January 5, 2025

• Well, I had felt December was getting a little old, when suddenly it decided to end.  Here are a couple of the last pictures from December.  First is the molten Pond on December 27, and next on the 28th.  (Usually the fish are swimming VERY slowly down near the bottom of the pond!)

So Spring is here?   How nice of it!  Here is a picture from January 1.  Yes, Spring must be here to stay!  I am so glad.  

It does seem Spring is here to stay.  This was the Pond on January 1.  I have got to confess, I took a few extra pictures of the edge of the Pond, feeling sure that the Froggies must be waking up from their long winter's nap.  

That was January 1; here is January 2.  Yes, that is SNOW surrounding the Pond, which is getting on to covered with fine ice.  

Well, maybe I was overly eager to say December is over.  Oh no, I wasn't.  Well, the IDEA of December is over.   Here is January 3.  A friend had just sent me some e-mail and mentioned that it was really SNOWING quite actively.  I looked out the upstairs back windows to see snow blowing all over and trying its best to cover the Pond and the Woodshop.

Oh my gosh, I almost forgot - I found a lovely tiny spider out there on the East Wall.  It looked familiar, but was so small I was confused for a while.  Then I suddenly remembered that this is one of the spiders that are fairly familiar in the Summer, but may look very different then.  So on the next row, here are two shots from December.  The second one is a better picture because when I saw the first one, I had to go back outside and look for it again more carefully!  The next next row shows a few different views of the adult (taken in various summers).

Well, so much for the end of Winter.  You knew I was kidding you, didn't you?  But look, it's January 5, one-sixth of the way to February.  Look, take care of each other, and even if it seems farther off than we might like, think of the things we can do to keep our Planet spinning.  I sent you all my new cellphone number - but here it is again: 517-499-7415.  Love, Martha