Sunday, November 6, 2011

Day 249 of 365

It happened the other day when I was at the grocery store and it happened again early this morning.

It snowed.

It's not cold enough for it to stick to the ground, but it stuck to the roofs and porch railings. Just a dusting, but still a day (or two) worth remembering. With time changing back last night it seemed appropriate to wake up to snow. It's darker, it's colder, and winter will be on its way.

In winter I want to be a hibernating bear, keeping warm and sleeping my days away. However, as I reported on Day 24, I'm obsessed about tracking our power bill. So we have our heat system programmed to kick on when the temperatures at night hit the mid-50s in the house. That's pretty darn cold. We never have it set higher than 64 degrees during the day. (Although some days we'll cheat and crank it up to 67.) I imagine some day we'll keep our place warmer, but just not yet.

The snow and the cold temperatures got me thinking about our gardens. The vegetable garden is all pulled up, the wildflowers and perennials have all died off, and the roses are done for and awaiting a good pruning in preparation for winter.

We have one - and only one - flower still blooming. Some of our mums have been killed off by the heavy frost, but there is a lone holdout where it is protected by the eaves of the house.

The last blooming flowers of the year.