Last night I was awakened around 3 a.m. by the arthritis in my shoulders. As anyone knows who has arthritis, it is not a myth that weather affects it. I went out to the kitchen to get my ice packs I keep "at the ready" in the freezer (one for each shoulder) and stopped to check the weather. I snapped on the deck light and was surprised to see about three inches of snow out there - and it was snowing. By then Fred was up wondering what was going on, so I gave him a snow report and that was that. We knew the forecast was for 3-6 inches in some areas.

Come morning - shoulders still aching - I went out onto the deck to measure the snow and precipitation  and found it heavily laden with all of seven inches of wet snow. And the wind was blowing.

What more can I tell you. I didn't bother to take pictures of the snow - I was too busy scooping it off onto the pansies I'd seen just opening up yesterday and the rhododendron that just got free of snow about a week ago.  I took these a little later so you could see we are in winter mode here at Joe's Pond, no mater what the calendar says.

The temperature was about 32 degrees when I was outside around 9 a.m., and the wind was blowing, but now is up to 37 and the driveway and road have plenty of bare spots, so it's all melting quickly, but there is still quite a wind, making it feel colder. There will be a lot of runoff from this, but fortunately, it's going to stay cold for the rest of the weekend, so perhaps it won't create flood conditions. Still, there is a lot of snow on the ground to melt and be absorbed, and according to the latest figures, 55 inches on Mt. Mansfield.