Here is the complete obituary for 10-year-old Millie Bertrand, granddaughter of Fred and Elinor Bertrand.  We are very sad at the loss of this bright young life, and our thoughts are very much with her family.

We have a rainy day here.  The temperature is in the mid to high 30 range, and snow pack is disappearing rapidly.  We were out on West Shore Road last evening and there are some fairly deep muddy spots.  It seems early for mud season, and I expect this is just a preview of what's in store for us on a grand scale later - but then there's the possibility our mud season has started and will simply last longer than most years.  Not a pleasant thought, but it could happen.

I'm glad we took advantage of the fine weather this weekend and went snowshoeing in our newly cropped woods.  We are seeing our property in a whole new light now - literally and figuratively.  It's much more open, with much of the soft wood harvested on the hillside in back of the house.  We still have a cluster of fairly large spruces and firs between us and Jamie and Marie's house, which were left because it's very wet in that area and Johnny Doyon didn't want to get his big rig mired in there.  We're hoping to perhaps have someone with lighter equipment take out some of those big old trees.  Then there's a small clump near the road, also in a wet spot, that are hiding our view of the pond, and I'm hoping we can take them down, too.  We think we'll have some very nice walking paths and clearings to enjoy once the snow goes and we've had a chance to settle some of the debris.  Johnny picked up most of the brush, but there will be some left in spots where he packed it in front of the tracks of his big tractor so he wouldn't get into the soft ground so much, and that will be something of a tangle until nature takes over and covers it with moss and undergrowth..  We may thin out some of the young maples to make the remaining ones stronger and healthier.  It would be nice to have a nice young maple stand out there.  

In the middle picture you can see a couple of mounds of earth where trees had come down.  Johnny was able to salvage the logs, but some of the roots are left tipped up.  Those will grow over and diminish somewhat as time passes; in the meantime, the make great shelters for small animals.  We're hoping some of the wet spots will begin to dry out a bit now they are opened up to the sun.  

So today is revealing more of the stumps and furrows as the snow melts around them, and soon there will be emerging new growth to renew the landscape.  We'll enjoy watching the evolution.

Suzanne Masland, on Edgewood Road, let me know that there were signs someone had been around cottages on Edgewood during the weekend.  She said she didn't see any evidence of damage, but wonders if it might have been cottage owners or prowlers.  Also, a vehicle had apparently been stuck in her driveway while she was gone during the day, and she's wondering about that.  If anyone has information, get in touch with Suzanne at: suzannemasland@yahoo.com