Wednesday

It's Recyclables Day!
It's 28.4 degrees.

There's a little bit of new snow, but the road is just wet.

• Wednesday: A morning flurry or two. Otherwise, partly cloudy and cool. High in the mid to perhaps upper 30s.
• Wednesday Night: Increasing clouds. Low in the mid to upper 20s.
• Thursday: Light rain or light snow or a mix of both. Cloudy. High: 41, Low: 24

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Everyone looked, but there was no sign of "our" Snow Geese, yesterday.

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Buck Harris, who lives in North Dakota and follows Life in Waterville via the "blog," wrote to comment on the many varieties of birds that he's used to seeing. "Living here amongst the prairie pot-holes and the major migratory route for most water birds, we get to see this sight every spring. I'm not sure if it was so common while you were in Kansas, but here in North Dakota, our fields fill with hundreds of canada geese, snow geese, trumpeter swans, pelicans, and mallard ducks amonst many other water birds that I'm still not totally familiar with. Entire fields become a blanket of "honking" white and black. Occasionaly we'll read that a couple of whooping cranes were sighted in a field as well (major news in these parts)."

And then he added: "get ready for some chilly weather. We were 48F on Sunday and by 6pm on Monday, we had a mini-blizzard with winds around 45mph, snow (we had none on the ground until then), and the temp dropped from 32 at 6pm to 12F by 6:30!! The roads were covered in drifts, visibility was zero, and by 7am this morning, we were a "balmy" -6F...yes MINUS 6F!! And it's not even December yet! "

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Jody Hildreth missed seeing the Snow Geese, but wrote that:
"I did have a surprise at my feeder today – the first Common Redpoll of the year. Watch the feeders. This is suppose to be a huge year for winter finches. Common Redpoll, Evening and Pine Grosbeaks, Red and White-winged Crossbills, and Bohemian Waxwings are all being reported in New York. Hope I have a chance to photograph some."

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I had a nice E-note from Byron Stuhlman, who sent "Greetings!" from Round Pond, Maine.
"We moved here three weeks ago, but turned around and went back to Utica because our son Jon (curator of American art at the Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC) had been signed up to give a lecture at Munson Williams on November 16. From there we went to Bridgewater, Connecticut, where I conducted the funeral for Jon's godmother who had died recently. We finally got back to Maine in time for me to preside at the late service at St. Andrew's, Newcastle, on Sunday."


I found this picture of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church on the internet but couldn't find its history - and I know that there's something special about the architect who designed it, but can't remember what. Perhaps Byron can fill us in on that?

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I cruised around the village late yesterday afternoon: a fun little ride!

The first thing I noticed was that the pavement on both W. Bacon Street and Babbott Avenue is back to normal: no more zigging and zagging to avoid those square "potholes!"



It was still quite light out. The Gibbons' residence was pretty even without lights ....



Other buildings glowed.


S. Babbott Avenue.

The Pumilias' on Stafford Avenue .......


...... and the Pumilias' on Tower Street light up their neighborhoods!


The Grinch was at the Prices' .........


......... and Santa has already made it to the roof of #188!

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Are you SURE you know where your snow shovels are?

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I also had mail, yesterday, from the Editor of "DeafLIFE" asking for information about Charlotte Buell Coman. Historians have spent a great deal of time reading about artist Albert Bierstadt, but there hasn't been much come to light about Charlotte Buell - surprising, because of the Buell family status in the village and Charlotte's eventual fame. Now might be a good time to ask if anyone has a dusty old canvas up in their attic signed "Coman" ?!?

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Have a nice day!!