The wind chimes on our back deck sway slowly and somewhat mournfully in today's breeze. As the photo shows, the first snowfall of the year occurred in the wee hours of the morning!
Last night our A/C came on about 8:00; the house retains its heat well and the thermostat said 77 degrees as it was over 80 yesterday. Today, Miles was delivered by his mom. . . wearing a fleece-lined, water repellent jacket! Large, wet flakes of snow mingled with rain. From my window I can see the nearby mountain tops . . . they look like cupcakes someone's dusted with confectionary sugar.
During my morning constitutional with friend Dixie, we observed wildlife out and about. We saw more mountain bluebirds than ever, about 20 turkeys, three grouse, Canada geese flying overhead and 8-10 deer. As I walked back up the driveway, in a field up the mountain I saw three more deer bounding across an open area.
Returning to the house, I mentioned this to Glenn and that he'd 'missed his chance' to get out on the last morning of archery season when animals and birds moved in greater than average numbers. He trained the spotting scope we keep set up in the dining room onto the area I described. In a few moments he called "I see the moose!"
By the time I could get to the scope, however, the moose had meandered into a wooded area and disappeared. Disappointed I hadn't seen it, I settled into the recliner with Miles and his bottle . . . as we quietly rocked to and fro, and just as he was on the verge of dozing off, I yelled to Glenn. . . sure enough, the moose had emerged from the pocket of woods . . . and wandered slowly across a snow-covered field. This time, I got a good eye on it. . . well, "good" is relative. . . I admired it through a spotting scope about a 1/2 mile away and with my astigmatic eye. . . but I did see it! It again disappeared into a clump of woods, but about 10 minutes later wandered back out. . . and we watched it again for several minutes make its way out of sight.
Later today, I'll mosey on down to our garden and harvest the remaining green tomatoes. It appears there may be bushels of them, but the late-arriving summer and damaging rain and hail on July 4 set them back. I'm hoping we'll be able to ripen them in the basement. I'll also pull up the remaining peppers . . . green, banana and jalapeno . . . as well as the zucchini and green onions.
Although I like winter, I am truly wishing that it has not yet arrived!
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