Activity on the Pond, Slow Melting

 We haven't had much melting today, but the sun has come out a few times and the air temperature has been around the freezing mark. Although it isn't obvious, there is still some warming going on. The road is bare and wet, and there are spots bare on my blacktop driveway this afternoon that weren't there this morning because of another 1.5 in. of new snow overnight, which was a surprise. When I looked out this morning and saw more snow, my first thought was to crawl back into bed and stay there until spring.

Fortunately, other people have more enthusiasm for snow than I do these days, and happily went outside to enjoy the new snow. Diane sent these pictures of people out on the pond this morning. I'm not sure what the two people are doing - it looks like they might have a para-sail or something. The group in the lower picture are on skis. Diane said it was busy on the ice today. It won't be long before the ice will be too dangerous for anyone to be out there. The earth is getting more hours of daylight and therefore it is warming gradually, so slowly but surely, the snow is going to be gone and the ice will melt.

This is the last week for ice fishermen to have shanties on the ice; all must be off by the last Sunday in March. Also, the closing date for all Joe's Pond Association Ice-Out tickets to be in is getting very close - you have just under two weeks to get your pick of a date and time the clocks stops. All guesses must be in before midnight, April 1.

In case anyone is interested, Patty Conly and I will be at Catamount Arts on Thursday, March 23, at 1:30 p.m. talking about how the West Danville History book came about. The program is sponsored by OSHER Lifelong Learning Institute, and is part of their spring 2023 lecture series, We have been asked to share the process, what we learned, and what we would do differently. I expect there may be people from other historical societies attending, and perhaps people who are thinking of writing a family history. We will do our best to answer questions and share our experiences over the eight years it took to compile the book. This is very different for us - we are usually talking about the book itself, so we are digging back into old files and trying to remember what it was like, what we did right, and what we did wrong, to be able to possibly help others who are willing and eager to start a similar project. One thing we know for sure - we dearly miss Jane and Dot (Larrabee). Not only do we miss their presence, we miss their input. The four of us worked well together, and Patty and I are carrying the torch as best we can, but it isn't the same without them. We feel the loss every time we do one of these events, and wish they were here to share in all of it - the success and getting awards for our work, as well as the excitement of promoting the book. We feel sad that they put in the work but cannot be part of the success.

Enjoy what's left of winter - spring is creeping towards us, with mud season in tow.