Next Stop, Christmas!

I hope you have recovered from the Thanksgiving Weekend - first all the food and over-indulging, and then Black Friday shopping. I did overindulge at Thanksgiving dinner with Bill, Monika, Tangeni, and Diane. (See photo at right.) Bill sent Diane and me home with "care packages" of turkey, ham, stuffing and veggies - enough for a couple meals and a couple sandwiches, and I have devoured every morsel. I went to St. Johnsbury on Friday, but I didn't go to shop. I did that from home, on line, yesterday. 

Before I move on to other things, I want to share this photo that Cousin Ora sent of her grandmother and namesake, Ora Wry, literally hand picking a turkey from her brother's large flock. I bet she knew how to finish off that fine specimen all the way from the chopping block to the oven. Ora thought the photo might have been about 1916. The Wry family raised, sold and delivered turkeys in the Lake Champlain Islands area for many years, sometimes by hand-sled on the ice. I'm amused that she looks like she just came from church - all dressed up; but I bet she never went anywhere without her hat, even to the farm to fetch a turkey for dinner.

With all of the Thanksgiving festivities behind us, we can now concentrate on the next two big holiday events, Christmas and New Year's. I don't want to think about it, but there is no denying that winter weather is here. We've had cold temperatures (thermometer at left was 9 a.m. Tuesday morning) for the past week and little sunshine. When the sun does come out, it doesn't have much warming effect. Last Tuesday I think was one of the coldest nights, although either Thursday or Friday night the low was 11 degrees. Every night has been in the teens or twenties and that is cold enough to freeze over the whole pond for the first time this season. Diane sent me a picture taken this morning (below, right). 

Last week Gretchen Farnsworth sent the photo below left  showing that the ice was making headway into the broad lake, but last night it closed in. The two smaller ponds, the first and middle pond, have frozen over earlier, but thawed out briefly. I'm always reminded that my father used to say that the pond would freeze three times before it was closed in for the winter. That seems to be true most years, but we've also had it freeze over about this time of the year and stay frozen until spring. 

In 2006 we had no snow on Christmas Day. Fred and I took pictures when we walked on West Shore Road Christmas morning. It was cold, but certainly not a White Christmas that year! We took the picture on the left from the hillside where Helen Morrison's home is, looking down the pond. And top right is the LaParde's home that same morning, and can you believe ice fishermen over by Ted Chase's in the photo below right.

I don't know for certain, but I expect we paid for that prolonged no-snow season. I remember that it was really cold that year - but I don't recall whether we got a double or triple dose of snow to make up for that or not. History tells us we've had quirky weather here at Joe's Pond pretty often. It's hard to know what each year is going to be like. I went to the American Institute of Physics and found some information about Global Warming. I was curious if, in 2006, we were aware of that or just considered the crazy weather just that - crazy. We began hearing about Global Warming in 1988, according to that site, but it took years for people to accept that it was a possibility, and even longer to begin doing anything about it. It appears that perhaps nature and humans just aren't very compatible. 

When I was outside a while ago refilling bird feeders, a car went by and there was a cloud of dust that spread up the hill towards my house. The road is very dry and dusty - a condition that happens when the road has been wet, then freeze-dried, making a fine, powdery surface that swirls up and around vehicles, people, and taints the snowbanks tan. Even going slowly, the dust is stirred up. My car is covered from my trips Thursday and Friday. I thought of getting it washed on Friday, but my favorite car-wash on Western Avenue has been closed for a while; at least, the automatic was is not operating. I could have used one of the self-help stalls and hosed it down myself, but I am not up for that. I'll just have to be careful getting in and out of the car so I don't get dust all over my clothes. A small irritation I can endure.