There's been another serious crime in the Northeast Kingdom. A woman was shot and stabbed by a couple of men trying to rob her in her home. Here's a link to the report on WCAX tonight: www.wcax.com

Just another reason to keep your doors locked and not open them for anyone you don't know. Unfortunately, most people want to be helpful, just as Ms. Morin did, but it simply isn't safe any more. How sad that people resort to violence to get what they want. It does make one wonder if there's a connection to the Sutton murder and to the two robberies that I know about on Cabot Plain recently, one yesterday on Dubray Road and one a little while ago at the Sousa farm. In case you aren't familiar with Charleston, it's in the area between Lake Willoughby, Seymour Lake and Newport.

On a more cheerful note, we had another very nice day today. The temperature tonight is still around 50 degrees and the rain hasn't begun yet, but will arrive during tonight and bring us plenty of precipitation and wind tomorrow into Saturday. We went to St. Johnsbury this morning and the views were beautiful from Danville looking at the White Mountains. There was a layer of fog in the valleys and brilliant sunshine above. The picture below was taken as we approached St. Johnsbury. The fog soon burned off and it was nice there, too.

On our way out of St. Jay, we had to wait for a freight train. I don't know how often the train runs through St. Jay, but this one had a good number of cars as it headed south. When I think about it, though, it wasn't really a very long train compared to what we used to see running through here; and I think this is the only active line now - I don't think the line running east out of St. Jay is operating any longer. I haven't seen trains on those tracks for years.

When I was a kid there were passenger trains coming and going in St. Jay all the time. It was always a treat to go to the station in Depot Square and watch the people waiting to take a train or meeting one, and a few times I got to go with my grandmother Bolton to Boston.

The station always smelled of tobacco and I remember there was a big clock on the wall and we could hear the clicking of the telegraph in the station master's office behind the small barred ticket window. The seats were long, gracefully curved shiny smooth benches, probably mahogany, with high backs and they were as comfortable to sleep on as to sit on. There were magazines and newspapers in big racks, and when anyone spoke loudly, their voice seemed to echo through the building.

There is no passenger service any more, but perhaps one day - you know, "whatever goes around comes around," and when the highways get too crowded and dangerous, perhaps we'll ride high-speed trains through the Kingdom.

Today, as we went through Danville, we paid particular attention to the town hall where work has been going on to replace the porch and access ramp. It looks as if they are nearly done, and it should be a big improvement.

I'll be reporting on precipitation amounts from this storm, and also on the water level in the pond. We really don't need more rain right now - just like we don't need snow, but it looks as if we're going to get a bit of both in the next few days.