Weather Woes

 Our weather has been all over the place today. We awoke to a fresh coating of snow on the ground - enough to cover all the bare ground we'd gained AND all the muddy spots in our road! No need to plow, but it was enough to make driving a little hairy on West Shore Road. The temperature was about on the freezing mark, but by noon, the sun poked out for a few minutes and the temperature got up to 47 degrees. Then the sun went in and the wind picked up, blowing snow off the trees in blinding clouds. It was like a blizzard, and the thermometer is heading downward rapidly - I have a reading of 25 now, and it's still heading down.

Around 8 o'clock this morning I glanced out the window towards my pond and saw a big, fat goose standing in the snow on the bank. The pond is only open around the area where the drain is and a stretch where water comes in from the pond above. By the time I got my phone out to take a picture, that one had gone into the pond and I realized there was a second one there. I finally got a fair shot of them when one climbed out of the water - the other is a little left, thinking about getting out. They both took off shortly. I'm guessing not much food in my pond for them and perhaps they just settled down there momentarily to sit out the snowstorm we were getting. You can see the snowflakes and patches of ice.

Sunday wasn't a bad day - no sun, but pretty warm and no significant rain or snow. I went to Cabot Village in the afternoon to hear Howard Coffin's presentation about Women in the Civil War. We had a good crowd and it was very interesting. Liz Pearl Sargent came with a friend, and we had a nice chat before the program.

On my way home, I took a picture of Burtt's Sugarhouse. They were boiling, but it's hard to see the steam against the clouds. It has been a good, prolonged sugaring season this year. Some fits and starts with crazy weather changes, but overall, I think sugar makers are pretty happy.

I had to go to St. Johnsbury this morning for a haircut, so I left a bit early in order to take my time getting from home to Route 2. The muddy spots were mostly covered with snow and while there were wheel tracks, most were from trucks and the guys that drive those seem to favor the middle of the road - no riding the ridges or trying to avoid potholes for them - they just go for it. I tried to remember where the bad spots were from the last time I'd been down that way and kind of picked my way along. There were a couple of moments when I got caught in the deep slush of the truck tracks and seemed to be headed for trouble, but nothing too scary, and I arrived in plenty of time at Fusion 134. Stephen always does a super job cutting my hair and he does it in record time.

 I stopped at White Market to pick up a few things and bumped into Peggy Pearl, Liz's sister there. I don't see Peggy often, but it's always nice to catch up with her. She hopes to retire from the St. Johnsbury History and Heritage Center soon, but I can only imagine how hard it will be to find someone to replace her. She has been St. Johnsbury's chief historian for years, and is responsible for the Heritage Center being opened. Both the Pearl girls were trusted sitters for my kids years ago and I'm sure both have stories they could tell about that! It's nice to connect with both girls.

When I came by the pond on my way home around noon, the first two ponds are showing lots of water. There is ice only in the cove by Point Comfort in the first pond, and in the middle pond it is probably about half gone with open water along both shores, with a strip down the middle that looks pretty soft. The big pond is still solidly white with all the new snow I'm sure there is open water near the islands where the channel flows in, but I couldn't see any today. Actually, I was paying close attention to my driving as I progressed up West Shore Road home, so I was not looking in that direction. Diane sent this photo of the Ice-Out setup - still there, but the stakes and line to the clock are under all this new snow. It will melt, but it will take a few days of warmer weather than we are going to have for the remainder of this week. Next week, though, we'll be back to spring! It will probably melt really quickly once we get some nice sunny, warm weather.

I spotted a very confused robin huddled in a maple tree near my house this afternoon. The poor thing looked cold and miserable with its feathers all ruffled up by the wind and snow. Tough luck, buddy, I think I know how you feel! We live in a "snow belt" here! It's beautiful, but often pretty wild, and right  now pretty frustrating. I did not appreciate having to shovel off my deck and measure new snow depth another "last time this winter" this morning. I measured 2.5 in. at 9 a.m. and it was snowing hard, so we got at least another inch or two after that. Enough!