Some years we quickly slide into Winter with snow, ice and sharp winds. Other years it is an easier process, more of a gentle teasing of the cold weather to come. We are fortunate to have the gradual arrival of Winter this year only making itself known more clearly after the change of time that brings the dreaded short, dark days.
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| Neighborhood Trees |
We had our first snow this year almost a week before the end of October. Luckily when we get an early snow, we usually have more warm days to come and we did. Those warm days continued through yesterday when it was sunny and beautiful with a temperature of 74 F (23 C). I finally decided to tackle the many leaves in our back yard and spent four hours raking and bagging. I ended up with eight bags of leaves and some pretty good back and knee pains! Believe it or not, that was from only half of the back yard. Our yard is not that big but we do have a lot of trees and that means more yard work in both Spring and Fall. That is fine with me though because I love trees! By the time I stopped working the sun had disappeared and the sky had that dark, foreboding look. This morning I stepped out onto our deck and was hit with that sharp cold that is unmistakably the beginning of winter. We went from temps in the 70’s to the low 40’s (4 C). Then the heavy, cold rain started. Oh well, I didn’t feel like finishing the raking today anyway.
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| Sophie sleeping with her friends |
Time does move fast and before we know it the holidays will be here. For those of us in the U.S. Thanksgiving is just a little over two weeks away and as soon as that is over, we are into the Christmas season. There is no telling what the holidays will be like this year with the pandemic still here. We don’t travel over the holidays so the main thing that will change for us will be the lack of local Christmas activities. I am hopeful that we will still see our kids and grandkids Christmas but these days I know there are no guarantees. Are you making different plans this year for the holidays? Maybe someone will come up with some new ways for those of us staying home to celebrate this year?
