Happy New Year! I hope this message finds you and yours in good health and good spirits.

I am sitting here in my new office looking out the window at a snowy landscape, a not unexpected tableau for this time of year. My window overlooks our ice-covered pond that is framed by a ring of spruce trees on the east and Norway pines on the north. The side below my window is not tree-covered, although there are a number of shrubs on this west side of the pond where I have grown a mix of shrubs and flowers in two flowerbeds that are interrupted by a grassy area. The fourth edge of the pond has white birches, balsam firs, and a number of quaking aspens that hang over the water. Everything is white as the snow has fallen several times over the last few days, leaving a thin veneer of white on all the evergreen trees but none on the shrubs since they don’t seem to like snow and have surfaces that are not snow friendly, allowing the snow to pile at their roots instead. The wreath of white over the entire pond area is calming, peaceful and pleasant.

My office is now at this high spot on the first floor of our house instead of the former area I reserved in the basement for scribbling or calculating how much money I owed the government --not that I regretted paying, you understand, but I do enjoy complaining about it. The basement has but a single window and it is colder there in the winter than is my current office area. I seem to be a slow learner since it has taken me almost twenty years to decide that a window view and the warmth of my wood stove offered some distinct advantages for an office. Now that I am here with the window and the closeness of available snacks, I have no desire to spend time in the basement. Besides, I am now where my beloved computer rests whenever I am able to tickle the keys in developing some important message like this one, although some might argue the point and substitute the word ‘trivial’ instead of ‘important’.

This is my first blog of the year. For the first time in several years, I failed to compose a Christmas message. That is not factual. Actually, I composed a Christmas message but then decided it was too trivial even by my relaxed standards to justify sending it along to both of my eager readers. This then, is the first blog from me in some while. My excuse for not issuing an earlier blog or Christmas message was that there was nothing to write about since the Pandemic had prevented a rich harvest of material from tumbling into my lap. In other words, I couldn’t think of anything to write about.

I believe things are finally starting to return to a more normal basis. I have fond hopes that the Pandemic business will come, if not to an end, at least to a measure of normality that we can all live with. The Missus and I have done all the science-based things we can do to resist the dreaded virus and I am beginning to feel that, with the aid of our government, we can beat this disease into submission. As one example of a joyful return to normal, I have begun work on a new book of local history. It is consuming effort as I work to tease facts from the jumble of events over the last 150 years.

I’ll let you know what happens. Stay safe.