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| Our Backyard Playhouse |
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| Sweetheart II in the snow |
This exceptionally warm week before Halloween transformed overnight into Christmas, a foot of snow weighing down the branches of colorful trees that hadn't yet shivered out of their glad rags. Mums, marigolds and October roses seemed tenderly wrapped in white blankets. Pine trees were straight out of a North Pole greeting card. Danny's Court, our cul de sac, could have been rechristened Snowy River.
Jesse and I brought home Sweetheart II an hour before the snow started Tuesday afternoon. It continued steadily and gently through the night.
Wednesday morning the backyard was white and mysterious, the trees bent low, the sky white, bird houses dangling near the ground. The colorful leaves of yesterday morning now muted. Sadie bounded through the snow like a large black puppy. The sun room, where I write, paint and read, was cold from lack of sun. Jesse fired up the snow blower to do the walks. Then he shook out the trees which bounded upward gratefully. In my watercolor class the women complained about the tree branches blocking their driveways. 
On Thursday we stopped at the State Farm agency to insure the new RV. The women were working in winter coats and mittens by the light of their windows, taking notes with pen and paper, and making calls on their cell phones. Their boss wasn't there. He had no power at home, the women said, it was too cold to shower so he wasn't coming in. Thursday afternoon the delivery van brought us a space heater built into Amish crafted oak and a lovely fake fire, which warmed up the sun room nicely.
