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The change of seasons caught many people off guard this year. Some neighbors were hoping to mow one last time before swapping out the lawn mower with the snowblower. And usually we have a couple of mild weekend days to rake leaves in the late fall, but not this year. I don’t ever remember needing to sprinkle salt on an icy sidewalk in early November before.
The trees and shrubs seem unprepared for winter as well. Many of them still have freeze dried leaves hanging from their branches.
The other day I had to wriggle the plastic rain gauges back and forth to free them from the hardening ground without cracking them. And I rescued my hose wand out of a tangle of frozen, snow-crusted leaves and grass.
