I had an interesting afternoon in St. Johnsbury today. After lunch at Tim's Deli on Portland Street with middle son, Bob, we went to the open house at the relatively new St. Johnsbury History and Heritage Center. Peggy Pearl and her workers, many of them volunteers, have done a wonderful job displaying artifacts and memorabilia from St. Johnsbury. And what a great collection they have! It's interesting to see everything from tiny hand-carved wooden farm animals to a giant Fairbanks Company platform scale in working order. We saw documents, sleds, muskets and more, and had a chance to chat with both Peggy Pearl and her sister, Liz Sargent, who many of you will recognize as Joe's Ponders. Both grew up in St. Johnsbury and have a keen sense of the importance of preserving history.
     Lunch was very good, too.  I had an excellent western and Bob had a pastrami sandwich he said was top notch.  It was great fun because we saw people we hadn't seen for a while--although many of them Bob sees frequently, since he lives in town.  
     The day here has been dreary with no sun and a damp coldness that reminds one we're well into December.  The pond looks to be pretty much completely frozen over. There is a strip in the middle of the big pond that looks as if it froze after the snow fell. Everything around it is white, but that strip is dark and shiny as glass. Both the smaller ponds are completely frozen over. No surprise there. Last year the pond froze over only once. This could be considered the second freeze-over, I guess. A few weeks ago it was almost completely frozen and then we had a day or so of warm weather and some rain that opened things up again. But it didn't stay open very long. We've had some pretty cold nights and days below freezing. There's a sifting of snow on the ground and the back roads are solid ice under the gravel the towns have spread. While I have no doubt we will have a White Christmas at Joe's Pond, I'm not so sure about other locations. There's no snow in St. Johnsbury, and very little in Danville. But there's time.
    P.S. - It's now 11 p.m. and I will update this post. We've been getting snow most of this evening and there seems to be about two inches. It's light and fluffy, and the temperature is 25 degrees. We should have a fair amount if it continues all night
     Another bit of news I keep forgetting to mention is that Danville trimmed the trees on the east side of their stretch of West Shore Road. There were several low-hanging branches hanging out over the road and bushes that obscured a clear view of the road by the intersection of Barre Avenue. Now it's a great deal better, and the road seems much wider so it isn't as scary if you meet a car there. Good job, Danville, and thank you!