extended family over Thanksgiving at her East Bolton home on Baker Pond Road. when she noticed a strange car parked by the side of the road and a man flying a drone overhead.

“I sent my young grandson down the driveway to ask what he was doing,” she recalls. “Normally he comes back with all kinds of information, but all he said was “he was Chinese.”

That was on a Sunday.”

On Tuesday, with family gone, she looked out to find the road full of cars and people and four drones flying over her pond, the aptly called Baker Pond. “I asked them what they were doing.” They wanted to climb the mountain behind my house, and showed me a photo taken by a drone of my pond, which is heart-shaped. I said, “no it is private property and directed them up Paramount Road.”

At one time, you could see Wardle’s pond from the top of Mt. Foster, at a spot known as Lover’s Leap. But the land is now in private hands and off limits to the public. art-shaped, had been posted on a Chinese social network as something rare and beautiful, with predictable results.

“On they came in droves for days, from Montreal and China, trying to climb my mountain to see the shape of the pond, which you cannot make out from the road.”

Wardle, in her very British way, was not amused.

“I called the police and this charming officer arrived. He explained that they seldom patrolled my part of the world, as it was not exactly a hub of criminality. He said that unless they were blocking the road there was nothing to be done.”

I said, “what if I was to shoot the drone down?” He smiled and said “we could do nothing. There are no local drone rules.”

Wardle was not planning anything of the sort, of course, and when it started to rain a few days later, the crowd vanished. There was no more interest in the heart-shaped pond.At least, not until next Fall