Almost two weeks ago I traveled into winter. On our first day in our rental cabin I had to shovel snow off the steps and porch just to let Sherry into the house. We spent our mountain time venturing down into autumn and up into winter. From bare trees on top to fall colors on the Piedmont and in the valleys.

Though, I will admit, the nightly lows were strange. It was warmer on the peaks and ridges and cooler in the valleys each night. The highs all week kept getting higher, so much so that the day we spent on Grandfather Mountain was one of the warmest I ever remember up on Grandfather.

Now I am home…And looking out my back door everything is green again. The grass is mostly green. The trees still have most of their green leaves. The asters and the goldenrod are still blooming.

After a week in, what for us is, winter, returning to the semblance of summer is disconcerting. Today the high will be near 70°. For the next week we will see temperatures even higher.

I guess by the time fall finally gets here I’ll once again be in tune with my environment…