The wild month tinged with melancholy

and the promise of shortened days, dull and dark.

Just barely a day old

it brought the long awaited rattle of rain on my roof

and then later that week, a hard frost

which finally decimated my summer Begonias.

A mad rush of snow birds head south

in their heavyweight RV’s.

And none too soon

as just one day later winter made an early debut

with a superficial snowfall,

delicate as lace, but rapidly melting.

My stripped and beautiful birches,

grieving the loss of their dearly departed leaves,

creak and groan in the wind.

A sobering reminder that we will soon be plunged

into the cold shadows of winter

where the bone structure of the landscape

can be felt from every angle.

Where bitter blasts bite

at exposed hands and faces

and hard frosts extinguish what’s left of the year.

We will return once again

to a plain sense of things.

Julie Martineau/November 2013
Photo of the remains of a KVR wood bridge adjacent to the Thompson Ranch