I have been taking photographs of the slow changing of the season. It is, ideally, a slow process, allowing a late season of harvests in the garden, and time to rake the leaves as they fall. But in one day it has gone from the gradual to the immediate. For weeks we had temperatures over night in the low 50's then the high 40's and last night we were supposed to barely touch 32 but not long enough to do much damage. Snow was forecast for the higher elevations, but not so much for the valleys. Yesterday was chill enough that I wore a jacket when I was gathering the plums I could reach on the lowest hanging branches. I planned to visit my neighbor's garden today to pick green tomatoes, the last of the zucchini and peppers. I'm afraid there is nothing left after the freeze last night. It was a hard freeze last night with snow in the valley. More snow is forecast today. A colder night is forecast for tonight. The only season I hate here is winter. And it has arrived. I must do some things today. I must shut off outside water. I must get swamp-coolers covered and their openings into the houses insulated and sealed. None of this is work I want to do. All this is the work that must be done when winter is breathing down your neck. Winters are harsh in the Mountain West. With our winter beginning before leaves in the valley have changed color, trees will lose limbs because of the weight of snow on leaf laden branches. If it continues this cold and snows often enough it will be impossible to rake the leaves when they do fall.
This shocking change of season has me finally in the mood to read. And it is Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine that I am curling up with.
18 comments:
My gosh. You guys have hit winter so early. I'm surprised.
Winter for us will be a month and a half away, at minimum.
Normally it would here, too. This is freakishly bad. It will warm up a bit, but once we get snow this early it tends to be the rush of a too early change of season. Every once in awhile, we skip a season. And it's never the gentle, pretty season we skip.
Wow. I hated winter in Chicago. Here where it's short and mild, I look forward to it a bit.
Let's hope that this is just a snap and you'll be back to what's left of fall. I used to hate trying rake silver maple leaves after they'd been under the snow.
Yes, but remember, there's no such thing as Global Warming causing Climate Change. At least, that's what we hear from the Killa from Wassilla.
I can't believe how fast winter hit Utah, Utah.
:L)
Yes, it will snap back, but I morne the loss of those green tomatoes.
Utah
I have a moment from packing! It is amazing isn't it? You think you would get use to it but nope. You are never ready and this year a bit early for you guys. Enjoy the book!
Leaf mold is one of the things I am most allergic to.
I don't envy you as I hate cold weather and practically turn into a statue if it's cold enough to snow...we are still hot here and I'm sick of that too...
leaves are just starting to turn here in Indiana. We have some cool weather but it's been hot, in the 80s, the past couple of days. Hope your autumn resumes because that is one of my favorite times of the year.
just this weekend it appears that "foliage season" has arrived in the hudson valley of new york. next week i have to drive up the thru-way to albany and am looking forward to the brilliant displays emanating out of the catskill mountains.
only problem is i HATE raking leaves. and i see them starting to rain down on me now. my neighbor uses his snow blower to blow the leaves that fly from my yard to his immaculately leafless yard back onto my pitiful lot.
people can be so mean. why doesn't he offer to help me out? jerk.
Sympathies to you - it was in the 70's both days this weekend and supposed to continue that way through the first half of the week. Our leaves are only partly turned.
Here's an Edna St. Vincent Millay sonnet for you in memory of your frozen vegetables:
Even in the moment of our earliest kiss,
When sighed the straitened bud into the flower,
Sat the dry seed of most unwelcome this;
And that I knew, though not the day and hour.
Too season-wise am I, being country-bred,
To tilt at autumn or defy the frost:
Snuffing the chill even as my fathers did,
I say with them, "What's out tonight is lost."
I only hoped, with the mild hope of all
Who watch the leaf take shape upon the tree,
A fairer summer and a later fall
Than in these parts a man is apt to see,
And sunny clusters ripened for the wine:
I tell you this across the blackened vine.
Anita is risen again, how nice to see you.
Maui, I was trying to think of that poem this morning as I was pissed at the first freeze. Thank you.
Cool snow! Hey Utah, got the meme down that you tagged me with the other day. Got to run my son wants the computer.
I can't pick my apples until after it does freeze, to start bring the sugar out in them.
And this year it produced so many fucking apples that I'm sick and tired of picking them and giving them away. It must think that it is a fucking christian that has to over produce.
For five years I have cut it back and tried to kill it and it just comes back and mocks me. Fucking christians, I should just cut it down and put a bird house on the stump.
It's easier to just shoot and eat a bird than to fuck around with apples. I am so fucking tired of picking fucking apples.
One fucking tree should not be allowed to make 20 fucking boxes of fucking apples.
Not until I learn to make hard cider.
Maui, I was trying to think of that poem this morning as I was pissed at the first freeze.
It will freeze here some through the winter, but get above freezing everyday.
When I had my business in Duchesne it would freeze for weeks at a time. But I did like it there, the land was dirt cheap and the living was good.
And I didn't mind the Mormons, generally speaking they are good people and were good and honest customers and friends.
We just recently dipped into the 80s, with temps running around 88 for high. Still using A/C a lot, even at night. Balmy.
Gorgeous pics. Winter is hard work, but also a warm and wonderful time for nesting and introspection.
Ack! I hate winter. :o(
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