Something White This Way Comes

Perhaps snow is not truly wicked, but it's timing can be so.

Snow on Greenery

More Wood Needed

It Didn't Melt Away

Truly a Winter Garden, Now

By my internal calendar it is not time for snow. It is still the rainy season which has not been rainy at all, and we can't just jump ahead to snow. My firewood is not all chopped and stacked and how am I to pick up my beta-reader manuscripts for "Miracle of Ducks" if I have to drive the Blue Goose to Sandpoint on Friday. In the snow. With no driver's side window.

The snow is pretty, but it is also pretty cold, pretty inconvenient and pretty hard to finish my winter garden under its blanket. The way it dresses the pine boughs in winter fashion is alluring. White-clad greenery is elegant. The winter-scape around Elmira Pond looks like it belongs in a magazine. It even has a decided holiday-feel to its beauty.

But wait a minute--it is not yet the holidays. Can this early snow melt away like those pastel mints that become sugar and air in your mouth? I thought so upon first glance this morning. Oh, just go back to bed and it'll be gone when you get up later. It was nice to sleep in, but the car still requires scraping so that I can go get groceries before Todd leaves early in the mornings.

The snow seems settled.

Against its whiteness, my Brussels Sprout plants are so dark purple as to be nearly black. I had hoped for tiny little "cabbages," but am facing the reality that the plants will not bear fruit this year. I'll have one minuscule cauliflower to harvest and I'll need to rescue my rutabagas. The kale can wait. It has been so sweet since the first hard frost. I want to see how long it will last in a winter garden.

Snow. Oh, snow. Blow your best and let's get on with winter!