Hey all --

When I left my house outside Boston it was raining, and when Pats' PR maven Stacey James left his house in North Attleboro it was raining, but somehow it wasn't raining in Foxboro at 8 a.m., meaning the Patriots were able to hold their practice outside and welcome their fans to their sixth session of training camp.

Though clouds rolled in toward the end of the nearly two-hour practice -- the team went back to full pads after yesterday afternoon's walkthrough -- the rain held off.

Some notes from the morning:

** Nick Kaczur was on the field in pads, meaning he has been removed from the PUP list. However, non-PUPers Richard Seymour, Benjamin Watson, Matt Light, Jason Webster, Vince Redd and Lav Bauta were not present.

** The focus was clearly on red zone 11-on-11 work, but Tom Brady was once again resting his arm. Matt Cassel took nearly all of the snaps with the first-team offense, with Brady at times handing off for run plays. With Light missing, when the first team offense was on the field, Wesley Britt took his place at left tackle, Ryan O'Callaghan worked at right tackle and Billy Yates was at right guard.

** During the red zone work, Tedy Bruschi knocked down a pass from Cassel intended for Ray Ventrone, Jabar Gaffney made a great touchdown catch over both Brandon Meriweather and Terrence Wheatley and kept his feet inbounds for the score. It was thrown by Matt Gutierrez.

** Gutierrez was also picked off by undrafted rookie linebacker Gary Guyton, on a pass intended for Marcus Pollard. Guyton, who has been working at inside backer, snared the ball with one hand.

** Rookie QB Kevin O'Connell had two passes batted down, one by Jerod Mayo and and another by Mike Richardson.

** Stephen Gostkowski was a perfect 7-for-7 on field goal attempts. The kicks went into the crowd, and Bruschi kept admonishing the adults to let the kids try to catch them, though it didn't seem they were taking heed to his words.

** Bill Belichick took the time to sign autographs, and received a huge ovation from the larger-than-usual crowd, who began chanting "Let's go Belichick!" at one point.