It's a strange day weatherwise today. We were awakened early by a thunderstorm, around 5:30 a.m., and various types of weather have been rolling through ever since. right now, at almost noon, things seem to have calmed down, but when I did my CoCoRaHS report at 9 o'clock, I crunched through about a quarter inch of frozen something or other - could have been hail or perhaps just freezing rain. Whatever it was, the temperature was such that the droplets froze on the tree limbs, forming pretty little ice nodes. I don't think it did any harm to buds or anything as the temperature has risen to nearly 40 degrees from the freezing point in just these few hours. Right now, the rain and thunder have stopped but the wind is still pretty strong. Perhaps there's more weather on the way.

With all of this going on, there isn't much melting, but there will be considerable water coming off the hillsides again since the rain was heavy at times. We are promised nicer weather later in the week and for the weekend.

Here in Cabot, Easter Sunrise Service is held on Cabot Plain. Sometimes in very inhospitable weather, and sometimes it's been difficult for people to get there because of the roads. I haven't been to Cabot in at least two weeks because of the mud situation, so I don't know what they are like in that direction. A neighbor told us a few days ago they aren't as bad in that direction as they have been along W. Shore Road, but now West Shore Road is pretty good except we expect there may be more "breakouts" in different spots since some of the known mud holes haven't shown up yet.

It's funny how one thing leads to another sometimes. I've been corresponding with a gentleman researching the William Osgood family, one of the first settlers in Cabot. We had no notion (at least I hadn't) that William had served during the Revolution. When I went through our records of known veterans of that war buried in our cemeteries, I realized that the list I'd posted on our Cabot Historical Society website, www.cabothistory.com, was incomplete. Then I also realized that probably the Cabot Cemetery Commission would like an updated list of those burial sites so they can place flags there, so that's on my "to-do" list now.

Flags at the veterans' graves are a tradition, and from time to time, we've missed one, which is unfortunate and certainly unintentional. So, in spite of research being time consuming and sometimes dull, every now and then something very interesting comes to light and real benefit is realized. That's the little nudge I need sometimes to keep me moving forward.