The January thaw was wonderful, but short-lived. We arrived at Keewaydin in 55 degree weather, the pond ice was melting and there was a mild southerly breeze. Saturday morning we woke up to even less ice on the pond, balmy!
We did some errands and stopped by First Encounter Beach, Nauset Light beach, and Coast Guard Beach.

 The ice is halfway across the pond, the wind blowing away from us.

 First Encounter at a very high and wavy tide.

 Nauset Light Beach. The the stairs and the bath house are totally gone! They must have been removed late in the fall. The fencing is at the edge of the parking lot, and the dark line is a dirt barrier at the top of the cliff.

 Nauset Light beach looking across the parking lot to where the bath house and stairs used to be!

This is Coast Guard Beach. The wind is blowing to the east. Not the usual direction. It was kind of strange. As the day went on, the sun came out, the wind shifted and the temperature dropped.

The ice shimmered at the edge of the ice sheets like diamonds! And the wind shifted to the North, northwest. We spent an hour with Janet who stopped by on Saturday afternoon. It was a nice visit. We walked her home 'around the pond'. That was a short but cold and windy walk.

We also started painting the trim in the kitchen. Can you tell the difference?

On Sunday before we left, we went back to First Encounter to see if we could see any Snowy Owls. No owls, but we found ice floes instead! As the tide was coming in, it brought broken ice toward shore. It was actually moving up into the salt marsh. AND COLD! 26 degrees when we left.

Deep freeze and wind! pictures from Janet

Janet emailed and volunteered to check the house last week after the VERY windy storm on the Cape. She took these pictures. We're going out soon to see how the inside fared. Outside seems fine. The pond looks frozen over! It is in the 40's these next couple days, so I imagine the pond will open up before we get there.