Spring in Vermont

Spring has come to Northern Vermont.   Ethan had a school field trip yesterday that was all about finding spring.  The kids found forest salamanders under logs (fun, because we've never seen one before) and they got to catch salamanders, tadpoles and other aquatic invertebrates with nets at the Audobon Center ponds, and then let them go of course.  Leif found a deer tick, or rather it found him.  I was changing his diaper at the truck after the field trip and there it was, on his leg.  I couldn't easily pull it off, so it was off to the nearest friends house for tweezers and help.  I needed help holding him down as it is important to grab the tick by the head to make sure it doesn't detach.  My friend Eliza helped and that gross little bugger was gone.  An attached tick is a disgusting sight.  Anyway, now that it's gone we are to monitor Leif for a bull-eye rash or fever for 30 days to make sure no Lyme disease was transmitted.  There is very little chance of it though.  It generally takes 24-48 hours for the disease to be transmitted and there is no way it was attached for more than a couple of hours.  Still gross though.  Anyway, we are really enjoying spring and will remember to to daily tick checks now.

 Birthplace of Vermont

 Bennington Battlefield Monument

 Looking out from the Monument toward Massachusetts

 Robert Frost's gravesite

Out of order, but this belongs with the monument pictures

 Dorothy and Ethan tasting some wild leek

 Native bloodroot

Dorothy and her parents

We've spent some time at a nordic center skiing with my friend Dorothy, who was a ski instructor there this year.  Her season has ended so she invited us to visit her, with her parents at their house in Southern Vermont.  It's 3 hours south of us and it's like spring there.  The only sign of spring where we are, 2+ hours south of Montreal, is the spring peepers that have been singing us to sleep at night.  We visited our first monument, the Bennington Battlefield Monument.  We also saw Robert Frost's grave and the birthplace of Vermont.  We had a great time.