We are enjoying (?) another cold day today.  I think our thermometer is frozen in place.  On days like this I only like to look at the one on the kitchen window that always reads a few degrees warmer than the one near my office window, so I'll report the temperature now is 14 degrees, where it's been all morning, even now, after the sun is sort of shining.  It is showing a low in the past 24 hours of 3.9 degrees.  Darned close to zero.

When Fred and I were out to climb the hill this morning, fairly early (like 7:30ish), it was cold, but there was no wind, so I didn't mind it at all.  Now I'm seeing snow sifting off the roof and watching clouds scudding across the sky, so I know there is a strong NNW wind.

I "de-decorated" this morning.  I hadn't put up very many decorations this year - lazy, I guess.  So it wasn't a big job taking stuff down and putting it away.  I still haven't removed the lights on the deck, and will probably leave them there until it's a whole lot warmer than it's been lately.  Besides, I kind of like seeing them on.  I took about eight inches of snow off them yesterday (they are wound around the deck railing), and now there's another inch or so built up.  These new lights burn very cool, so there aren't any melted "cups" around them - they just glow under the snow, and unless I keep the snow off, some don't show up at all.  I'm thinking there will be a January thaw in a week or so and I can retrieve them then.

We got only another inch, more or less, of snow yesterday.  It's very pretty, all the trees are draped with snow except on some of the hillsides that were exposed to the north and west winds.  I was worried when Diane Rossi told me about ice fishermen being out on the ice around Christmas, but even with a good cover of snow on the ice, I think it's been cold enough lately to make plenty of ice in most locations.  We'll try to talk with someone who has been fishing to find out how thick the ice really is.  I haven't seen anyone out in back of the islands at the north end of the pond.  There has usually been one or two fishermen there very early in the season and they continued until well after I would have thought it was unsafe to be on the ice in the spring.  They must really like perch.  They are good - great in fish chowder.

We were noticing this weekend that there are no tracks in the snow anywhere around our house.  Finally, I think it was Monday, we noticed there was a track along the tree line beyond the garage.  We didn't go out to try to identify it, but I expect it was either a fox or a coyote.  Or it could have been a deer.  The deer usually make more than just one track when they come to feed at night, though.  The snow is light enough so they could easily reach the grass underneath, but there has been no sign of them where they usually feed.  We have seen a few bunny tracks along Jamie and Marie's driveway, but that's all.  Perhaps on stormy days and deeply cold nights like we've been having, most of the animals stay quiet in the shelter of the deep woods.  Or maybe the deer that we usually see didn't make it through hunting season . . . 

I'm having a hard time figuring out if it's snowing outside or if the snow I'm seeing in the air is being blown by the wind.  It looks like there's snow falling even while the sun is shining - and the air is cold enough so that could happen.  There isn't a lot of warmth in the sun yet.  But it should be improving with each day, right?

By the way, I was going through some old photos, cleaning up files (starting the New Year off right!) and found this one taken on January 7, 2007.  We had a brown Christmas in 2006,  but we must have had plenty of good ice because the block dropped ending the Ice Out Contest on May 1st that year.