Are you ready for winter? Gone are the bright, colorful days of early autumn. With two steady weeks of morning frost, nature slips quietly into winter’s cold embrace. Our last snowfall barely sticks, but the ground is beginning to freeze. Ice is creeping over pond, lake and streamside. There are occasional traces of green, and a few stubborn leaves refuse to fall. But we move irresistibly into the cold darkness of winter, a season of rest, before the cycle of life begins anew with the light and warmth of spring.
I think I’m ready. I will never adjust to the first moments in bed, before the sheets warm up. But waking up is becoming routine. The cold floor under foot. Slipping into warm clothes heaped on the radiator the night before. Warming up the car and fetching the newspaper before enjoying a hot cup of coffee with breakfast. Boots, hats and gloves have been taken from their summer resting place. The snow shovels are ready. And me too. I think. Tom
