We are back in winter mode this morning with a beautiful covering of new snow - I measured 8.5 inches! It is a couple degrees above freezing and will be warming more during the day, so it will all be melting and most will be running into the pond, and ultimately flooding lowlands along the Connecticut River, I expect. That's the nature of springtime in the Kingdom.

I've received some wonderful antidotes for all the serious stuff that's surrounding us

these days. Yesterday Gretchen Farnsworth sent this great photo she took of the sunrise that morning. Many thanks, Gretchen - it it beautiful and a reminder of the beauty that is around us, even when the world beyond seems to be spinning out of control.

This morning I found an email from Andy Rudin with a very pleasant surprise. This is from the Melrose Park community newsletter where he lives in Pennsylvania. Click on this link to watch and listen to how people are practicing social distancing and still creating together. Each member of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra was recorded playing the same piece of music, Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring and then it was edited for the video for all to share. I enjoyed watching and listening, and I think it is a great way to come together artistically to help relieve the tensions of having our lives changed so radically right now.

If you explore that site a bit, you'll see you can also view and hear the Rotterdam Philharmonic playing Beethoven's 9th Symphony from their homes, as well. Take a look - it's wonderful. Thank you, Andy, for sharing.

I'm sure many others are finding ways to interact with friends and colleagues, just like these musicians. Our cousin in Rhode Island wrote that she is meeting regularly with a group in her town by using Zoom; and I think Patty Conly is thinking of using that for Danville Historical Society meetings, as well. It may be necessary for our book committee to have our meetings via Zoom, too. We do want to get this book finished and published this summer.

In the meantime, here's what we're looking like this morning.

I nearly forgot to mention - Andy Rudin also sent a link to a headline that the contraption on the ice at Lake Memphremagog in Newport went down already - three weeks earlier than usual. I've looked for other resources to get the exact time and date, but they haven't updated their website yet. However, the link to buy tickets on line is no longer active, so I assume it is correct.

I'm not certain where their setup is located, but I think it is on one of the rather sheltered coves that would be inclined to go out sooner than the broad lake, perhaps. Their weather may have been considerable warmer than here at Joe's Pond, too - those of us who live here in the winter know that this area of West Danville north to Hardwick is unusual in its weather patterns. We tend to have colder, snowier winters than our surrounding neighborhood towns, even some of those more northerly locations. It's just the nature of the area, and we accept it, applaud it or cuss it, depending on circumstances. That said, I am confident our Ice-Out contest will not be over until some time in April.