Snow level on the mountains and hills surrounding us is right at 3000′ give or take a few feet, depending entirely on southern exposure. We have kept a dusting of snow around the house but it won’t last through the morning, once we emerge from the mountain shadow. When we lived in Alaska, the first snows of winter were called “termination dust.” It is truly more ominous when you are facing snow on the ground for seven months instead of only four months.
Directly to the west of us, the mountain top has the late fall colors displayed prominently - white, green, golden, against a blue sky.
Around our house all the aspen leaves have fallen. The very cold temperatures we had in +10F range came at the wrong moment, before the leaves had really turned from summer green to autumn’s pale gold, and so the leaves simply fell off the trees. The same thing happened with the cottonwood trees along the river; their leaves never turned colors, but simply turned brown and fell with the winds that came a few days after the very cold temperatures.
Deciduous conifer, Larch or Tamarak, depending on how far north you are in latitude.
Unlike the wimpy Aspen and Cottonwood, the below normal cold temperatures had no appreciable affect on the Larch trees. They didn’t disappoint us. Their golden needles shine in the sunlight. In groves such as the one in this picture where Larch dominates, when the needles fall they will carpet the ground with gold. Then, all you need is a rainbow….
Speaking of gold, the summit of Mount Baldy Ski Resort is hidden in clouds, and they have no doubt received several inches of snow over the past couple of days. The ski resort will be buzzing with anticipation in harvesting gold from skiers' pockets.
We definitely need to get snow tires on the cars, asap.
Mishkin claims there is a real live mouse hiding behind the DVD shelves. He’s been staking it out since we woke up this morning. Could be he’s right; the good thing is he is entertained. He managed to misplace his toy mouse already this morning; he probably punted it under the range in the kitchen, and I will have to remove the bottom pan storage tray to see if it is there.