Snow Before the Frost

mums on ice

Happy Halloween friends! In the words of one of my favorite Halloween specials from the 1980's (old school Garfield of course), I hope you are enjoying, "candy! candy! candy!"

From my studio window, I can see porchlights flickering on as if by magic for all the little trick-or-treaters. I hope they stay warm as I can also make out the snowy climes steppes sidewalks of our neighborhood where we have about four inches of white stuff still melting off from our surprisingly chilly nor'easter this weekend! I've experienced early snowfalls before but two snowfalls before the first frost? I wasn't sure that was even possible. Our friends in the western reaches of the state actually got an entire foot and two days later, many areas are still without power. Though shoveling our driveway was not something I expected to be doing pre-Halloween, the combination of snow, fall colors, and autumnal sunlight certainly has been disarmingly beautiful.

Alas, *sigh*, cold weather does require indulging in so many of my favorite things: bulky knitwear, mountains of blankets, comfort food, hot drinks, more days inside for crafting cozy things, and hopefully some cross country skiing before too long! Anything that heralds the arrival of all those things can't be so bad after all so tonight we will start it off by hunkering down with caramel apples, Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin, and cheddar ale soup. I think we finally found the perfect pale ale to go in/with this soup at last and you can sneak a peek at it here as I couldn't bring myself to post flash food photography on the blog. I know, I'm such a snob sometimes, good grief  :)