Not much relief from winter here right now. The few spring-like days we had were just a tease, and now we've been plunged back into winter with near-zero temperatures, snow and wind. And March is yet to come.

We had a fun weekend, though. Bill and Diane were here on Friday night - always fun for us - and on Sunday our whole family got together for Sunday dinner. In spite of two sons living within a few miles and one within a hoot and a holler, we don't all get together that often, so there's lots of catching up to do and lots of laughing going on. I nearly had a crisis yesterday morning when I got ready to make dessert. In the past I'd done a chocolate cherry cake using a cake mix and a can of cherry pie filling. About as easy as anything could be, right? Only when I went to the cupboard, I didn't have a mix. I was SURE I had one, but it turned out to be brownie mix. How did THAT get in there? I really didn't want to take time to make a scratch cake, so I dumped the brownie mix, three eggs, the can of cherries and some instant coffee and vanilla for extra flavor (I always add a little coffee to anything chocolate) and stirred it all together and poured it into the pan. After it was baked, and cooled, I put one half on top of the other - I thought about putting raspberry jam between the layers, but thought it might be overkill - and served it with big dollops of whipped cream. It made nine good sized servings, which was just the right number, and my "cobbled dessert" was a big hit. I think it was better with the brownie mix than the plain cake mix. It would have been really good with ice cream, too. Now I'm thinking how good it would be with other things added - walnuts, chocolate chips, coconut - or maybe use raspberry pie filling instead of cherry!!

Some of you will remember that Henretta was having a really bad time with suspected full moon antics a few days ago. Turns out she wasn't the only one. I thought a full moon's effect lasts only one night, but apparently it can get extended over at least a couple days. For instance, Bill and Diane Rossi have had a string of unusual happenings at their house: first one garage door got iced in; then the other one broke (without provocation); the snow blower got stuck and then sheared a pin; Diane wanted to take a break from it all and watch a movie, but the DVD was flawed; a replacement was sent and that one wouldn't work, either . . . the gremlins were surely working overtime.

I can't say we've experienced anything unusual although our TV has had its moments - I thought our 30 year old TV was going to finally give it up and we'd have to get one of those big flat screen ones, but Fred found a loose connection and now except for problems the stations may have, we're good. I've given up watching CBS in the morning now that there's a new group replacing Harry Smith, Maggie Rodriguez and Dave Price. I can't handle the giggles and gaffs of the new morning anchors, so I depend on CNN for news during the day and get local news and weather more from my computer.

You should read some of the news items Fred posted on home page. There's a really scary one about what we're getting on our vegetables along with the benefits of vitamins. Who knew there may be fewer pesticides on foreign-grown produce? And wine? I guess that's a big boost for domestic varieties. I wonder how some of Vermont's wine measures up.

Town reports came out last week. I haven't read mine yet, but will do that before our meetings - the school meeting is on the evening of Feb. 28; the regular meeting is on March 1. I think most towns are in the same predicament as Cabot - lots of requests for money and nobody really wants to get into a situation where the taxes are going to be raised.

It's about time for us to begin giving a daily update on ice conditions so all the Ice-Out Contest fans will be able to make their calculations on when the clock will stop. We are waiting for a decent day so Diane can get to an ice fisherman to find out how thick the ice is. It's been so cold and windy on the ice, only resolute ice fisher people are comfortable out there - or maybe a snowmobiler for a brief time - but most of us prefer to stay inside and watch the gusts of wind carrying snow down the pond lickety-split. We'll get the information soon, though, and let you know.