Jack LaGue sent this photo of today's sunrise over Joe's Pond. Jack and Sue are enjoying their first winter as permanent residents at the pond. I have to say, the luck of the Irish seems to be with them - they haven't had a lot of snow to deal with, so I think it's been a pretty easy transition. Nice picture, Jack.


Today started off pretty nice - at least, it was pretty outside with bright sunshine and the trees covered with very fluffy, dry snow. There were snow showers off and on but the sun remained mostly out; however, the temperature remained in the 20's and there was a strong wind straight from the Arctic Circle.

Yesterday we were in St. Johnsbury and distributed Ice-Out tickets to our regular outlets: Natural Provisions, Caplan's and St. Johnsbury Hardware. We didn't visit The Tower out on Memorial Drive, but I believe they will have them soon - Bill Dimick usually keeps them supplied. Natural Provisions has had tickets for a while, but they hadn't sold many. With our Cabot and Walden outlets supplied now, Harry's Hardware and Cabot General Store and Walden General Store, the local outlets are ready to go. There won't be a lot of action until just before the close of the contest on April 1st, but being something of a worry-wart, with the kind of winter we're having (or not having!), I just wanted to be sure people who want to get into the contest have the opportunity to at least have their tickets in hand. Then, if/when the weather turns suddenly summer, they'll be able to make them out and get them in the contest. In 2010 we had a nail-biter when the weather turned on us in late March and we wondered if the flag would go down before the contest officially closed. Of course, if that should happen, the contest has to close immediately.

Interesting point here - some of my associates suggested changing the closing date of the contest to mid-March, but I resisted. I wasn't ready to believe we'd have another crazy spring right away; I lucked out last year, but here we are with an unusual winter again, so anything is possible by the time spring gets here.

These two pictures were taken yesterday in West Danville. You can see there isn't very much snow here compared to other years. We all keep thinking February and March will be different, but there are no big snow storms in the immediate forecast. I keep hearing from JPAers who escaped south for the winter about how they are enjoying sunshine and 80 degree temperatures, and while I may envy them just a little bit once in a while, this surely hasn't been a tough winter - so far! I'm sure there's more to come.

Just in case some of you don't see the Cabot Chronicle, here's an interesting article that appeared in it this month. Green Mountain Youth Symphony Pictured are Heidi Cookson, daughter of Mike and Ann Cookson (Cabot Garage); Lars Hammer, son of John and Susan Hammer (John Hammer Plumbing & Heating); and Joseph Ambroz, son of Todd and Julianne Ambroz - all of Cabot. Quite an honor for all the six student musicians from Cabot.