Getting Ready for Bed (aka winter)

The last few weeks have been quite busy with mundane work but non-the-less important.  Living  in Michigan along the lake we have to 'get ready for bed'. There's lots to do to get things ready for winter activities...find the snow shoes, dust off the skis, get the winter hats, gloves, scarfs and coats organized, getting out my knitting bag and buying skeins of wool.

We are one of a few cities that still has leaf pick up by the city but there is a window of opportunity to get them raked/blown to the street for pick up. I play a waiting game with the leaves. I won't rake until the last minute and see that most of the leaves are off the trees.  I have even been known to be raking leaves to the curb while the trucks are coming around to pick up. One morning last week we awoke to a pretty heavy frost and a small tree, still full of leaves, began loosing its leaves as we watched. Within in an hour the tree was bare. It was quite amazing.

As the day warmed up...keep in mind that is a relative term...H and I put away the deck furniture and I gathered the little yard ornaments. I moved the house plants that had summered out of doors back into the house hoping they'll survive another winter indoors. Cut evergreen branches and put them in my  window boxed for the season.  I moved wood to the small dog yard for easy access so that Woody-dog and I can have lots of fires while watching the snow fall.