We had a lovely spring day yesterday, and the pond has opened up so there's lots of sparkling blue water.  I grabbed a picture from the webcam this morning, one last shot before Diane turns the cameras off.  It's hard to see because the camera is facing into the sun, but you get the idea.  You can see the clock has the time it stopped on Tuesday, 5:04, and the ice is gone better than half way down the pond, by the looks.  That is about on schedule - the block sinks and stops the clock and then it's from 2-4 days before the pond is clear of ice.  Now we need to retrieve the block and put everything away for another year.  2017 tickets are on order and will be ready for our May 21 meeting and available at Hastings store in West Danville.  

I was shocked and saddened yesterday to learn that my long-time friend, Velma Urban Smith, had passed away.  There will be a memorial service at Durant Cemetery in Cabot this afternoon at 1 o'clock.

Velma and I attended Cabot High School and were cheerleaders together for a couple of years.  I don't think there had been cheerleaders for the basketball teams before.  Velma played on the team, too.  I wasn't much of a basketball player - clumsy, I think - so I stuck to cheering, and that way I got to go to all the games.
Later on, long after our high school years, Velma and I worked together in the St. Johnsbury School District on a pioneer program called "Childhood Early Education Development" or CEED program.  It was the forerunner of pre-kindergarten.  We remained friends and kept in touch over the years until we were both retired.  We worked together on charting Cabot's cemeteries - Velma was sexton for several years - and our last project together was in 2007, a booklet for her Lyndon State College classmates, Class of '52. And then, even though she lived only a few miles away on Urban Road, we rarely got together, and I'm sad to realize how long it's been since I'd touched base with my friend and now she's gone.  We intend to keep in touch, but other things get in the way, time slips by and then it's too late.