Frost......

Gratitude for frost?  Really?

Yes.  Although the first heavy frost signals the end of many lovely things - flowers and the last tomatoes off the vine among them - it is a sign of good things.   Really good things.

For people like hubby and Babygirl, it means the end of the eternal pollen suffering that runs from mid-August until, you guessed it! the first deep frost.  It also means that despite the unseasonably warm October, he won't need to do an unprecedented mowing of the lawn in November.  It's good for me, too.  Doctors like early frosts.  It winds down the allergy season in time for us to cope with cold and flu season!

And it signals a slower time.  Long nights, curling up at home instead of going out, enjoying the sense of 'circling the wagons' against the coming of winter.  The rest of the leaves will finally drop, so raking one last time (or in our case, the first and only time!) and preparing the yard and garden for winter are now pushed up to the 'can't ignore it anymore' section of our to-do list.  Oddly, these are 'chores' that I enjoy.

Reading.  Fires in the fireplace. Board games.  Friends enjoying soup or baked-potato dinners.  There are gifts in the cold season for those who have the eyes to see them and the hearts to enjoy them.

DeeDee