Another beautiful day - not a lot of sunshine, but the warmish temperatures make up for that.  We had errands to do in Littleton today and it was very pleasant going from place to place.  No slush, no freezing cold, and not too many people out shopping.  I guess the Christmas rush has not really begun quite yet.  We got a lot done and came away with a freshly washed car, thanks to Littleton Chevrolet.  We took the car for a checkup and the wash was part of the deal, all at no charge.  Gotta love the pampering!  They had two very snazzy Corvettes in the showroom - one a pretty dark red convertible.  I told Fred I'd like a silver one for Christmas . . . I've always loved the design of the Corvette - but not so much the price.  I think the price on those in the showroom were around $60,000.  Back in the day I used to have a pretty little blue Opel GT that I called the poor man's Corvette.  That was a lot of fun, too . . . 

We were surprised to see that the pond is pretty much covered with a skimming of ice.  There are open spots in the big pond, but still lots of "cat ice" along the shoreline and in the coves.  The first two ponds are pretty much closed in except for the narrows and near the bridge.  That won't last, of course - we'll be getting weather in the 40s for the remainder of this week well into next, according to the forecast, so it will probably melt.  My father used to say the pond had to freeze over three times before it would freeze for good.  This might be the second time - I think it was pretty well frozen over a couple of weeks ago, but then the weather warmed up.  Even Sunday we had plenty of snow on the ground, but now most of that is gone.

This picture looking down West Shore Road was taken Sunday, I think.  The trees were covered with frost and we had two or three inches of snow on the ground.  Very pretty.

And this photo is of Shelly Walker's new house.  You can see they are progressing nicely on it.  The weather is cooperating and I'm sure Shelly is very excited.  We haven't been over on the eastern shore to check out how the new places are coming along there, but will try to do that soon.  Now is a good time - no snow to worry about, although I expect there could be a little mud with all the traffic back and forth.

We were in St. Jay Hardware today and John Gebbie was lamenting the lack of snow for skiing.  That is true, but I bet even the avidskiers are secretly happy to have this nice weather, and they know there will likely be plenty of snow when the weather does turn around.  We don't have "open winters" very often.  This picture was taken on Christmas Day, 2006, and that's the last time I remember winter being this late.  I don't think we ever had a huge amount of snow that year - I looked for pictures, but apparently there was nothing unusual, at least nothing worth being photographed.  So even though lots of us are thinking we'll pay dearly for this nice weather - it may not be as bad as we fear.  I do hope there is enough for those who love to ski and snowmobile, though.