It already feels like summer throughout much of the Continental U.S.  BUT…the songs of spring can really hang you up the most.  Click on the play button to the left and enjoy.

Our first legitimate snowstorm of the season yesterday dropped about seven inches here on Pudding Hill.  Across the valley, Burke Mountain logged in with ten inches plus, but the winner, as always, was Jay Peak, which as of Saturday night, had just under four FEET of fresh new powder.

It’s all a bit too late to help the economy…we’re wrapping up the President’s  Week holiday for Southern New England and the New York metro, but at least it brings a little sense of normalcy to what has been a remarkably unusual winter.  And as February wraps, sugaring can’t be too far behind.

Not the deer, they’re for real, four beautiful white-tailed does, and the picture was taken on Monday evening right outside the front door of Vermont Mornings corporate headquarters.  But…they’re far healthier than normal for late February, and that’s because they’ve basically had access to food all winter long.  As of the 20th of February, we’re still waiting for our first full-fledged snowstorm of the winter.  The nature of things around here is that whatever small amounts of snow we get will linger because of the cold temperatures.  So it LOOKS for all intents and purposes like winter, but normally at this time of year, we have six-foot tall snowbanks and a bad case of cabin fever.  What we have this season is mostly open ground, few if any snowmobilers (critical to our tourism-based economy) and a bunch of seniors (80+) who swear they’ve never seen a winter such as this.  I don’t know what you would call it…I just call it WEIRD.

But…the skiing at Burke Mountain, our local favorite, is fabulous.  C’mon up.

You might have missed the news, because everybody was talking about the lack of snow throughout most of the country.  That was not the case here in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, where we had a White Christmas, decent (but not great) skiing and we prepare for 2012 with anticipation and views like this…softly, as in a morning sunrise.

Happy last night of Chanukah.  It’s Better Here.

The early morning sky suggests some weather is on the way.  This far north, we expect it to snow around Halloween and when we take the kids Trick-or-Treating, more often than not their costumes include boots and down jackets.

But like you, we’re watching this rare Autumn snowstorm (CNN’s words) that has already started assaulting the New York metropolitan area.  Apparently the last measurable October snowstorm in Manhattan happened around the same time as the Civil War.  And up to a foot of snow in Connecticut…in October??  Hmmmm…..

We’ll maybe get 4″ here and life will go on and we’ll head to Burke Mountain tonight for their Benefit Halloween Party for the Lyndon Area Food Shelf.  Bring some non-perishable food items, we’ll see you there…

Sally Oldfield Night Of The Hunter\’s Moon

In less than a week, we’ve gone from a few glimpses to about 35% coverage.  It’s still warm, mid ’70′sF, but the days get shorter and shorter…

That’s the new wind tower on Burke Mountain.  It should provide about 20% of the electricity needs for the mountain, including the new high-speed quad to to the top.  We’re starting to Think Snow.

The trees in the backyard.

It’s better here.

Osheaga was a name used for the area that is now Montreal by some of the first European settlers in the region. The name is said to originate from Jacques Cartier when he met the Mohawks near the Lachine rapids in what is now Montreal. But so the Mohawk oral history goes the white man was waving with his hands, either offering to shake hands or asking about rapids on the river. The astonished Mohawks looked at each other and said “O she ha ga” which meant people of shaking hands. From the meeting Cartier transcribed the word Osheaga as meaning large rapids while the Mohawks would use the oral phrase to describe where they met the people of the shaking hands.

Nanna Øland Fabricius aka Oh Land.  A native of Denmark, Fabricius turned to music after a spinal injury put an end to her career as a ballet dancer.  Just starting to appear on North America’s radar, their eponymous sophmore album is available on Amazon.  Pop electro.  Fun.  A highlight of the festival.

We discovered Ellie Goulding a couple of months ago, see our June 26th post.  More high-octane electro-pop, but this stuff definitely has enough appeal that she should be a huge North American star within the year.  She performed live at the recent nuptials of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (aka William & Kate) and her debut album Lights is also available at Amazon.

The bigger draw for the younger demographic was Eminem on Friday night, but for us oldsters, Elvis Costello & The Attractions on Saturday night was an aural and visual feast.  Replete with go-go dancers (and pretty young ladies from the audience invited up to shake their stuff), Elvis stayed away from his new focus on the Great American Songbook and went back to his New Wave roots: “Watching The Detectives” “Alison” et al.

Five stages are set up around Parc Jean Drapeau, so there is continuous music from 1:00 PM until well after midnight all three days.  This year, the Green Stage was entirely powered by solar panels.

One of the highlights each year is a graffiti wall.  From Friday thru Sunday, Montreal’s best graffiti artists worked on the walkway (that leads to the bridge over to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve) and created a masterpiece that will remain until August 3-5, 2012, when the sixth annual Osheaga festival will take place.  Nous vous y voir l’année prochaine!