We awoke to a beautiful world of fresh snow on everything - really beautiful, but it was
gone within a couple of hours and we're back to patches of bare ground, some piles of dirty snow and occasional mud. This is pretty typical spring weather, and while the end of March usually signals the last of any heavy snow storms, April has been known to throw us some nasty weather some years. In the meantime, we'll enjoy temperatures in the high 40s today and nice cooling at night to keep the sap running for the maple industry.

I took these two photos early this morning. The sky was beautiful with very few clouds, and already the snow on the trees was beginning to melt. There is quite a lot of heat in the sun these days, in spite of the air temperature being still only in the upper 30s. It's now only 41 degrees and a light wind has come up that keeps us from feeling like spring has actually arrived.

Gretchen Farnsworth was up early this morning and got these nice photos as the sun was coming up. She said the geese and mergansers are here, but no loons yet. I think the loons wait until there is plenty of open water for them to land and take off on.  This is just off the point a little above the little island (Pearl Island). This second picture shows the channel is opening up into the broad part of the pond along Sandy Beach Road, about even with the big island.

The ice is very thin in spots and once again, the warnings are out for people to stay off the ice - no matter what pond you choose, none are safe this time of year. State officials are warning that this year the ice on most ponds and lakes in Vermont have not frozen to the depth they usually do, and that makes them particularly dangerous. A couple people and a dog have been rescued recently - they were the lucky ones - a rescue squad was able to get to them quickly. Others might not be so fortunate.

Here's an interesting story sent to me a few minutes ago by our cousin in Rhode Island. In case you find toilet tissue scarce in the stores around you, help is on the way! LINK


Tomorrow is our last full day for Ice-Out tickets, and that means the crush will be on to buy on line, we expect. Many of the outlets where tickets are normally are available are closed this year, so the only option for many people is to get tickets on line. There is always a last-minute rush, but  we expect it may be even more interesting this year. Fred will be overseeing the process as usual, staying close to the computer and the phone in case there is a glitch. This is really unnecessary because it always goes very smoothly, but he  doesn't want to chance having anyone disappointed because they are unable to get their tickets on line. So rest assured that you will be able to purchase tickets until the final second tomorrow, 11:59 p.m. on April 1. Good luck!