Leaves on the ground!

A few days ago the kids got into an argument while playing outside. Not unusual, of course, but non-the-less, this particular argument was a bit on the noteworthy side. You see, this little spat was over who got to use the rake to make a pile of leaves. Mind you, we only have a small amount on the ground. They were actually going to go and gather leaves from the neighbors house down the street. (I put a quick stop to that idea, thank you!) But we are, in fact, losing the green and moving into the dull yellow and grey of fall and the leaves are making a rather early departure from the branches and landing square in the yard. More and more, I'm seeing signs that lead me to believe that winter might be early and snowy. The termination dust I mentioned a while back is gone, but the mountains are becoming rather surrounded most days in a haze of dark clouds. The fireweed has gone to seed and I've not seen a bloom on one in days and days. And night time temperatures are dipping into the upper 30s. Brrrrrrr.....