Friday, March 24, 2023

Slow Melting, Slow Spring

The local weather folks didn't get the forecast very close today. I was expecting sunshine this afternoon, but except for a couple of very weak tries, the sun hasn't made it all day. Now, it's still trying, but it's really too little, too late, at least for me, behind the hill that is Cabot Plain. That's ok - we had only a few squalls of rain/snow come through during the day, and no big buildup of new snow expected in this weekend's storm. Then we hope their prediction of a nice week ahead will actually happen. It isn't going to be a lot warmer, so melting will be slow, and nights will be below freezing, for most of us. That's good - the maple season will be extended nicely, and the melting runoff won't be overwhelming.

Yesterday was warmer, but there was a cold, drizzly rain nearly all day. Diane Rossi sent this picture of some people out on the ice - her question was something like - "Does this look like fun?" It was during a pretty steady light rain squall. I can sort of understand - sometimes it's just good to get out of the house, no matter what the weather is. If you are on vacation, you want to make the most of whatever time you have, and get everything in you'd looked forward to doing. Or perhaps there was some other compelling reason those folks were out there. They didn't have to worry about sharing the space with anyone else, though. My friend, Bob Mackay, who enjoys ice fishing whenever he can, told me when I asked if he was fishing yesterday, replied, that he was not, that it was too wet and cold. Not fun at all.

I had an email late yesterday from Jim Farnsworth with an update on the LVRT (Lamoille Valley Rail Trail). I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but I believe the trail will be finished for summer hiking and biking. People are beginning to wonder what all the traffic on the trail will mean to towns along the way, and I'm sure we'll se new businesses popping up to take advantage of that additional traffic. 

And today Gretchen sent me this photo of their view of the channel leading into the pond. She said there is clear evidence of the channel opening up - where you see darker streaks. She also said she saw some of her daffodils poking up where they had cleared away some of the snow! Mine are still under at least a foot of snow, and I won't see them for probably another month! 

I noticed that where the water comes into my little pond there is a dark spot, so that will begin to open up soon. I have seen some animal tracks leading to the small opening where the water runs into the pond and it never froze entirely. I don't know if it was a deer, a fox, a turkey, or some other visitor, even with binoculars, it was too far away. They tracks came out of the woods just above the pond and returned up the hill back into the woods - just making a short detour to get a drink, I suppose. I've seen only one fox track in my back yard since the big snowfall. I think animals will begin moving around again once the snow pack is down a bit.

My pesky squirrel found the window feeder again! He's now very wary of me. I pegged him with a snowball yesterday morning, and since then I've only seen him up there once, early this morning, and when I went onto the deck he took a flying leap off the feeder tray into the snow before I could fire another snowball at him. I haven't seen or heard him all day. His claws make quite a lot of noise on the vinyl siding when he is trying to climb up to the feeder, so I know when he's raiding it!

Patty and I did a presentation about how our book,West Danville, Vermont, Then and Now, 1781-2021 came about - the idea for it, and what it took to get it written and published. It was at Catamount Arts in St. Johnsbury, for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, out of UVM. There was a good turnout - lots of people interested in the process of preserving history, and we were very pleased that during the Q & A session, there were some really good questions and discussions. It was the first time we have talked publicly about the process we used, what we learned and what we'd do differently another time, so we weren't sure what to expect. Patty did a very nice PowerPoint program display to illustrate what we were talking about, and it all went very well. We enjoyed doing it. Next Tuesday, I will be talking to a group at the Cabot Public Library, but Patty is unable to be with me for that. I don't expect a large crowd, and I'll be talking about the book itself, which is what we've done numerous times, so it will be fun to do. I'm hoping I'll see some friends and neighbors there. That is Tuesday, March 28th, at 7 p.m. at the library in the Willey Building, across from the hardware store.

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