Fall into Winter

Thursday morning was quite cold here in the Near North Valley with the first freeze of the season. Being forewarned by the weather service, Caro and Baldo spent a lot of effort potting up tender plants and I helped cart them inside. Shelves in the back hallway and in Frances' room are now green and lush while outside the garden starts to wind down. The tropical bonsai are all inside and the hardier ones have been moved into the garage. Only the larger pots with the Ponderosa pines and largest bonsai will remain outside over winter.

Even after the cold snap butterflies, grasshoppers, and a few fugitive snails are seen. But the hummingbirds have flown south and Terrance has burrowed in somewhere. He's elusive this year and I don't know where he's tucked in, so we'll have to be careful about any digging until he surfaces next April.

Last Sunday I took a last swim in the pool, super-chlorinated it, and shut the cover for the season. Time to tidy up the jacuzzi for winter now.

I voted early at the Ranchitos polling place yesterday. With the real likelihood of an Obama presidency, this is yet one more indication that things are changing.

Next Friday will be Samhain and Halloween, when the world moves from the light half of the year into the dark half. Seems to make more sense to me than having the fall season begin on the equinox. By the time winter officially arrives on the solstice we in NM have been in the grips of cold and dark for weeks. Usually the first big storm of winter comes within two weeks of Samhain. Some neopagans associate the non-solstice/equinox dates with the moon, making Oct. 29, the fall new moon, the date of Samhain this year.

Either way with the change of seasons its fitting to think back about Aunt Frances. Life is returning to its usual rhythms for us. Kathie was over on Wednesday to pick up most of the scrap booking materials and some odds and ends from the garage. For now Frances' room is a quite place of reflection with her favorite possessions and art works still on the shelves or hanging on the walls. The cats seem drawn to the place, which is not surprising. They always liked that particular room and that goes back all the way back to the original four old cats who now rest together beneath a flagstone outside the Hidden Garden door.