. . . and back again

Greetings from snowy Vermont! Again!

Kate, Todd, me

We arrived back home last evening, and, even though Sunday was a beautiful, bright, sunny day for traveling, today our first full day back home greets us with a blustery, snowy day. The snow is supposed to change to rain this afternoon but that won't be much of an improvement. We can tell that there has been some small progress toward spring in these parts: robins have arrived in the Connecticut River valley where there is some bare ground in evidence; the willow trees have that yellow blush which signals their buds are beginning to swell and let's see--what else. . . . . . uh, that's about it I think. Small consolation!

Unlike our trip south, once we turned our trusty Subaru northward, we did not deviate off of I-95. As I expected, the season ran backwards: by South Carolina the hardwood trees were well along toward leafing out and the median strip on the highway had been planted with wildflowers including golden California poppies and they were cheerfully welcoming spring; by North Carolina only daffodils bloomed in the median but the dogwoods were blooming in the forest edges; by Richmond the fruit trees were in full bloom but nothing was leafed out; and by the time we were once again in Gaithersburg, Maryland, Sue's daffodils had bloomed and the forsythia were in full flower. By the time we reached the Jersey Turnpike nothing was leafed out and etc., etc., etc., back to Vermont.

The kiddish fountain

We stopped Friday night and had Shabbos dinner with Todd Weinberg and his family. Yossi, the Iranian Jew, was there with his family as were other good friends, John and Holly and their kids. We were impressed with different kids taking turns saying the appropriate baruchas (blessings) over different parts of the meal (all in Hebrew, of course) and they poured the kiddish wine/juice using a kiddish fountain which was pretty cool. We had a great time meeting everyone and eating excellent bagels. Saturday we endured horrendous traffic all the way up to Washington and scooted over to Maryland to spend one last night with Sue and Don.

There is one last cluster of pictures on this post. Make sure you click on each to get the accompanying explanation.

Shabbos chez Weinberg

So ends our wonderful trip to spring training. Linda has such a good time she wants to go for a whole month next year and rent a condo nearer the beach. We shall see. Anyone want to volunteer to babysit the dogs so they don't have to go to jail for a whole month. (I picked them up this morning and JD had eaten his bed. Other than that they were glad to get home but seemed none the worse for the wear.)

ditto