My fears of awakening this morning to new snow on the ground didn't materialize. We awoke to still some wind, but temperatures in the high 30's soon climbing to 40's, and some sprinkles. Right now there are patches of sunshine, water is starting to flow off the hillsides again, and very happy robins are finding more and more bare ground on the west side of the pond. I could hear the signaling calls of crows when I was outside just before lunch and the chatter of chickadees out in the woods. It's a bit early for frogs, but we'll be hearing their songs soon, I hope.

However, forget all of the spring-is-finally-here feelings when it comes to the ice on the pond. I just had the following message from Terry Powers:

I was talking to the ice fishermen a few minutes ago. They said the ice is still 20 inches thick in front of the island. It is pretty consistent except where the prior fishing holes were drilled. Those May ice out dates are looking better. Terry Powers

Kind of takes the spring wind out of our sails, doesn't it? However, Fred was remembering a couple years ago when the clock stopped because the ice floe shifted up the pond, disconnecting and stopping the clock, and it was a couple days before the flag actually went down, so even though the ice is 20 in. thick, if there's enough wiggle room around the shoreline (which definitely hasn't happened yet) the clock could get stopped before the ice is actually melted. A lot of us were surprised that year!

By the way, I should mention that Terry sent his message via his BlackBerry and AT&T . . .