We mailed off the Joe's Pond newsletters today. It was cold in West Danville this morning. The wind was whipping our of the northwest right down the pond. When we were at the post office, the temperature was only about 42 degrees. Tonight it is going to drop well below freezing and probably we'll awake tomorrow to snow on the ground. I thought the water in the pond was higher than usual today, but I didn't go down to measure it. Perhaps we'll go tomorrow.

Alyssa was performing her dance routine this morning - cute as can be. She's like a little animated doll. Her mom was trying to get her to "spin," and I was trying to help get the directions across, but Alyssa wasn't heeding either of us - she boogied her way, no help needed.

I'm still pleased to see blue water instead of ice and snow on the lake. This picture is of the first pond this morning.
In addition, there is a good bit of green grass appearing, even in our area. In St. Johnsbury, the lawns are very green - I'm sure people will be mowing their lawns very soon. They probably won't get the snow we'll have, either.

In St. Johnsbury we saw a friend from Cabot, Dot Therrian. She and a neighbor go to the St. Johnsbury Academy field house regularly to swim. Even though Dot and her husband, Russ, live on Rt. 2 between East and South Cabot, they are active in Cabot, having farmed here many years before retiring. We also saw son, Bill, for a few minutes, and gave him his newsletter.

Then we went to St. Johnsbury Health & Rehab where we visited two friends, Inda Calkins that I used to take grocery shopping every week for many years before she moved to Health & Rehab a couple years ago, and Laura O'Donnell, a long-time friend of Fred's from St. Albans. Laura had celebrated her 90th birthday recently (we missed it), and Inda will turn 93 tomorrow.

Both are doing well, in fact, we caught up with Inda out at the nurses' station where she was chit-chatting with staff. She gets around well with her walker and always looks like she is dressed to go out. When we worked together, way back, she was a very snappy dresser. She always liked really high heels because she was short, and wore brightly colored outfits, jewelery and was well groomed. Still is. She swapped her heels and pencil skirts for sneakers and pantsuits eventually, but she still takes great pride in how she look. In her younger days she played the piano in a local band, and when she wasn't playing, she loved to dance.

I didn't know Laura until I met Fred, but she, too is a very lovely lady. She is one of the most gentle, courteous and sweet people I've ever met. I've never heard her say anything cross or mean, ever. Fred and her son, Pat, were best friends growing up in St. Albans, and he has always admired Laura, too. She doesn't get around very well any more, and sometimes forgets, but she is still very much a lovely lady. She showed us pictures today of her birthday party. There were about ten members of her family there to honor her. It was obvious she enjoyed the day.

We enjoyed spending a few minutes with each of the ladies.

This is Dole Hill as we were coming home. It's hard to see signs of spring, but they are there. While it's much greener in St. Johnsbury, Danville is getting some color, too. We noticed the trees are beginning to show that lovely soft green of buds and new leaves coming out. No blossoms anywhere yet, though.

After taking care of business in Danville and St. Johnsbury, we arrived home at about lunch time and unpacked our groceries. Woody helped, as you can see. The big shopping bag is barely large enough for him to hide in, but he remained there as long as we were in the kitchen. No matter what we're doing, if it's something other than the normal routine, Woody wants to be right in the middle of things. Now if we could just teach him to put the groceries away . . . !