The colors are gone and winter is on its way

This is the road home. I get to drive beneath this canopy each time I return to the house. It's gorgeous with and without leaves. I think it'll be even prettier covered with snow.

In just two weeks the leaves on the trees went from green, to yellow, to gone.

But before they were all gone they did this. . .

And this. . .

And this.

Autumn in Michigan did not disappoint. The cool brisk air, the brilliant colors, that smell of the fallen leaves, I'd missed all of it the 27 years I lived in California.

As the season grows colder the clamoring of the naysayers grows louder that I won't make it through the winter here.

But, I always point out that I grew up with snow in Eastern Washington state right along the Idaho border and delivered newspaper foot routes for six years as a kid. I probably weighed about 70 lbs and wore a double sided canvas newspaper bag that was heavily laden with papers beginning when I was in the sixth grade. Slogging around in the snow six days a week after school (even in the wintertime) I don't think anything Michigan can serve up for winter will be worse than being a paper kid back in the day :)

Wish me luck!