I have a message for any Joe's Ponders who are somewhere warm but thinking about heading north - wait a bit!  It is so cold, wet and windy it's like early April instead of early May.  Last night there was a rumble of thunder and a flash or two of lightning to usher in the cold air. The rain today was  close to being slushy snow.  I stopped in at Joe's Pond Craft Shop and Deb had a big wad of paper jammed in the door to keep it from blowing open in the wind.  It automatically swings closed when someone enters but doesn't actually latch.  It's a heavy door, but the wind off the pond was strong enough to keep blowing it open, she said.  A man in the shop said his weather station was registering 25 degrees wind chill this morning.  I don't doubt it a bit.  The thermometer here is only 40 degrees now, and it may have been even lower earlier in the day.  It  may get colder tonight.  So my advice is - don't hurry back.  Give the weather a little time to warm up.  We'll keep you posted.

There are several folks back in spite of the chilly weather, and we're noticing signs of life at various cottages around the pond.  We delivered newsletters this afternoon - left some at Hastings Store for you West Danville folks to pick up when you go in and mailed the rest.  Mary said she'd try to remind folks, but just in case, ask at the counter.  I wasn't sure who is back and who isn't, so if newsletter doesn't catch up to you in a reasonable length of time, please let me know.  Don't forget that there is a dues remittance envelope enclosed inside your newsletter.  Dues payable on or before July 1.


This is what West Shore Road looked like today as we were heading to the post office and store.  You can see it was a very dreary day, and you can also see the condition of the road in front of Mason's.  It really hasn't been a bad mud season, and the Town of Cabot has been very good about taking care of the muddy spots before they got really bad.  Danville has been a little late fixing their end  on occasion, but at no time was our road impassable, and that's worth a lot.  Right now it's very rough with potholes and washboard, and there are places where the road is "humped up" where the frost isn't entirely out or there's a culvert, but once the rain stops, I'm sure it will get a good honing and will be in great shape ready for summer traffic.

This is a hot soup kind of night.  I made carrot and potato soup yesterday, so I'm thinking that might be just the thing for our supper tonight.