The Last Hurrah

This morning is glorious.

The sky is a beautiful shade of blue, nearly cloudless.  The fields and fir trees still wearing the greens of summer, the deciduous trees bare of their foliage, a light haze on the distant mountains, the haze that named a nearby mountain chain The Blue Ridge.  It is mild this morning, only the lightest skim of ice on the chickens water tub and expected to reach near 60f today, the fierce winds of yesterday have calmed.

In the mountains, weather systems don’t last long, this beautiful fall weather will end today.  Tomorrow, the weather prognosticators say we could see up to 2″ of snow.  It is early for snow, the earliest recorded measurable snow for nearby Roanoke was October 10, 1979.  The average first snow is December 15th.  Meteorologic winter begins on November 21st, my birthday and the winter solstice, the official first day of winter and the shortest day, a month later.

Regardless of the season and the weather it brings, this is still the most beautiful place in the world.  We love it year round.  Life is good on our mountain farm.