Good Afternoon -

We really don't know what to expect from the weather right now. Yesterday and last night we had quite a bit of rain and wind, but today there was sunshine for a while and reasonable temperatures. Fred and I just came back from a walk along West Shore Road and every now and then we could feel "something" in the air - hard to tell if it was rain or sleet with the temperature now around 38 degrees. I think tonight and tomorrow may be kind of back to what we now consider normal - cold, freezing rain, snow, miserable weather.

The good news is, melting is going on in spite of the unpredictable weather, and our roads on this side of the pond are not bad at all. We think the rain helped them a bit. I talked with Pam Hebert this morning and she told me theirs are not good. I know we have a way to go before all the frost is out and we may not have seen the worst of mud season yet.

I had an e-mail from Evelyn today to keep us informed about the progress of spring at the head of the pond. Here's what she said:

The geese are all fired up as usual... there are about 10 of them; they come
and go, but the count averages out to 10... We have hooded mergansers,
common mergansers, wood ducks, (haven't seen a mallard yet...) Canada geese,
and believe it or not a Great Blue Heron flew over yesterday...  It is such
a pretty day.... I thought it was going to be miserable after hearing the
rain during the night... but I took Marguerite out on the deck this
afternoon and we had a grand time watching the snow melt!!  The birds are so
active it was fun to see (and hear) them again... and of course the loud
chatter of the geese is music to our ears!

The little pin dots you see next to the channel in this photo are some of the ducks... (Ray obviously didn't take this photo! :))

This one is looking toward the main pond... The channel opening has traveled a lot in the past 2 days... we have had a couple of little flotillas come down the channel... so it's beginning to break up... Our little ponds are opening up too, and we can finally see our bridge... it's been under snow most of the winter!  But I can't walk down there; it's way too deep and soft... I must admit I'd love to poke around and see the plants under there!!  But I have to wait a bit longer!!

Gotta run... Happy Spring!!  Blessings, Evelyn



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