Brrrr...

I knew it was coming--I am a weather junkie--but it still was a little shocking to wake up yesterday to this:


Might now seem like much, but that would be accumulation, about an inch.

Roswell seemed a little pensive:

As I walked her around the yard, I heard what seemed like rain--patpatpatpatpat. It was the leaves, mostly the elm, dropping leaves one after the other, all green.

That's not grass under the trees, but a pile of green leaves.

Now that the cold has really come, it's time to cut down my gardens, no small feat. I have to do the South:

And the North (ignore the garbage can):

And the East:


And the big bed:

And small beds 1-4:


This takes me weeks. And I usually have to finish it up during the inevitable January thaw.

But though I dreaded the snow a bit, one person in our house was excited. Dominic, a February baby, has been incessantly planning his birthday party since summer. Fed up, I told him he couldn't talk about his birthday until winter. When he looked outside yesterday morning, he pumped his arms in the air with glee and shouted, "It's winter!"

For a creative sign off, here's the layout I made with the colors from Friday: