This has been a blustery, wintery day here at Joe's Pond, but I went to Waterford this morning (to make Christmas cookies with granddaughter Jo-Ann) and as I left West Danville the weather began to improve and by the time I got to St. Johnsbury it was a totally different world.  No snow, no wind, no winter look at all.  Waterford had a sifting of snow on the ground, but nothing much.  I measured 4 inches on the ground at my back yard stake this morning, and it was snowing lightly as I left.  By 1 o'clock, there were snow squalls in Waterford, so I cut my visit short and headed home, expecting much worse weather as I proceeded west.  Even in St. Johnsbury, the wind and snow was whipping through the streets and people were having to hold onto their hats.  Portland Street bridge (top) was wind swept, and there were snow squalls.  
 
Approaching Danville, Route 2 began to show more snow on the ground and on the road, but it was well salted and traffic was keeping it clear. As I expected, there was noticeably more snow on the highway West Danville.  It seems as though West Danville always looks and feels colder than any other place around.  The wind was whistling around the buildings there and there were no people outside at all.  I stopped for the mail and to pick up Ice Out tickets, and didn't see a soul other than Mary at the store.   There seemed to be only one other car in town, and that was at the Joe's Pond Country Store.  Everyone else seemed to be just passing through.

Where the road runs close by the pond before getting to Point Comfort, it's often slippery, especially if there is open water.  Today the pond was frozen solidly except for under the bridge, and although there was some snow in the road, I don't believe it was at all slippery - but I didn't put it to a test.

West Shore Road (last photo) was better than it has been for a few days.  The town had plowed away the slush and sanded so when the temperature dropped and everything froze, we had a nice smooth road instead of slushy ruts. I expect there was plenty of ice under the snow - we found it pretty slippery even with our creepers on when we walked this morning - but there wasn't much traffic this afternoon, and I didn't feel the car slip at all.  

I was glad to get home, and this afternoon watched the snow sifting off the roof and clouds of it being whipped down the road by gusts of wind out of the northeast.  Temperature dropped from mid 30's to low 20's in a matter of a few hours, and it's going to be a really cold weekend from here on.  I'm finishing this up at 9 o'clock, and the temperature is 16 degrees on the front side of the house, and 12 on the back side.  The one on the front side is attached to the window pane, while the one on the back side is several inches away from the house and my window.

Last night we lost our electricity for about four hours.  I guess there was a tree on the line somewhere.  We never did find out.  It was kind of nice, though.  We lighted the oil lamps and Fred started a nice fire in the wood stove.  Then we settled on the sofa to eat sandwiches and in just a few minutes there was hot water for tea.  The power had gone off at about 5:30 p.m., and by 9 o'clock we were so sleepy from watching the fire and being so relaxed (no computers!), we blew out the lamps, banked the fire and went to bed.  The power came back on around 10 p.m. but we have kept the fire going.  It's so nice to watch when the wind is howling outside.  Woody and I particularly enjoy having a wood fire going, and I noticed Fred brought in a really large load of wood after supper tonight, so I guess we'll be keeping the fire going for a little while.  We've been using the boiler to heat the house this year, and turns out we all seem to miss having the wood stove going more than we thought we would.  Maybe it's the holiday spirit - snow outside, cat lazing by a cozy fire - that sort of thing.

We were fortunate we didn't get the strong winds that western Vermont got from this last storm.  Mt. Mansfield reported winds of 125 mph, and at Bolton over 70 mph.  I didn't get a reading last night because my wind gauge had frozen.  Fred got it going again this morning, but he also put new batteries in the weather gauge and it has to be reprogrammed.  We'll do that tomorrow.

I had a wonderful morning baking with granddaughter Jo-Ann.  We made Christmas cookies and cupcakes for the family gathering on Christmas Eve.  Everything came out very nice, even though we had some "almost" disasters, like when I misread the recipe and told her to put two teaspoons of salt in the cookies.  But she knows her stuff and questioned the amount, luckily.  Later I nearly forgot to put the spices in the gingerbread cookies.  She found a gingerbread man cookie cutter in with lots of others, and I brought some different shapes, so we had a nice variety of sizes and shapes.  The kitchen got a good workout with plenty of flour and confectioners' sugar (and a little molasses stickiness) throughout, but we got it all put right and Jo-Ann and her Grandma Floriana finished decorating the cookies after I left.  Tangeni didn't get into the cookie making, but she was our tester and approved everything we offered her.