It is only the 7th of October!
It is that time of year when all the cattle moves down to where they were dumped off last spring. We are a summer pasturing area. And most privately owned fields are connected by opened gates to public grazing lands. In the middle of summer all the cows and their calves are at the top of the mountains. And then by some signal only they know they start to head down. About the same time, and maybe to the same obscure signal the birds begin to gather and head through to the south. The snow is a bit unusual for this early in October. The water isn't frozen and as soon as the sun comes up the snow will melt into the ground. But this morning the snow covered the gold grass and the fog cloaked the mountains altering the familiar landscape of my mountain neighborhood. I wasn't dressed for the cold or the damp nor am I mentally prepared for winter which waits in the wings rather impatiently. I was happy to see the sun.