This is fall?

So yesterday when I said we might get snow any minute I was apparently right on the money. I am caught with my pants down. (Not literally...that would be very cold.) Haven't raked the leaves, haven't finished cutting back the gardens, haven't even brought in all the tomato pots from the deck (as you can see) although at least I cut and composted the plants last weekend. But even though I'm chagrinned to be caught so unprepared, it's pretty pretty. And cozy to lie in bed, looking past the fern foliage to the snowy woods beyond while a fire burns in the wood stove and the smell of fresh coffee wafts in from the kitchen.













Yesterday afternoon, before the snow fell, I glanced out the window in the sunroom and saw 4 bears lumbering across the front yard. It's not unusual to see a bear here but to see a mother with three young ones is a surprise. Of course my camera was far away and turned off and by the time I got to it the bears had been startled into a run by my yelling for Michael to Come See! Nonetheless I can't resist including a pathetically blurry photo here of Mama and the head of one baby, fleeing the scary lady with the high voice.