I just had a report from Diane saying Ice-Out tickets are coming in like snowflakes in March. If this pace keeps up for the next few days, we'll be near last year's mark for tickets sold, we think. Usually the weather has warmed up enough to have water showing around the edges of the pond by now; but this has been a totally different winter. Like Tom Dente says, "It's the winter that just keeps on giving." He said snow is in the forecast in Connecticut, too.

Snow is not only forecast for here, we're getting some this morning. Light flurries, but enough to be discouraging to people, deer waiting to drop their fawns, bears waiting to come out of their dens, geese looking for water to land on - seems like everything is on hold. I finally brought in some bare branches from a bush on W. Shore Rd. I know is a willow, and the pussy willow buds popped out overnight. It loves the warm house and tepid water. When they are fully developed about to turn in to green leaves, I'll probably take them out of the water so they will last - although as I think about it, we might appreciate seeing green leaves more, so maybe I'll let them continue on to become leaves, pollen and all.

There is a new comment on home page. Stephanie Burtt, whose husband and father-in-law own the Burtt farm on Cabot Plains Road, just before Rte. 215 where the beef cattle and apple trees are, is looking for a year around house-sitting situation. If you know someone in the area who is not often here or is going out of the country and wants to have someone reliable look out for their house, take a look at her comment and get in touch.