Today: Sunny, with a high near 56. West wind between 7 and 10 mph.

Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 66. South wind between 5 and 15 mph.

Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 72. South wind between 5 and 13 mph.

Friday: Sunny, with a high near 70.

Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 69.

Here's the story of where the new movie The Forbidden Kingdom comes from  - bedtime stories told by a man who lives nearby in Morrisville, VT to his son.

I just watched the trailer online and it looks awesome. I love the fanastical Jet Li kung fu style movies including of course, the Kill Bill series. Oddly, I can't bare to watch violent films but love this genre.

A great video of a local fundrasier - over a thousand people jumping into the very icy Lake Champlain on a cold day

From Mad River's website this morning:

POWDER CENTRAL at Mad River Glen today as we picked up a solid 12" overnight. This on top of the 8-10" yesterday, on top of the 4-6" from the day before that so we will be approaching EPIC skiing conditions today on Gen. Stark Mountain. I was no math major but I think that like 2 feet in the past 3 days! It continues to dump snow vigorously and the best part is it should continue to do so all day with well over a foot total expected. Actually the best part really is that yet another big storm is winding up to wallop us again this weekend

So after a lifetime of learning how to ski on hard packed snow and ice (we're talking eastern skiing), I'm now having to learn how to ski in real powder. My skis are too skinny, that's for sure. But if I find powder that is a little fluffier, I'm turning like a champ. If it's too heavy I unexpectedly revert to the snowplow I learned when I was 6 years old.Well, at least it's a really soft landing when you fall. When my ego and my energy level fail me, I can always fall back on that old excuse: "ummm, I have to go home and get back to work!"

Yes, it's true. Right here in Burlington. Apparently it got a little "out of control".

Well, that would be -0.3 degrees. Good day to stay inside and work even thought it's beautiful and sunny out with still llots of fabulous powder over at Mad River. To some it just means a better day to skin up the mountain than to sit in the chair lift up high in the air with the bitter cold wind blowing in your face. Brrr.

1-2 inches tonight

7-11 tomorrow

4-8 tomorrow night

We are at a higher elevation so generally we trend toward the higher side which adds up to 21"!

I know where I'm going to be on Monday!

I have been a fan of this show for a loooong time. It comes to Vermont occasionally, but I seem to miss it. I just learned it will be here August 23, 2008 and already bought a pair of tickets! So now, I have no excuses.

The tickets officially go on sale on Monday and you can get them through the Flynn Theater Box Office.

I'm not a big baseball fan, so I didn't even realize that the world series was already in play. This morning, I learned that the Red Sox had won yet another series (many Vermonters are big SOX fans) but the really big news this morning was that Lucy, a Holstein from Derby, Vermont, was crowned the "top female Holstein on the planet at the World Dairy Expo in Madison, WIsconsin. "On the planet"!

Here's the big news with a cute picture of Lucy.

Many of us in Northern Vermont have been living the fantasy of a never ending summer. I was still picking beans and tomatoes from my garden earlier this week. This morning when I woke up the thermomter registered 32.9 and said it had been down to 32.7 overnight. There was frost on the ground. I haven't checked the garden. It certainly wasn't a hard frost so we'll see.

Now of course it is a glorious (though chilly) day with sunshine, blue skies and fall color and nearing 50 degrees. I'm thinking about a bike ride. I'll have to see if my warm weather cycling clothes still fit.

And I missed it!

I was at a board meeting for www.vtsda.org, when Rich came home on Wednesday evening and saw a big male moose with BIG antlers sauntering up our road. When Rich got to our driveway he saw another moose... a girl.

The stage was set and luckily nobody got in the male's way. It is pretty dangerous to get in the way of a male during rutting season; he will knock you down and trample you. Eventually the girl wandered off into our woods and the boy followed her. Luckily they were moving slowly,so most of our neighbors got a chance to see them.

Nobody got a picture.

Mom and the kids (who I first saw in July) have been hanging around the neighborhood most of the summer. They didn't do too much damage to my flowers or veggie garden.

Today I saw them all under the apple trees. There are about 10 old trees by our driveway and this year all of the apple trees around here are filled with billions of apples. Ours are not great - since we don't spray them, though I might make some applesauce.

There are already lots on the ground, so the deer were having a mini-feast. Unfortunately it also attracts Porcupines and we HATE porcupines. (They hurt our curious pets.)

While looking for the porcupine post, I came across one entitled "G.B.s big night out" from almost two years ago. Sadly, G.B. had his last big night out about a month ago. We haven't seen him since.

It has been an amazing summer for growing. there are still lots and lots of tomatoes in my garden. I've been picking the tomatoes before they are ripe and letting them finish in the sun. I decided that this will help the rest of the tomatoes that are still growing on the vines. I have a whole bunch in the dining room ready to be processed but waiting for this batch so I can do them all at once. There are a few different varieties.

On Saturday, Rich and I hiked up the Jersusalem trail which is only a short drive from our house. It is one of the many trails that take you up to the Long Trail. This one lands about half way between the App Gap and Mt. Abe.

Alongo the way there were lots of berries growing, none which looked the least bit appetizing. So I took their pics and came home to find out what they were. i've only got one id'd so far. And I'm STILL trying to figure out what the flowers were that I saw on an early summer hike that are here. I think I saw them on a wildflower poster somewhere and tried to memorize the name, but forgot by the time I got home. uggh.

The first turns out to be a White Baneberry, aka "Doll's eyes", which I identified thanks George Africa's blog post. George is one of those fairytale gardeners. You'll see what I mean if you poke around his blog.

Here is a really unpalatable blue berry which really is probably just a dried up seed pod from whatever flower was here. The leaves are reminiscent of a bleeding heart.

This last one looks like maybe it's some type of viburnum and it's something I've seen frequently. I've just looked at pictures of many varieties, but can't find one quite like this. So maybe it's something else. but the most important thing is not to eat the darned things.

Speaking of eatingi things in the woods, the chanterelles have finally arrived! They were much later this year than the past few years. I've only had one sumptuous batch so far - about 2 pounds that I picked and brought to a recent party and cooked up in pounds of butter. Over the past few years, my skill as a chanterelle cook have definitely improved. High heat, loads of butter and lots of salt & pepper. Very French, just don't tell my doctor.

When John Canning showed us his iPhone a few weeks ago and explained that he bought it in Boston after walking by the AT&T store too many times, we were all surprised at his risk-taking. AT&T doesn't provide service in Vermont and therefore we can't get iPhones here and certainly can't get an iPhone with an 802 area code. His has a Boston phone #.

You could tell he was in love with this phone. I had just gotten a Treo the day before so we were both showing off our phones to the small group we were with. I almost blogged about John's without naming names of course, but didn't want to get John in trouble. (Me, the paranoid rule-follower.)

So I had a good laugh today when I saw John's picture on the home page of Burlington's local paper, brandishing his iPhone. Hey, he outed himself; I had nothing to do with it. You can read about John and some of our wireless woes in the article.

So, I'm curious to see if (or is it "how quickly") John gets his service cancelled. The whole notion of AT&T having exclusive access to the iPhone seems wrong anyway. I understand it as a competitive marketing advantage, but it doesn't seem like good marketing to refuse entry to entire populations of your potential market. (Okay, i know Vermont is not a huge market, but...) I thought a key mantra for sales was about making it easy for people to give you money. But with the case of iPhones (it's the iPhone that John covets, not the AT&T service) users have to be wiling to use em and lose em.

I love that one of the comments on the article that"Vermont needs to get its head out of the sand." I don't know how these things work, but did Vermont explicitly ban AT&T?

Oh, and I traded my Treo in for a Blackberry yesterday (with a GSM chip). More on that later...

Gotta love it!

Rich and I work way too much and sometimes forget why we moved to Vermont. But we had a perfect Vermont summer weekend this weekend.

On Saturday, the lake was calm and we kayaked a 4 mile stretch from a put-in near Button Bay State Park across to Westport NY where they were having a heritage day festival. The wind picked up after lunch and we had a fun paddle against the wind on the return trip.(Yes, that is fun. I'm not being facetious.)

Yesterday we went on a beautiful bike ride in Addison County - lots of rolling hills, beautiful old farmhouses, long stretches through flat farmland and then riding up along the lake.

We ate lots of sweet summertime corn, blueberries, raspberries from around our property, and tomatoes & basil out of our garden. We swam in an amazing local swimming hole and laid out on the lawn under an amazing blanket of stars to watch a bit of the Persied Meteor shower.

It doesn't get much better than this!

This is a big source of pride for many Vermonters.

It's amazing what goes into the process. The trees are selected many years in advance by local foresters and nurtured.

But there's more: fundraising, promotion, etc. THere is a whole website devoted to this cause: http://www.capitolchristmastree2007.org.

While today was a perfect summer day and I not only got to go for a great bike ride, but I was introduced to a fantastic swimming hole, tomorrow is a day I've been looking forward to for a long time.

I am on a team of 20 women who are paddling a Dragonboat, along with 75 other teams, in the DragonFest.

I have never witnessed this event, but seen articles and videos and promised myself that I would go watch this year, but I was lucky enough to be invited to be on a boat filled with mostly women from my town.

You can learn all about the Dragon Boat Festival on this website.

In my peripheral vision yesterday, I noticed something trotting by my office window. Looking up I discovered that those long legs belonged to a deer. Then along came her babies. I was able to click this through the screen before they ran off. I immediately went out to my veggie garden (the direction they had come from) to make sure they hadn't just had a little feast! All was in tact, though I wouldn't have minded if they had eaten the mustard greens which have bolted and are even more bitter than normal.

USA Today held a contest between towns named Springfield all over the country to host the premiere of the Simpsons movie. Springfield, Vermont had not been included and brought it to the attention of the organizers so they got on the list. Springfield, VT, like the state, is a small town with a population of only 9000 and a movie theater with only 100 seats. The other 13 towns were much larger... some are cities.

But tiny Springfield, VT actually won the contest with the most votes -- over 15,000. There have been a lot of complaints, mostly among the 21,000 comments to the above USA Today online article. Even an Oregon congressman got in on it although apparently he was just joking around.  Springfield, OR was one of the entrants and most likely the true inspiration for the Simpson's town.

So how did Springfield win with so many more votes than their population?

Even though I have only lived in Vermont for 8 years and will never be considered a true Vermonter (5+ generations required ), I can tell you why.

In many ways, Vermont is one big home town. Phish is the "local band" to many. Ben & Jerry's is "our ice cream" and there are Vermonters who are known to carry a small supply of the "only true" Maple Syrup with them when they travel. Most people who live in Vermont take pride in anything that hails from anywhere in our state. Obviously this doesn't apply to everything. You'll find lots of people who are dead-set against Civil Unions, Howard Dean and many other things deemed as the evils of the flatlander infiltration.

But on a different level, this "state spirit" really exists. It was quickly apparent to me after I moved from New York to Vermont. In New York state, it was hard enough to keep up with the entire county that you lived in, much less what was going on elsewhere in the state. 

And while I have never been to Springfield VT and had to look on a map to see where it was, I eagerly voted for it because I was voting for Vermont.

That is likely how Springfield got over 15,000 votes. The local daily newspaper in Burlington (Vermont's biggest city and over 100 miles away) treated this as front page news. The t.v. stations all had stories about it. So people all over Vermont became aware of the competition and many, like me, were proud to put their vote behind our little town. Vermont's entire population is somewhere around 600,00. Springfield, IL came in second with a little under 15,000 votes. If the same 2.5% of the state of Illinois had voted for their Springfield, they would have had 325,000 votes. If 100% of the residents of Springfield, IL had voted, that would have been over 100,000 votes.

So I am confident that it was state pride that won Springfield, VT this big spotlight of hosting the premiere. I have no idea how they will handle the potential number of people coming into the town  for the event. This is probably why they weren't in the original list. But that will be another story and it will be headline news all over Vermont for days and days.

 The town of Springfield Vermont participated in a competition with 13 other Springfields around the country to host the premier of the Simpsons movie and won! Each town submitted a video to prove why they were the real Springfield for the Simpsons. The Springfield VT video was pretty professional and silly, of course. You can see the videos by going to the USA Today Contest page.

It rained for over 24 hours. Now things are clearing out. I looked out the window of my office to see this thick fog cloud that had settled in the valley that is the road between the hill I live on and the next hill over. Since the sun had already set, even though it looked amazing in real life, it was hard to capture so, you'll have to live with my usual crappy photographic skills.

We've had weird weather all week. Constant forecasts of thunderstorms that never come and the air and sky is filled and ready to go for it constantly.It has made for some great sunsets. We saw an amazing one while at the Bob Dylan concert on July 1st thanks to a big cloud that was stuck on Mt. Mansfield.

There was another great one tonight that we saw from a friends house up on a hill.

I took this one from our front balcony earlier this week.

It was cool on Saturday so Rich & I decided to go for a hike on the Long Trail. We drove to the top of the App Gap (which is near our home) and hiked south on the LT. This crosses over the top of the Mad River Glen trails, so we had lunch at the top of the double chair, looking out over the White Mountains in New Hampsire and then went on to to top of the Single Chair. There was some stuff that was pretty daunting to me in between those two spots, so rather than turn around and do them going back down, we hiked back down the ski trails and cut over to the road. Here are some pictures I took along the way.

There was a lot of Trillium  (will look through my wildflower books this weekend to try to see what the heck these are! They looked like a cross between a trillium family and wild orchid family to me..) along the way which was suprising to see in late June.

I think eating lettuce that came from my garden last night really drove it home. Summer is really truly here.

More evidence is that the lupine in field in front of my house is about at it's peak. It's pretty hard to share the real view but here is a composite picture and a few others...

click on the composite to see a larger size...

Yet another beatiful vermont photo for my desktop. This is Mt. Mansfield. The profile of Mt. Mansfield is a person's face. You can get the properly sized desktop here at Green Mountain Club. The photos are from local professional photographer, Paul Hansen, of Ecopixel. He prepares them each month with the calendar image.

When I lived North of Burlington, Mt. Mansfield was nearby for loads of hiking and back country skiing. There are so many trails.

Towards the left is the chin. In about the middle of the photo is the nose and then the right part of the mountain is the forehead. The chin is the highest point in Vermont. Next highest after that is Camel's Hump which is now our nearby mountain. We can see the peak of Camel's Hump from our house, but only under very specific circumstances. "Mountain views!"

While there are still a few patches of snow on the ground, we have had a spate of warm summer like weather for the past few days. Last time I looked this morning the thermometer said it was 77 degrees! Where I live we aren't supposed to do our planting before Memorial Day (sees and hardy plants are okay, but not things like tomatoes, many types of herbs and other annuals) - that's how long we can expect frost for. Yet here it is April 23rd and it was 65 at 7am and now nearly 80 degrees. Crazy weather. Beautiful weather. I'm looking at my garden (which was covered with snow only 4 days ago) and feeling as though I am way behind the 8 ball already in getting it ready!

Here's the auction page for it.

I was there in the incredible (not very eastern-skiing-like) powder on Friday, but didn't stay long and had to come back home for a conference call. This is how I dream of skiing, but I don't come close.

Mad River Glen (which is open today since we had a big dump of snow and it's beautiful out and I'm tortured because I need to work... uggh) is going to begin a major restoration of it's historic and world famous Single Chair lift next week. To raise funds, they have been auctioning off the old chairs. The VERY LAST chair is now being auctioned off on eBay.

I used to hate flying. It still terrifies me to tempt gravity and nature so. But I have to fly a lot since I go to conferences and user groups all over the place. One of my tricks is that I love to get a window seat and look out at the amazing view.

Today I flew back from Orlando where I had just been at DevConnections (which I wrote about here). I flew from Orlando to Washington Dulles, then from there a short 1 hour flight home to Burlington, Vermont. Because it was a short flight, we were in a small plane and flying low. It was a fabulously goregous sunny day. I slept for the first bit of it but then woke up whe the pilot said "if you look to your right, you'll see a great view of NYC". I was on the left so I was looking at Newark. However as we got a little further north, it got better and better.

I lived in the Hudson Valley for 8 years prior to moving to Vermont. I was also quite in love with the Hudson River. My favorite bike rides were ones where I rode my bike across some of the many bridges that span the Hudson. Eventually, we were following the Hudson as we headed north and it was right out my window. By the time we got over Poughkeepsie, I was able to identify so much of what I was seeing because they were places I have spent a lot of time. I was able to see New Paltz and the Shawagunks. Then Rhinebeck which led to something that made my heart jump. I quickly followed the road out of Rhinebeck with my eyes and made my way to the house that I lived in for a very wonderful 6 years of my life (okay, that's discounting an icchy boyfriend that lived there with me for a short while (but hindsight's 20-20, right?). I couldn't really see the house, but I saw what was my pond when I lived there and filled in the rest of the view from memory.

I kept my eyes peeled to the landscape all the way to Burlington. Up the Taconic and Hudson river, the Hudson bridge and the town of Hudson. The Castskills (where I have spent a lot of time not only hiking and winter climbing, but bicycling through as well in my "former life") then Albany , the Adirondacks, Lake George and finally Lake Champlain. Even flying over Vermont, it was easy to pick out the place we put in to paddle Dead Creek, the Addison County Fairgrounds, Snake Mountain, Vergennes, Shelburne Bay and Shelburne Farms. Then finally Burlington. It was a pretty boundy landing due to some strong winds, but we did it safely and I got to drive home on some of the same roads that I had been watching from my birds' eye view.

I wish I could have filmed the entire thing, but hopefully by blogging it, I'll be able to come back and enjoy the memory here.

Rich and i have weekday passes to Mad River so when I work all weekend long and work at night, I won't feel too guilty cutting out for a few hours and today is the day! Even if you don't have a pass, you might want to consider it. Here's from MRG's website this morning:

Starting today we will be switching to special Spring hours and rates. We will be spinning the lifts from 9:30 AM to 4:30 PM and midweek lift tickets are a mere $29 for the rest of the season.  Today will simply be the best $29 you ever spent! Bluebird skies and temps in the upper 20's. The skiing, in a word, is unbelievable, with 28"-36" of Champlain Powder during the St. Patty's Weekend "snow event"!   The skiing is downright ludicrous with some of the fluffiest powder this side of Utah.  You absolutely owe it to yourself to make the pilgrimage to Mad River Glen right now. you won't be disappointed. The grooming "fleet" has been out in force pinning down the fluff on the novice and intermediate terrain.  It will be a corduroy paradise out there today  for those who like that kind of thing. The legendary steeps and bumps are about as good as they get and our glades, those famous glades, well you can only begin to imagine how good they are skiing. During the midweek period we will spin the Single Chair, the Sunnyside Double and the Callie's Corner Handle Tow from 9:30 AM to 4:30 PM.   Obviously 100% of our fabled main mountain terrain is wide open with some of the finest conditions in recent memory.

Perfect snow. We got about 18" of dense snow between Friday and Saturday. (I know, bad for drivers, bad for travellers, bad for a lot of people, but suh-wheeeeeet for skiers!) Then overnight last night we got another 8+ inches of the lightest fluffiest snow in the world. Yesterday Rich and I went out in our snowshoes and packed our ski trail down in the woods. Today will be the payoff as we get to ski in the fluffy fluffy fluff this afternoon.

I remember trudging through piles of snow when I was little, knocking on my neighbor's doors taking (and then delivering) cookie orders.

Now if I want cookies, I have to go track them down. I just discovered that there's a list of where I can buy them all over vermont this week. (I just happened to think of it and it just happened to be this week!)

It was -14.7 F at 7am this morning. It has warmed up to -7 right now (8:30am). The thermometer said it got as cold as -15.2 last night. BRRRRRRRRR.

This  month's desktop calendar is really nice. They are done by photographer Paul Hansen of ecopixel for the Green Mountain Club.

In December, Deer Leap Books in Bristol VT , a wonderful local independent bookstore, closed it's doors. It wasn't for lack of local support, but it still wasn't enough to compete with Amazon, etc.

Today, I saw in the local paper that another fabulous indy bookstore, The Book Rack & Children's Pages (this one in Essex, VT) is also closing. Very sad. I thought their formula was strong enough to keep them going. (Here's the article.)

These are wonderful community places. The store's owner is going to get involved with a recently formed organization called Local First Vermont, to help other Vermont businesses.

As the snow was piling up and the wind was creating drifts, the pile of snow building up by our front door at one point literally looked like the shape of a car! Here it was the day after.

Rich has been out snowblowing and shoveling on and off for three days now (in between skiing on the new snow at Mad River, off course). He's just now attacking the pile. Check out the pink sunset in the valley, too. These are snow paths like I remember from my childhood.

The Champlain Valley Agency on Aging along with Burlington's Operation Snow Shovel have been getting calls from seniors who need their paths and steps shoveled.  Right now, they have about 10 in Burlington, 1 in Winooski, 1 in Colchester and 1 in Milton.  If anyone is willing to shovel snow for a senior, please call Champlain Valley Agency on Aging at 865-0360.   Thank you so much for your consideration. 

www.cvaa.org

From MRG's site this morning:

While it is difficult to give an exact measurement we reckon we have received between  40" and 48" (thats 3 1/2 and 4 feet folks) from this historic storm.  Needless to say the skiing conditions have improved to well beyond epic and are nearing mythic proportions. It is a blustery morning with strong winds and drifting snow. This is a day you are not going to want to miss.  It's truly incredible! 

It's also about 5 degrees at my house which means colder there. It was 0 yesterday at the top of the double. Brrrrrr

We have gotten at least 18" of snow since going to sleep last night and it is still snowing hard at 5:30 pm. Rich and I went to Mad River in the late morning. They say that by 4pm today they had 2 feet of new snow and are looking at 3-4 feet total when the storm is over! We were both exhausted after skiing in the deep powder (hey for us a foot of powder is DEEEEEEP). The roads are pretty bad now. But when the roads are the worst, the skiing is the best. Mad River is 7 miles from our house - long miles since it's up and over the mountain. I'm sure we'll sleep pretty well tonight.

Heck now that they have wireless, maybe I"ll just bring my laptop over there tomorrow. Ski work ski work ski.

I discovered the GMC desktop calendar earlier this month. This was January's.

It's a photo of Vermont's Mt. Mansfield and beyond with lots of snow! It was great to look at when we didn' t have any snow and I really loved having it on my desktop this past month.

The image with the month calendar and GMC logo was created for GMC by Paul Hansen, a local photographer who's company is ecopixel.com. I'm really looking forward to seeing what beautiful local photo I'll get to have for Feb.

Looking at the ecopixel site, I noticed that he has an offer to create desktop calendars for other organizations. I think it's a great idea. It has put the Green Mountain Club in my mind every day.

Rich and I had a great ski today. There were about 3 inches of fresh snow this morning and it was about 15 degrees, so  when we went out after lunch, the snow was dry and fluffy. The kind of snow where you can actually see the crystal shapes. On top of the base that we have been working on in trails in our woods, the new snow made for PERFECT ski conditions. I'm not exaggerating. For the entire time we were out, we couldn't get over how optimal it was. And I was so happy to finally get out my real back country skis instead of my rock skis. They are light and they glide so beautifully. We went up through our woods and then crossed over to trails that lead up towards the Long Trail in the Green Mountains. Even the first few hours that we were basically climbing up hill were sweet. Then coming back down the trails was heavenly and just didn't last long enough. Does it ever?

Having the cold weather makes a huge difference. Otherwise the snow is sticky and you have to really finagle with the wax. 

Perfect perfect perfect!

Are these really pictures of Vermont in January? Yes. I just took them in my front yard. Bah. I think ALL of the snow for planet earth is in Colorado right now.

While Jay Peak, in it's very own weather zone, is boasting snow (only 60 miles north of us) and Denver is getting another 30 inches on top of the coupla feet they got last week, poor little Mad River Glen (the reason we live in Vermont) is finally going to open this weekend with a minimal base and minimal snow on top of that. Most of the other resorts around here are suffereing as well, but now that the cold has set in at least they can confidently make snow. Mad River actually has some snow making equipment as well, but oh, how I hate skiing on that. There are about 2 inches of snow in our front yard and I just can't take it any more. I'm going to put in my old tele "rock skis" and go ski around the yard, grab the mail and then get back to work. No point in going out into the woods as there's never as much snow in there as there is out in the open. For that, I can't even justify snow shoes, though flip flops would be pushing it....

There are some beautiful falls that I can get to from my backyard, though they are a little off the beaten path.

I finally brought my camera back there yesterday. It's really hard to capture the full impact of the falls which are about 20 or 25 feet high, fall into a beautiful small pool of water and then go down a stream to meet a larger stream. So in addition to these pics, I took a short video. The high quality video is 24 MB, the low quality version is about 4MB.

Burlington's airport (BTV) just turned on free wi-fi today. Yay. Here's more from the Free Press

There's some unusual white stuff falling out of the sky this morning. The air is thick with it. White fluffy little flakes like someone's shaking a huge box of those old fashioned laundry flakes. The wierdest thing is that it is sticking to the ground which is now mostly white with little bldes of grass sticking up in it.

Wait - I think... could it be...we just haven't seen it for so long here in Vermont.

Snow?

It's pretty sad that it's Dec 19th and there's no real skiing yet. Poor Mad River Glen still hasn't opened yet. The bigger places that can make snow have been struggling against the unusually warm weather. There was an article in the paper this weekend about the alternate activities the ski resorts are coming up with for people who made their reservations and just came up anyway.

cool!

I was supposed to fly to Seattle today (that's a cross country trip for me) by way of Chicago O'Hare. O'Hare was closed yesterday with something like 400 flights cancelled because of the weather, so I was a little nervous about what might happen with a 7:30am flight out of Burlington, where we were also having nasty weather and a forecast of snow in the morning). So I changed my flights to Monday (United was letting travellers do this without penalties) and freed up my seats on today's flights for some happy person stuck in Chicago.

I looked today on the United site and saw that both of my flights went without a hitch and on time. But, it was still a great thing that I happened to do this since our power went out at 6pm last night and didn't come back on till 8am (very high winds and big nasty storm - trees down everywhere!). So I would never have been able to get my act together to get out the door at 6am this morning for a week long trip anyway.

Happily it was a nice day today so I got to spend it with my hubby doing errands (including finally replacing my 12 year old UGLY ski jacket!) and going for a nice walk out to some hidden falls in the forest behind our house. He had never seen them before and I had only seen them for the first time a week ago. I forgot to bring my camera though. (Next time, I promise, so I can share.) Becaue of all the rain in the past days, the streams and rivers around here are wild so the falls and the streams around it were amazing!