Snow covered forest behind the Birch Ridge Inn

Snow covered forest behind the Birch Ridge Inn

Happy New Years. Goodbye 2015.... Welcome 2016!

2015 has been a strange year for us in Killington. We entered the year with the trauma of losing a friend. But we made the transition... "turned the corner" a couple of times, and have continued to maintain a stoic yet optimistic view of what the future holds for all of us.

Leaving 2015, "El Nino" created interesting problems for those of us living in the north country. The ski season has seen it's fits and starts during the early winter. The resort has done a fantastic job managing through this period. And "El Nino" be damned, the mountains are always with us, presenting us with an ever changing tableau of opportunities to enjoy being out with nature.

2016 will see "El Nino" lingering. But (optimistically) it looks like a weather pattern change is nearing with seasonal cold temperatures making an appearance.

For some reason, I do have an earworm stuck in my head today. The melancholy Cole Porter tune "Everytime we say goodbye".

We love each other so deeply
that I ask you this, sweetheart,
why should we quarrel ever,
why can't we be enough clever,
never to part.

Ev'ry time we say goodbye
I die a little,
ev'ry time we say goodbye
I wonder why a little,
why the gods above me
who must be in the know
think so little of me
they allow you to go.

When you're near
there's such an air
of spring about it,
I can hear a lark somewhere
begin to sing about it,
there's no love song finer,
but how strange the change
from major to minor...

ev'ry time we say goodbye.

Once we get the holidays behind us, I would expect my melancholy feeling to rapidly vanish after a good day or two in the fresh air on the mountains.

In closing.... To those we have lost in 2015... thank you for being in our lives. You will be missed.

To the friends we have kept through out the years... your friendship is one of the most valuable things we cherish.

To the new friends we made in 2015, we hope 2016 sees that friendship mature and blossom.

Where ever you may be, welcome 2016. Happy New Year. Think Snow!