Fleeting Winter Wonderland

Since before Thanksgiving I've been enjoying photos of other people's pets playing in the snow. They romp with other dogs, leap in deep powder, bounce over drifts, and generally express excitement at this cold white fluff floating down from the clouds.

So I felt a little thrill when I woke up to our first dusting of snow this morning. Just enough snow to be pretty, it frosted the foliage and houses and lawns. The wind chill was just below freezing, but  after drinking some coffee I laced up my hiking boots and bundled up like it was a polar expedition in my subzero jacket, gloves, hat, and scarf. Toby was barking and prancing to get outside for his walk. He loves the cold and I wonder if he's mystified by all the preparation I need before venturing out.

I took along the camera. After all, this could be the only snow we'll see in 2015. At last Toby and I can join the 'dogs in snow' club with a few pictures ourselves. 

Toby nobly sits on a rapidly melting dusting of snow on the grass.

Frost on the pumpkins in a neighbor's yard. 

Where once eggs were warmed, now there's a bowl of snow.

"Sugared berries"

Reds jump out from the winter palette of muted greens and browns.

As I write this, the snow has already melted away. I'm glad. I've lived in the Midwest and Northeast, where the delicate whiteness of the snow can melt into a dingy gray mess piled along the gutters and roadsides. Although today's snow was fleeting, for as long as it was here it graced our mundane suburb with its lacy beauty.