Today we celebrated spring's arrival. The weather was darned near balmy, the back roads got slushy, it even rained a little. It smelled like spring. It looked like spring. So we picked up our neighbor, Elizabeth, and went to the Danville Inn & Restaurant for breakfast. Fred took pictures, and I'll explain a bit what you'll see in the slide show.

The restaurant is owned by Steve Cobb, and is directly across from the bank building and just north of town hall. It's where lots of local folks gather to enjoy the food and the company of friends and neighbors. It's a homey atmosphere, and every nook and cranny has interesting art or decoration. I mentioned the silver Valentine's Day tree last week after son Bob and I had lunch there - Fred took a picture of it today. We enjoyed chatting with Steve, had a very nice breakfast - Elizabeth and I had bacon, eggs with home made oatmeal bread sliced thick and toasted; Fred had blueberry muffins, and a really big blueberry "platter pancake" he said was delicious. Everything was good and served quickly and expertly by Steve.

We saw several people we knew, and as we were leaving, we stopped to talk to the folks that I think are regulars - some Joe's Ponders and some Danville locals. On our way home we stopped at Hastings and Fred took more pictures, some of the snow around the store, and then Garey told him about the big hole in the snow made by the exhaust from his fry-o-lator (is that what it's called?) So you'll see windows blocked by snow, then one last shot of the big snowbank hole. Elizabeth said that one looked like a colonoscopy . . . Oh, well, you decide. Here are the pictures. Slides

We're in for a stretch of much warmer weather and some rain. There are warnings about possible flooding, of course. We hope we can gradually get rid of some of the snow that's built up and prevent more serious flooding later on. We're very close to maple sugaring season. A neighbor who has a sugar woods off of Brickett's Crossing Road has opened a road into his lot and sugar makers will be tapping very soon. We're usually ready for sugaring by town meeting day which is March 3rd this year. I'm sure the snow is pretty deep in the woods, but with snowshoes and snow machines, they'll get the job done. I guess that's better than the way we used to do it when I was growing up, but I was talking to my cousin and her husband who still sugar at his family farm in Berlin, Vermont, using buckets. They agreed it's a lot more work, but they think the syrup tastes better than when it runs through all that plastic pipe line.

I remember the taste and smell of new syrup mingling with the smell of mud and horses and melting earth; and eating eggs that had been boiled in the sweet sap. My father kept a close watch of us kids around the big evaporator. We had to behave and there were strict rules so nobody would get burned. He kept the place clean as a whistle and sometimes, when there was a big run of sap and he had a lot in the holding tank, he'd send one of us home with the horses and then mother would send us back with a big bag of food for him so he could stay and boil all night. It was about two miles one way to the sugar house, and a few times I got to take Dad's lunch to him which meant riding one of the horses and returning home after dark. I don't think my folks ever worried about that. They knew the horse would bring me home safely, even in the dark.