We've had a wintery day with a little more snow and more cold temperatures.  We went to St. J. this morning and found the first pond (top picture) is completely frozen over.  There is open water under the bridge where the current is stronger, but the rest is solid.  My thermometer is showing 15 degrees tonight, so the middle pond, (second picture) which had ice only in some of the coves, could freeze over tonight.  Some of the big pond has frozen in the quiet areas of coves and at least partially at the head of the pond.  With warmer weather expected by the weekend, it will probably open up again.

We were in Burlington on Wednesday and there was no snow at all there.  We ran into snow on the way home at around Waterbury, and had flurries overnight.  Fred got a nice picture of Mt. Mansfield, but there were snow clouds that passed over it from time to time.  I think the mountain has plenty of snow already. 


We saw John Gebby at White Market today and he was saying that he's got the ski bug.  His ski buddy, Bob (our middle son) was skiing at Killington last week - I haven't talked with Bob, so don't know if it was really good or just mediocre.   The ski areas are rejoicing the season has started so early, and with the cold temps the snow should hold well.  It should be a good year for them.

I've been working on old photos for the Cabot Historical Society and came upon one of Joe's Pond that I hadn't seen before.  If you click on the image to make it larger, you can see it is the west shoreline.  That is the Dr. Watt cottage on the far left, where Don Walker's is now.  That very large cottage burned.  Above that is a roof showing in the trees that would probably be the farm on the bend of what is now Chatot Rd., only the foundation remains.  Further along at the top of the ridge above the "x" is another house that was the Gray farm, on land once owned by my Grandfather Bolton and now owned by Kate and Jules Chatot, and those buildings are also gone.  Some of the cottages along the shore look much as they do today.  I don't know who sent this picture postcard or what the "x" marked, but it's a nice view from probably the 1920's.


Here's another picture I thought was interesting.  It's of a group of strawberry pickers at George Tebbett's farm in Cabot in 1899.  It looks like it was quite an operation.  Isn't it interesting that everyone dressed up nicely for the job?  Imagine those ladies all gussied up working in the heat of the sun with those heavy skirts and long-sleeved blouses. and no doubt they were wearing tight corsets, too!  No wonder ladies of that era were prone to swooning.