We're almost at the end of this cold spell - about to embark on a whole different kind of misery when the weather warms up and coats everything with ice.  Not a pretty prospect, but not that unusual in January.  This morning when I first looked out, the sun was coming up over West Danville, as it does this time of year, and a little north of it, there was a lovely "sun dog."
I think it was about zero - it didn't get quite as cold last night as it has been, but there was a haze that was probably ice crystals - it wasn't snowing, and was too cold to be regular fog.  Turned out to be a pretty nice day, though.

Our logger was busy this afternoon, and we're beginning to see a big change in back of our house.  It's probably going to look awful for a while, but at the rate our tall spruces were snapping off in these all-too-frequent wind storms, it seemed sensible to harvest the mature trees and let new growth take over instead of having mutilated and dying 20 foot stumps and criss-crossed logs lying around too high to climb over and too low to crawl under.  It was beginning to remind me of how our woods looked on the farm after the 1938 hurricane.  Every now and then a cow would get into one of the tangles and couldn't figure out how to get out and sometimes didn't have room to turn around.  She'd just stand there and bawl. Cows aren't the brightest animal on the farm.  My cousins and I used to draw straws to see who had to go into the slash and back her out.  Anyway, we have already noticed the sun hits our house quite a bit longer now the big spruces close by are gone.  That's a plus this time of year, but we're going to miss the shade this summer, I fear.

Speaking of summer, I had this note from Butch Bouchard today:   

Jane & Fred, just thought we’d share a pic of Tom and Camilla Dente joining us for a lunch on Sunday. We don’t get to see many ponders during the winter months and after some e-mails, we decided that a good half way point between our homes was in Sturbridge Mass.  It was good to see them and it just got our thoughts directed to warmer weather, pontoon rides and other summer activities at Joe’s.   Butch

That was really nice.   At first I thought they might all be in Florida, but then I noticed Camill'a anorak on the back of her chair . . . I guess it's cold in Massachusetts and Connecticut, too.

Our cat, Woody, has a new routine these cold days.  Every morning he asks to go out.  We let him into the garage where he can go through his cat door to get outside, but he never does.  Sometimes he stands for a moment looking out the little window in the kitty door, but he's smart enought to know from the temperature in the garage it isn't spring yet, so he'll do a quick check of the woodpile to see if there's anything living there that could offer some brief entertainment, and then he's knocking at the door to come in.  When we open the door he bolts into the kitchen and spends a few minutes darting around flying onto chairs or sometimes bounding onto the counter and straight up to the high cupboards where his catwalk is where he'll crouch in hunting mode on one of the boards.  It doesn't take long for him to lose interest in us moving around in the kitchen and then we hear him plunk down onto the top of the refrigerator and another thud or two as he jumps onto the freezer and then the floor.  Apparently resigned to spending another dull day in the house with his humans, he has a snack and then selects one of him many favorite spots to take a long nap.  By mid afternoon he's usually pestering to go outside again, I suppose mainly to check the weather, much the same as we check the temperature several times during the day.  On really cold days, we don't bother to let him out again, and he usually gives up after a little bit.  He will be happier when the temperature moderates later this week, even if it's not really spring yet; but then, won't we all!