St. Patrick's Day

Make your own free digital greeting

We survived our winter in Vermont and, admittedly, it wasn't too bad. There was snow and cold, but few bad roads or bad days. Certainly not what we anticipated. Spring is here and the snow remaining is big piles where it was piled up by the snowplows. People are out and about and we've had nearly a week of good weather and very cold nights.
Last Saturday, we attended our first St. Patrick's Day parade. Barre is a city of immigrants and they celebrate each group--Italians, Irish, Scotch, French with gusto. St. Patrick's Day was a little cool with a slight breeze blowing. Dust was blowing around--not dust like in Washington--dust and salt which had been used on the roads during the winter. The parade was a bunch of people celebrating their heritage. It was local and quite fun. After the parade, we went to a sugarhouse to see the maple syrup making. Unfortunately, they had already finished gathering the sap from 33,000 trees, but we saw their huge cooker. Everything was hot and boiling but it smelled heavenly. When I asked about a bathroom, the lady sent me to a port-a-potty outside warning me to watch my step it was a little mucky. Muck! It was surrounded by mud! The slickest, deepest, wettest mud you've ever seen! Needless to say, I didn't venture to it. Mud season is Vermont's 5th season. So far no rain, but it's in the forecast for next week.
It was a fun day for us.