Snowing

A light snow is falling, with more to come. We've had our few brilliant weeks of autumn, and now it's time to batten down the hatches and get ready for winter. My husband changed out the fluid for the car windshield, going from the bug dissolver to the ice melter. I've got to locate my Yak Trax so I won't slip on icy sidewalks.

The view from the back door is still odd without the willow tree. The sky seems so much larger without the mass of green that filled the landscape. Our neighbors planted a little birch tree. It's a three-pronged trunk, about 15 feet tall. No leaves. Just the paper birch bark that is so beautiful, especially in the larger, older versions. I guess one day this tree will be impressive. Right now, I am reminded of the Christmas tree in the Charlie Brown/Peanuts Christmas special.

Our Bradford pear tree is still holding on to its leaves. It's always the last to lose leaves, but eventually, it too will be nothing but stems and twigs waiting for the spring. Much more than anywhere else I've ever lived, I become an internal person during winters in Michigan. By that I mean more than that I stay indoors as much as possible. I even stop looking outside. It's like my world gets tiny, confined to the internal spaces of my life, and I begin to focus inward on those hobbies that get me through the short days and long nights of the season: reading, writing, crocheting, etc.

Alas, I also find myself more depressed without the sunshine. Perhaps I should invest in one of those sun lamps. It couldn't hurt. I enjoy lots of light anyway, and the window provides very little at this time of year. The gray skies are leaden and intrusive and seem to suck light out, not add it into the room.

Already I've begun to plan how I'll have my tiny apartment--lots of light colors, lots of lamps, lots of coziness. It's hard to plan for anything except cozy when the apartment is a studio. Obviously, I don't have the apartment yet and it's still iffy if I'll get it at all, but it gives me something to plan for. I don't want to have a television since I know that if I have a tv, then I'll just spud out in front of it rather than getting anything done.

Now I really must get busy and do the work I've been avoiding this weekend. (Yesterday I made one of my fun runs to Michael's to get a few things for my office. They had silk fall arrangements on sale for 80 percent off so I picked up one for the house and one for the office. I also got some posters just to liven up the tiny home-away-from-home that my office has become.)