When does Winter really start?  For me, it’s when snow first flies.  Which is today.  Now.  It started spitting, practicing, warming us up for the onset, a few hours ago.  Audrey and Hunter are demanding, begging to go out, to be part of it.  I take them out for a few minutes, work, and then do it again.

Birds are calling, wind chimes are excited, the wind is blowing.

Ithaca, NY got 2 feet of snow yesterday/last night!

What I thought were grackles, but am not sure now, having checked them out with binoculars, have been gathering for the past week, looking like they were getting ready for migration.  When I took this picture, they were all sitting in the top of the tree, primarily where there aren’t any leaves left, all of them, each and every one of them, facing West, into the storm.

Falling Before Winter