Do you remember spelling contests when you were in school? They were a big part of grade school dating way back. We found long, detailed accounts of "spelling bees" in Danville history, including contests between local and area schools. I don't remember any when I was in school in Cabot, but yesterday I found out that Waterford, where granddaughter Tangeni goes to school, has a "school-wide  spelling bee" each year. The winners of the local contests then compete with other schools in the state. I'm not sure  how the process is organized, but Monika said the students get a list of some 350 words to learn. I expect they go from easy to hard so the students in the lower grades win certain rounds, and  proceed as far as they can go. So here's what happened yesterday. Our third-grader, Tangeni made it to the final round with only one girl, an eighth grade student left. The girl, who had won last year's contest, missed the word and Tangeni nailed it!

Tangeni called, very excited as soon as she got home from school  to tell us she had  won the contest and  that it was the "first time in the history of Waterford School that a third grader won." I told her she was a celebrity, but she came back with, "Oh, I don't know about that." She now goes to Burlington to compete on the state level in March. We got a big kick out of all the excitement. Grandpa Fred asked her what the hardest word was and she kind of giggled and said she couldn't pronounce it - so we haven't a clue. Her mom sent us these pictures of her at the contest.

 We are cold here this morning - it got to almost fourteen below last night, and now we have bright sunshine and the temperature is up to seven above! There doesn't seem to be much wind, so that helps. Even when the sun hits it, the thermometer is only up to 9.1 degrees. The sky is cloudless for the  moment, and the trees stand out  against it sharply with a mantle of snow on drooping branches. We expected possible power outages due to branches  on wires, especially if the wind was strong; but so far there hasn't been much wind and the power  has been steady. So far, so good.

We hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day yesterday; it was too cold to do a lot of celebrating here, so  probably a lot of  folks stayed in where it was warm and cozy with their Valentines and celebrated at home. That's what we did, but then, we're old fogies.