Sad news today. I just had a message from Pam Hebert that her mom passed away this morning. Pauline Roberts Buttura was 94. Pam's parents first came to Joe's Pond about 60 years ago. Pauline was a regular visitor here at the pond and took a great interest in our Joe's Pond Association and maintaining friendships here even after she no longer had her own camp here. She had spent the last several weeks here at the pond with Pam and her husband, Dr. Joe Hebert at their home on Old Homestead Road. Pam said because of the close ties both her parents had here at Joe's Pond, she and her brother are asking that any donations in their mother's memory be directed to the Joe's Pond Association Playground Fund to be used for additional play equipment. There will be more information in the Times Argus within a day or so, and I will have a link here. Our sincerest sympathy goes to Pam and her brother and their families.








We live in a winter wonderland here, with the trees loaded with snow even more beautiful than any holiday card. I just received an e-mail from Matt Randall, home for the holidays with his parents at their home on W. Shore Road. Matt said he came over Cabot Plain on his way here from Burlington, and sent pictures. Above left is in front of John Woods' home, and on the right, Foster Bridge which Richard Spaulding built. That's Jay Peak and Canada beyond the bridge. You are looking due north.









Above is the Walbridge School which Mr. Spaulding moved from Rt. 215 in the 1970's and restored; then the Cabot Plains Cemetery gate at the very top of the hill. The smaller picture below is the road leading up the hill from Cabot to the cemetery. Matt described the scenery as follows:

On my way over to the pond on Friday I came over the hill from
Cabot instead of taking Rt 2 through Marshfield.  When I got to the top of
the plains it was a beautiful sight of white with "snow trees" and fields of
vanilla icing!  I took a few photos and wanted to share them with you. . .
I arrived back [on Long Island] this morning around 10:30am. As of 1pm we've already got an inch of snow on the ground and it's coming down at a fast clip now.  Maybe I'll send some pictures of Long Island later this afternoon or later in the week. We're expecting between 12" and 18" by tomorrow afternoon.  The New Yorkers are running to the gas station to fill gas containers for their snow blowers and the grocery stores are being depleted of all essentials.  It makes Lauren and I laugh to see people acting as if it were the apocalypse just because of some snow.  Dad says if VT were getting a foot of snow people would just stay in and tend to
their wood stoves and make sure to shovel off the porch occasionally.

Have a happy New Year!

Matt Randall

Many thanks, Matt, for these great pictures.

I guess we're going to get some of this storm, too. According to the forecast, we're looking at 3-6 inches tonight and another 8-12 inches Monday, tapering off but then turning colder and windy. Looks like the weather won't be too bad for New Year's Eve - but that's a few days off and things could change by then. We are getting some pretty normal winter weather so far, but other areas are seeing some very abnormal weather. The thing is, as other states get more of these strange weather patterns, that will be come "normal" for them. Maybe that will leave lots of folks wondering if the trip south is worth it anymore.

We had a lovely Christmas. Friday we were at Jamie and Marie's for our traditional family get-together. Marie and Jamie always put on a great feed for us, and this was no exception. On Christmas Day, some of our neighbors who don't have family here came to our house for dinner, and that was great fun. I've had a fairly quiet day today - we've been trying to catch up on e-mail and such.