Another absolutely gorgeous spring day.  We had a high of 73 degrees; it's nice to be reporting "highs" instead of "lows," finally.

The ice on the big pond is getting darker.  The first two ponds are ice free, as near as we can tell.  I can see sparkling blue water in the middle pond from the hill in back of our house where Fred and I were working today.   It will still be a few days before the big pond is ready to let go, but for the next few days we do have rain showers in the forecast (and a possibility of dreaded "snow showers in the mountains" - which sometimes means Joe's Pond), so unless it gets a great deal colder the ice is going to continue to melt.

I have a couple of interesting news items sent by blog readers today.  The first is from VTdigger, the on-line news magazine.  The headline for the story is:  Seymour Lake Association to Sue State of Vermont.  The story was also on WCAX news tonight.  It will be interesting to see if they get any satisfaction from this and how it may impact other lakes that have had differences with ANR about water levels.

Another reader sent me a heads-up about an article in the Burlington Free Press today.  The article is mainly about Crystal Zevon, an activist who lives in Barre.  My friend sent the article because of the mention of West Danville in the next to last paragraph.

We are keeping fingers crossed that the roads don't get much worse than they are now.  There are a couple of not-so-good spots between us and Route 2, but nothing like some years - so far.  We walked yesterday and have to say, at least the upper end of the road in this picture isn't living up to the road's name.  We didn't venture down the road - there's a stretch of it that gets almost no sun, so that might not have dried out yet. 

Back home, we spotted this partridge in our driveway from the kitchen window.  By the time Fred got the camera, she was headed into the woods - probably looking for a place to nest.  She's well camouflaged, so you may need to click on the picture to enlarge it to really see her.  She may have been getting some of the crab apples still on the tree.  We often have partridges in both the ornamental apple trees and the crab.  Most of the little apples are gone - it was a tough winter for lots of critters, and the trees were picked pretty clean.