Snow, fog, warmth

It never went below freezing last night—something of a first for the winter—and in response to the relative warmth, the snowpack started giving up its moisture in the form of fog. This, of course, is how the winter world ends... dissolving into mist, the white giving way to brown—then green. I was out early to capture the soft light show, and it was stunning. It was also a bit on the sad side... for me, anyway. I'm not quite ready to put away my skis and snowshoes—I probably have a week of those activities left, so the season is not entirely over—but, for practical reasons, it's really time to roll back the white blanket. We're almost out of wood, and I desperately need access to places that I know have material that could be used right now, well, after a little bit of drying. So my melancholy is tempered by a competing mood: wood stove necessity. "Nothing gold can stay," wrote Frost. Nothing white can stay, either. In both cases, the leave-taking is exquisite, and, for this wood stove supplier, a necessity.