It's a Lovely Day in the Neighborhood!

And it's a fine day to take that look out for a walk!

Finally, the streets get a hosing (apart from pot-holing)

Brushed or not, the streets of beautiful Springfield, Vermont, are kept that way in no small part due to the efforts of the proud residents - here is a typical view, simple but nice!

Some streets get washed, others do not!

The road salts and gravel that accumulate on neighborhood streets can sit there and generate foul dust clouds right through May, but Main Street gets scrubbed right after the last melt!

Springtime in Vermont

You have to stay busy with things the way they are

Springmelt in Springfield, Vermont

Now that the factory economy has been dead for a couple of generations the Black River is beautiful again - here it is in early Spring. We had forgotten that the name refers to the dark rocks in the river bed, not to the former conditions of filth and polution that had been caused by a century or more of careless and inconsiderate selfishnes$. The death of that industrial madness allows for the continuing recovery of this small ecosystem, and today we see everything along the Black River, from Blue Heron to Beaver, including our own family of Mallards.
Ya que hace casi medio siglo desde que las fabricas cerrarron por última vez sus puertas inhóspitas y por fín dejaron de ensuciar sus entornos, el Rio Negro es bello de nuevo - aqui lo vemos en los primeros dias de Primavera. Se nos había escapado de la mente la idéa de que el nombre del rio se refiere al color de las piedras de su lecho, y no a la marranada que havía antes, de residuos y desperdicios de cien años de malcuido y egoísmo. La muerte de esa locura industrial permite hoy en dia el renacimiento de este sistema ecologico, poco a poco - hemos visto gran variedad de animales, incluso familias de Castores, gansos y patos, garza y halcón, y más.