Thursday, March 20, 2008

Random thoughts this first day of Spring

Spring is getting a cold and blustery welcome in northern New England. Something struck me in looking at the weather map this morning--does the bad weather stop at the Canadian border? Why does the map indicate that they are having clear weather while I'm getting 4-8 inches of ice and blowing snow?

As our fierce and snowy winter gives way to Spring, Tom and his little dog Atticus are continuing their quest for mountain peaks. Often Tom's posts will choke me up, but yesterday about half way through a wonderful post about their hike across the Presidentials, I was stopped short by a sentence and kept re-reading it until I could go on and then I re-read each subsequent sentence a few times and was smiling through my tears by the end of the vignette. I don't want to spoil it by giving any details, but the part of his very interesting trip report that I am referring to occurs at the Lake of the Clouds Hut.

We all live our particular lives the way we do for reasons that are unique to us. What a gift it is, when some one shares their story.

9 comments:

Pappy said...

Glad to be back to my computer. I don't have to feel bad about the time I spend on it. Away I am always worried about tying up someone else's for too long. Thanks for the link to Tom and Atticus. I enjoy his offerings.

Ruth said...

Our weather maps in Canada show the whole continent. I have always wondered why the US news stations show maps that stop at the Canadian border. We send a lot of weather your way! Tom's post is inspiring. What a trek!

Beth said...

Ruth, I don't understand it--it seems kind of rude of our U.S. stations, if you ask me. At the very least, they would be showing us previews of coming attractions to include Canada in the map.
Texican, welcome back.

Thomas F. Ryan said...

Beth, with all that we experienced this winter, I think that meeting this elderly gentleman at the Lake of the Clouds hut will remain with me more than most. What a treasure from a chance meeting.

RuthieJ said...

Hi Beth,
I'll take snow over ice any day! I hope your weather man is wrong too!

Thanks for the link to Tom and Atticus. That was a very neat story.

Phyllis Hunt McGowan said...

That was a fine story you pointed us to. Thank you.
I love mountain stories.
Curious, isn't it, about the Weather Line- it's the same stretch of land so apart from an official border there shouldn't be a difference...how strange. You've got me thinking again :)

Beth said...

Tom, that must have been something--a treasure for sure.
RuthieJ, I saw you had a weather map on your site today too. I hope your weather fizzled out like ours did.
Elementary, I'm glad you found Tom's site and enjoyed it, he's my favorite mountain writer. I wrote about meeting him in January http://bethmaddaus.blogspot.com/2008/01/carter-range-september-2006.html

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed Toms' blog, he's a wonderful writer. Your weather map looks very familiar:(

Anonymous said...

Yeck, we got snow also but our weather man is saying that we willhave sunshine for the weekend! I hope he is right!