Happy Valentine's Day, Everyone . . .

Our Valentine present at Joe's Pond was a beautifully sunny day, and so far, NO SNOW! Yesterday I had spoken with Anthony out at the Walden Country Store to ask if he'd like to have some Ice-Out Contest tickets for his customers, so Fred and I took a ride up there this morning before we went to St. Johnsbury. I'm sure some of you will recognize Tammy behind the counter; and Fred chatted with Howard Hatch for a few minutes. The store has been opened up, as you can see, so there's room for some tables.

Back on the road, we did what we had to in St. Johnsbury, and that included stopping at the Bagel Bakery for sandwiches to take home for lunch. They must have had to do some major shoveling some of these mornings just to get to their door. The snow from the street above pours down on them to add to the mounds built up by plowing their parking lot with very little space to put the snow now. Everyone is in the same predicament.

When we stopped at the post office in West Danville, Garey Larrabee was on the upstairs porch working on something-or-other, and Fred noticed the big curving icicles, molded by the infamous and constant West Danville Winds. The Joe's Pond Country Store has a nice crop of icicles, too, but they are apparently a little more sheltered although I think they are definitely tilted, too.

As we went along Rt. 2 we noticed we can barely see the roofs of cottages over the snow banks. In some cases, were it not for the depth of snow on the roofs, they wouldn't be visible. We had bumped into Steve and Bev Allen when we were in St. J. and they said they were coming up to check on their cottage. They report they can no longer see out of some of their windows at their home in So. Ryegate. I checked today and the report is 85 inches of snow at the stake on Mt. Mansfield.

At least we're getting a break today. Fred was out snow blowing at least three times yesterday during the storm. Today he was busy raking snow off roofs here and down at camp, getting ready for whatever is in store for us this weekend. He stopped at the Rossi's to pick up more Ice-Out tickets for me and Bill and Diane are struggling with an ailing snow blower. Not good timing, but they hope to get it fixed by the first of next week. Good thing you're retired, Bill, you could be in for lots of shoveling.

I hope you enjoy the slide show. I know you're probably tired of snow pictures. Me, too. The good news is, you don't have to look at them if you don't want to. On the other hand, these are something different because there's sunshine!


Photos