Frost (Doesn't) Bite

On may way from my car to the office yesterday morning, I saw frost on the grass. And I couldn't believe what I was seeing. So I stepped on the grass. It crunched under my feet.

I almost cried.

It turns out for a (it's-not-my-home-anymore-but-I'm-still) homesick NJ transplant, frost can be every bit as wonderful as snow. It brought back a flood of memories I wasn't expecting. While snow reminds me of sledding and snowball fights and other fun things, frost brought me back to waiting for the school bus and other normal every day activities.

And now that I've seen the frost again (they say there might be some tomorrow morning because there's not going to be wind tonight), I'm ready for some nice moderate 60-degree weather.

Fall Foliage...Florida Style

Scalzi's Monday Photo Shoot for this week seems simple enough: Leaves are changing color all over the US -- show us the foliage in your neck of the woods... Get out there in the crisp autumn air and get a good shot at the trees near you.

Well, I hate to disappoint, so I got out there in the crisp (brr... 81 degree) Florida Autumn air and took a picture from the landing between the second and third floors of my building. Sadly, it seems that the trees are all still green. Don't be fooled by the yellow-ish one in the middle -- that was just sunset hitting it funny!

Luckily, I anticipated that this might be a problem, so I took the camera to Publix with me, figuring I'd find a tacky display of pumpkins with some fake leaves. But I found something even better:

Do you see the pretty Autumn leaves? Of course you do! But here's a close-up anyway:


This time of year is when I miss living up north most. I don't really miss snow. But I loved the changing seasons. Here, the change of seasons between 9 months of Summer and 3 months of Indian Summer is still another month or so away.

I guess we Floridians will just have to make do with beaches and palm trees and pictures of everyone else's orange and red leaves. Oh well!