Bob and I cleared some pine tree branches off the road and yard near the driveway today. 52 degrees and sunny! I went down the basement to turn off the light: it was off (burned out?) but the socket was warm to the touch. I unplugged it. 46 degrees in the basement. I checked the phone messages: there was one to call a number to find out about certified letter - you may have received 3.5 million dollars! If you think this is legit, call me and I'll give you the phone number to call back, but I think it's a scam. Otherwise all's well.

COLD!!! and ADT

Connie and I got calls from ADT this morning. The heat sensor in the basement was below the 40 degrees cold warning. Thanks Connie for calling me (from warmer Florida!): I missed the call from ADT on my phone. (I'm not sure who they called first, you/David or me) I called ADT, the power was still on, just the cold sensor in the basement set off, they said.  I bundled up and went down. Our thermometer in Glastonbury read 0 degrees this am, by the time I left the house at 9:00 it was 10. I'm sure it was at least that cold in the hollow that is Thicut! Anyway, all the internal alarms were singing when I went in. I disarmed the the noise and ventured down the basement. It was only 39 down there, but with a bit of hot breath on the sensor, the temperature went up to 40 and I was able to reset the system. I then turned up the heat to about 55, let the house warm up a bit, turned on a fan pointing towards the basement stairs, and played the piano for 20 minutes or so. The temperature was still only 40 in the basement. Then I remembered the hanging light that someone moved toward the utility box. I restrung it near the heat sensor, and left the light on. Maybe the little warmth from the light bulb will keep the temperature steady at 40? We'll see. I turned the thermostat back to 50. The forecast says it's supposed to get up to the 55 tomorrow (with snow, sleet and finally all rain between now and then)! I'll go down again later in the week to turn that light off.

Swing down

Bob and I checked Thicut today. It's a sunny 15 degrees out. We've had several small snow storms in the last couple 3 weeks. Rene Desjardins has plowed twice. He reported pine branches down this last time from the VERY heavy wet snow last weekend. And sure enough, Aunt Gina's white pine by the driveway has several large branches that Rene moved out of the way. But the big news:
The branch of the maple tree in the back yard with the swing is DOWN. Here are pictures:

The branch took the cherry (crabapple?) tree down with it. Bob thinks there may be a bit that will live, but it looks pretty destroyed. 

All else inside the house is fine - the power was off at some point, but furnace, etc all working - we reset the clocks and timers; a dead mouse in the upstairs toilet (EEEUUUWWW), oil still about 5/8ths, the phone answering machine is full, but when I listened to a sampling, there were no messages, just silence. I can erase them all next time if you want. 

And Spring IS coming, next week should see 45 degrees and rain one day.

2 fish and lots of mice

 Happy February!
The snow from the storm that barely hit us a couple of weeks ago is almost completely gone. The temperature today is in the 50s.
Inside the house, all is fine, except the mice have found the soap dishes and there is lots of evidence that they're healthy :)
There is a little ice left on the pond and I saw 2 fish swimming in the bottom! An orange one and and a white and orange one.
Here are a couple pictures.

There is 3/4 tank of oil which should be plenty in this warm winter!

The brook is high due to the rain we've had in the last day or so. I love listening to its sound as I wander in the yard.

I went home by way of a tour of Haddam Neck: I took all the roads (intentionally, of course): Hurd Park Road, Basket Shop Road, Ague Spring Road, Quarry Hill Road, Rock Landing Road, Injun Hollow Road. And stopped at the cemetery, the church (and drove up School House Hill Road), drove by Aunt Yee's, Aunt Kate's, Uncle Paul's, the fairgrounds, and lots of other relatives' houses. Ahhh.

Happy Valentine's Day!