Snow came early this year.

In fact, the morning that I wrote my last post was the day it all started. Exactly a month ago, back when we were still in the middle of November, I had at last pulled together my photos and poems about the beautiful fall foliage. The weeks previous to that, I’d let myself bask in the autumn light, watch as Nature shed its layers, and breathe in the changes both startling and inspiring. But it took a while for my thoughts to steep and my words to settle, like tea leaves sinking to the bottom of a mug.

That day, however, I awoke in the wee hours of the morning and felt the burn to finally release those words and pictures. And good thing I did, because after clicking “Publish,” I went to the window and pulled open the shade. In the blue pre-dawn light, I noticed a snow-covered landscape.

Technically, it wasn’t our first snow of the year, but it was much more substantial.

It was as though Autumn had chosen to masquerade as Winter.

Having released my autumn images that morning, I happily put on my boots, grabbed my camera, and tromped into the snow to find new things to see.

My favorite
were these purple asters
looking bold and determined.

Below, they remind me
of snow cones,
refreshing and cool.
Bunches of sweet ice.

Then the days warmed
…and snow melted.

…And a different cold morning
left a layer of ice fringe.

Where even
something so still
—frozen, in fact—
looked as though it
could
perpetually be moving.

When
—in just-above-freezing temperatures—
both ice and water
clung
like crystals and globes,
a chandelier
whose structure was grass
and the light reflected
came from a gray sky.

And under that purple-hued gray
and misty blue,
a frosted prairie
just two years old
stood around
this Great Mother Tree
where
beginnings and endings
come full circle

And today,
she stands in snow,
a map of white and black lines,
ever crooked
with shades of gray everywhere between.

Happy tromping! Happy writing! Happy finding new things to see!