It Wasn't All Bleak

It is the final day of November. At the beginning of the month, I wrote of November being The Bleak Month. Of course, I was thinking, primarily, of the loss of leaves and colour, but November doesn't have to be bleak in spirit. For example, the recent family tree decorating party was a happy event that I don't need to rehash, having thoroughly hashed it already.

A recent trudge along the trail by the arena, however, does reveal the frequent exterior bleakness although the sky and fallen leaves do yield some colour.

That ↑ is the trail where we sometimes take a short offshoot to see what is happening down by the river. Behold! there was ice.

As far as we could tell, this was the only icy section both upriver and downriver, where the water is shallow and runs slowly. However, we know what is coming.

You will doubtless recall that there were breaks in the environmental bleakness. We had two snowfalls that brightened the landscape for the time being, and the overnight third one adds brightness this morning even though it is still otherwise dark outside. There was also that glorious hoar-frosted morning. And don't forget the Christmas lights beginning to spring forth.

Of course, I feasted pictorially on the glorious tamaracks, and there are still a few needles hanging on some trees: the one in the background left at the far end of the pond, for example. Very very few on the nearest tree though: poor thing.

Not only do some of the tamaracks still hold a wee bit of colour, but more and more Christmas decorations and lights also continue to appear around the streets, like the house 3 doors down. 

For the young families, Santa visited town last night in the annual parade. I no longer attend, But Danica and her beau did. For lack of a current photo, here is mine of Santa and Mrs Claus in November 2010.