Yes, it IS cold here today - and was very cold last night. Diane Rossi sent a picture of their indoor-outdoor thermometer this morning. You can see it was nearly 26 degrees below outside. That inside number would be a bit cold for me, though. But I know keeping the house low at night conserves energy in a big way. Fred feeds the stove once or twice throughout the night, so it's always toasty in the morning. I think we're supposed to have colder temperatures tonight, and then a slight warmup.


Fred was out early taking pictures and blowing away the skimming of snow that fell overnight. You can see how pretty it was without feeling the nose-pinching cold. I think it was still 15 below or so when these pictures were taken. That's our house, top left, and on the right, looking down across W. Shore Rd. at Liz and John Randall's. Liz and John arrived yesterday after dropping Lauren and Matt at their respective schools. We were happy to gain a couple of Joe's Ponders since the Sherwoods left Wed. and so did Pat and George Parizo. They sent e-mails wishing us warmth and good health, saying they'd see us in the spring. After mud season!! Pat assured me they weren't leaving because of the cold, but it's highly suspicious that they should leave just as we embark on the coldest weather this season. Both couples will be spending time in Florida. We wish them well, though, and hope they enjoy the warmth of the south as we bask in the sun of the frozen north country.

In the next row of photos above on the left is our lower lawn with the sun filtering through the cedars, and on the right you can see Fred's shadow as he took the picture from in front of our mailbox looking west past Henretta's driveway. On the right is looking east from our drive, looking down W. Shore Drive towards the Randall's driveway. That haze is frost in the air.

There is a comment on yesterday's blog about the photos. It's nice that some of you use photos posted here for your desktop backgrounds. I appreciate the great shots you have been sending. They are really very nice and I change my desktop frequently, too. I had our cat Woody's picture on for a while, but his eyes seemed to be following me every time I logged on, and that made me a little uncomfortable. He watches me enough in real life, I don't need him on my computer screen, too. He's here beside me now, curled up and snoring just a little because his tail is covering his nose. He'll shift position soon and sleep quietly. I hope some of you who have fled our cold region will send some photos from where you are keeping warm. Even though we don't choose to leave, we're always interested in seeing where our friends are and what they're up to after the leave here.

We are anticipating the arrival of the new Epson printer today. Fred has been tracking it since it left Indiana a few days ago, and it's now on a truck headed from Burlington to here. I'm also expecting a book order. I ordered several hard cover editions of the Blodgett book for a friend and the order was on the truck last night but when it didn't come I tracked it and found delivery had been attempted but wasn't successful due to the weather! Well, gee. Perhaps it'll come today, but since today may be colder than yesterday . . .oh, well. Both are to be delivered by FedEx, so we'll see if everything comes on the same truck or if we get nothing until the weather warms up. I almost dread getting into the saga of installing another new printer - this will be our fifth try for one that works.

It's only 7 below on my office thermometer, so things are warming up nicely. The sun is beautiful and there's hardly a cloud in the sky. A lovely day at Joe's Pond.