Icy visitor arrives and settles in

Winter arrived about a week earlier at Powerdermill Nature Reserve (where I took today’s photo) than it did at my cabin on Roundtop. These icy stalactites already look as though they are ensconced for the winter, though they can’t have formed more than a few days, perhaps a week, before I took the photo. The weather was still pretty warm in late November, though I am sure up in the hollow where Powdermill Creek runs, it would be colder there than elsewhere.

Here on Roundtop it didn’t take long for winter to settle in, plump the cushions and get comfortable, though. When I got up this morning the temperature was a chilly 15 degrees, though at least it’s no longer 15 degrees with a 20 mph north wind, which is what I had a day or so earlier.

I enjoy winter, but my vision of winter is a sunny, clear day with no wind, even if the temperature doesn’t rise above 20 degrees. The thermometer could say 35 degrees, but if there’s wind you can probably find me huddled inside in front of the fire. Call me a wimp but there you have it. I don’t do wind well.

Snow showers pass over my cabin this morning. I can see them coming, first covering the top of Nell’s Hill to the west.  The scent of snow finds me next, even before the snow obscures the valley between us.  Finally, the snow rushes up the hill, hiding one tree and then the next to reach my cabin on the side of Roundtop. It takes about 3-4 minutes (though I’ve never timed it) for the shower to arrive, which gives me time to refill the bird feeders or close the chicken pen.

This year winter arrived suddenly, which made it seem like an unexpected visitor. Fall lingered on, losing strength a degree or so at a time, leading me to think that would continue. Instead, this winter visitor gave little sign of its imminent arrival, lulling me into thinking I had another week, perhaps two, to get ready for it. Guess not.  It's here.