News on Local Property Taxes - and More!

It's that time of year when everything is coming to life again - the flowers are blooming and the trees are budding. Today is a lovely, sunny day with a reasonable temperature of 61 degrees - but as I'm sitting at my computer, the sun has dimmed and it looks like our sunny day may be over.

With all the happiness of graduations, recitals, Mother's Day celebrations, and the approach ofsummer, the last thing we want to think about are taxes - but that said, the new tax lists for Cabot are "in the mail" and it is expected people will be in shock when they look at their new appraisals this year. Some have already received their notices, but others have not. Here is a NOTICE sent out by Cabot to explain the appraisal process and to let people know their mail may have been delayed due to the Cabot post office being closed and our mail having to go through Marshfield. There is a narrow window for protesting your tax appraisal, so if you are not going to be here in time and want to do that, you should contact the listers (instructions in the above notice) to find out your options. This seems to be another repercussion from the Covid pandemic that sent real estate prices sky high.

On a merrier note, this was a busy weekend for me. On Saturday, I attended granddaughter Tangeni's dance recital. I had missed it for several years due to Covid concerns, but this year I decided to go, no matter what. The weather was nice, I thoroughly enjoyed the show, and it's hard to believe my little granddaughter has suddenly blossomed into an accomplished, graceful, beautiful young dancer. She has been doing dance classes since she was about four years old. She started when her big sister was still taking dance lessons at Dance Express. 

Of course, I took pictures . . . that's Tangeni in top photos, on the left a tap routine and on right ballet. The bottom left was a jazz routine - and she is also taking modern dance. That isn't the same as ballroom - that is probably way too old fashioned these days. At the bottom right is a photo of all the children in this year's Dance Express classes after they recieved their awards. I don't know how Ms. Mackay keeps track of all of them, but she does. I believe there were only two boys in this year's group. Other recitals I've been to had several boys taking lessons. Good for all kids to do, I think.

Then, on Sunday afternoon I attended the annual Mother's Day Concert at Alexander Twilight Theater at VSU-Lyndon. The Northeast Kingdom Community Orchestra presented a wonderful selection of contemporary and classical pieces, with guest conductor, Lou Kosma. At the end of the program they were joined by the EPIC  youth orchestra, which includes children of all ages, under the direction of Jason Bergman. Tangeni plays cello with this group - and they, too, were excellent. Some of the youngsters were really young -  playing violins and other instruments like little pros. I was impressed by the talented people in both groups. It was a perfect conclusion for a wonderful Mother's Day Weekend. 

I was really tired last night and forgot to take in my hummingbird feeder and the suet cage. So this morning when I looked out, the suet cage was missing, and when I went out to look for it, I discovered the hummingbird feeder was empty. It was slimed with what was probably bear slobberings and the glass was covered with grease - probably from greasy paws. The bear must have just stood on his hind legs and tipped it up in order to drink the sugar water. The birds hadn't touched it when I checked late yesterday, and this morning the bottle was intact but empty. I won't forget to everything in tonight!!

Travel safely, and learn from my mistake - if you have bird feeders out, be sure to take them in at night!