Today was downright spring-like. Even now, at 10:30 p.m., it's above freezing. The pond was completely frozen over when we went into town this morning. With the warmer weather and rain forecast for the rest of the week, there will be open water again - but like the old timers say, the pond usually freezes over three times before it's solid for the duration. It doesn't always work out that way, but I'm guessing it will open up at least once more before it's solid. There were open spots showing, like in the narrows between the first and middle ponds and where brooks run in, especially the cove at Barre Avenue and West Shore Road. It was quite warm and everything was melting in St. Johnsbury, but here we still have a few inches of snow on the ground in most places.

Fred got this picture early this morning of a red squirrel in our crab apple tree. They usually scamper off to hide the apples in their dens, but this little guy was enjoying breakfast in the sunshine. Woody, the cat, was watching from his bed by the big window, but wasn't interested in going out to chase the squirrel. We're a little surprised there are any squirrels left around our house. One would think those that haven't been caught by the wily cat would be smart enough to steer clear of where he lives. I guess the need for easy food for the winter out weighs fear of felines.

Yesterday we were in Cabot Village and as you can see, Harry's Hardware store is all decked out for the holidays. They are still working on the roof of the Willey Memorial Hall, so we had to use the back entrance to reach the library. On our way home, we found this young fellow crossing the road. There were other cattle on both sides of the road and they all seemed to be well fenced in, but this one had apparently managed to find a way around or through the fence. The Burt's have very high wire fences around their apple orchards - we expect that's to protect the trees from deer. They are using more of their fields for orchards now, and have moved the cattle to some of the other fields.

I heard today that the Burt farm was used in one of Alfred Hitchcock's movies some years back - perhaps when it was owned by Bob and Barbara Davis. The Walbridge family owned it before that; but I have no recollection of any movie company being in Cabot. I'd be interested to know more about this - nobody can remember the name of the movie, and I Googled for information and came up empty.

Here's an announcement:

CABOT RECREATION DEPARTMENT

Basketball

for the Primary Grades (p-2) will begin Saturday the 7^th of January from

8:00 until 9:30AM

There will be registration at the gym on the 7^th from

7:30 to 8:00AM

Please be prepared with contact info, insurance info and $10.00 registration fee per child.

Please call

Libby Hale 563-3226 libbyhale1@gmail.com, or

Rebecca Nally 563-3503 rmnally@yahoo.com if you have questions.