Seasons changing

***Note: this was supposed to be posted at the end of September, but I put it off 'cause I wanted to write the second post about my parents' visit first. Looks like that plan failed, so I'm just going to post this now before it becomes any more dated***

Just like in the spring when it seems that somebody has suddenly flipped the lights on, now it feels like somebody turned them off again. In the past week or so Beth and I have found ourselves biking to work in the dark. It's still light out for the ride home, but by the time dinner is over the sun's nearly set. I guess that's what happens when each day is 6 minutes shorter than the last.

What's more, the weather is following suit. After about 3 straight weeks of beautiful late-summer weather, we got our first frost last Thursday (actually 9/23), and it was a hard one with temps in the mid-20s. Friday was incredibly windy - snapping a 30-40 foot tall birch tree in my backyard in half while my mom and I were out there working. Finally, after a gorgeous Saturday we woke to a few snowflakes while we were camping north of town while it actually snowed steadily in Anchorage for a couple of hours.

For the past few days we've actually had some pretty decent weather in town, but the snow has continued up in the front range and everything above ~4000 feet is looking pretty frosted. It makes a pretty good reminder of all the things that need to get done before the snow starts sticking here in town.

***UPDATE: The first half of this month was really nice: lots of clear frosty nights and sunny days. But the sun doesn't rise until 9AM now, and sunset happens at around 6:30 PM, which doesn't leave much time to get outside after work. It's snowed off and on up in the mountains, but the snowline hasn't gotten any lower than it was for the first snowfall back in late September. It's starting to look like we'll make it to Halloween snow-free. Part of me is happy the snow is holding off, but a part of me is really looking forward to winter settling in.***