Here's Winter

I feel like we skipped November, and that is OK with me , so often it is the blandest month of the year. We just might have jumped from October to December.
Yesterday, the threat of a snowstorm chased me out of bed early to try to finish up with fall chores. While our extended family in Minneapolis was getting dumped on, Shelby and I were filling Trashy Pete (our oldest pick-up) with pine needles and making one last run to the brush dump. Petey is also helping Shelby learn to drive a stick shift, I love that.

Shelby's friends came up later---last week's 60 degree temperatures had them planning a day on mountain bikes. Who bothers to check the forecast? Early in the afternoon, they biked in blaze orange...good sports, but only for about an hour as the snow started to pick up.
Then......as the snowstorm hit, they decided to take the uncarved pumpkin off the porch and cook it. In a very inefficient but entertaining use of several hours, they made two really good pies, and I don't usually like pumpkin pie. Andy, Daniel, and his friend Lars finally arrived from the hockey game in Ashland (and that is a groan in a snowstorm) but it was cozy and pumpkinny here, and they eased right in. I like these kids.
They stayed in one of the cabins--a sleepover perk of November, and while they slept through the morning Andy and I went for a run. We only got 4 or 5 inches I suppose, but, the woods lived up to the fresh white winter wonderland cliches. It's lucky that snow is so lovely, the air is scrubbed clean, because it feeds my soul.

When these adolescents finally got up, they went out to "play." This same group has done that for the last 7 winters.....why stop now? I guess it's what the first snow does. And though it has made our world black and white, when 6 days ago we were paddling and portaging, it is soft and new.
The seasons remind me that all good things must come to an end, and all good things must have a chance to start up as well. Ready or not