Snow

It stays below freezing most of the time now, and the snow has arrived. At first, only a few intrepid pioneers wafted down to stake their claims among the fallen leaves.

Soon the white invaders were arriving in earnest.

After that, it didn't take long for everything to be draped in white.

The first snow brings a sense of inevitability - it's coming. But there is an excitement carried along with that, with a tinge of danger that makes it all the more intoxicating. People from outside often wonder why someone would want to live in a place where it can go for 2 months without ever rising above 0ºF. Why don't you come see for yourself? It's mostly indescribable. Already there are hints of the special beauty this place has in winter - the mirages on the mountains, the pillars and halos around the sun and moon, the crisp night skies, the light gradients and soft colors you only notice when all other colors are gone. A month from now, those hardy enough to brave the temperatures will be rewarded with a world reduced to fluffy white outlines, delicate fractals of ice hanging anywhere moisture is present, and sunrises that merge with sunsets to create a single four-hour long spectacle of shadow and light.

Yeah, yeah; so it gets cold. To surrender all this because wearing gloves and a coat is too inconvenient? Madness...