Uh oh - again ...

W I N T E R ' S C O M I N G !!!!

Look here, it's not on! Everyone in blogland is currently posting their brilliantly colourful autumn photos of scarlets and reds, oranges and yellows; of cooler misty mornings and birds taking flight - and the landscape takes a gentle breath and winds down for another year.

Bang! Woke up this morning to a light icing-sugar dusting of the first snow of the season. It was a pathetic show really, it must be said, but 2 out of 10 for effort - and it followed on from some quite heavy rain overnight. It was all very light and gritty, and had disappeared after an hour or so - but it's a wake-up call regardless. It's nature's way of yelling out Warning, warning!! Winter's-a-coming!!

The white sprinkling on the BBQ, deck, and trampoline momentarily dragged my memory back to earlier in the year. Bugger! Is that summer gone already? It can't be!

It's too early of course for snow. By 'of course' I mean it's too early in my world - the Calgary climate usually has it's own agenda however - it doesn't seek my permission to let rip with icy white flakes - I am not ready, not interested, and the landscape already seems to have been sucked dry of the colour green. Brown grass and fields everywhere, and I'm sure it wasn't this bleak looking at this stage last year.

Even the dogs were a little taken aback - Smudge stuck his nose out into the cool 2 degrees breeze and thought better of it - he sat and looked at it all for a while, scratched to go out about four times, until his bladder got the better of him and he braved the great outdoors. He was none too impressed., I can tell you.

Shhh, I think there's a bit of short-term memory loss going on here though - he's actually forgotten that he loves the snow - won't be long now fella and you'll be up to your nose in it and we'll be pulling all the icy snowballs off your fur as it sticks to you !

So the heating has kicked in and I need to find out where I hid my skis - and does anyone know where the snow shovel is?