Gift-wrapping the air
 Swirling, light-footed crowd fall
 Making me smile —
 First Snow.
 
 •
 
 Fire to Ice
 Just yesterday, red flag wildfire warning
 Lingring late into November
 Unseasonably warm, low humidity, high winds
 Power blackouts, evacuations
 Spot fires no more than a mile away
 Attacked with truck, dozer and airplane
 Mega fires further out
 Darkened sky smoke plumes.
 
 Then in a day
 Temperature drops a full 20 
 Snow falls
 Five days of it now, five more to come
 
 Seasons askew, weather extreme
 New normal in mountain foothills
 Schools close, stores sell out of ice
 Then batteries, then generators
 Cars troll the darkened streets
 An apocalypse not of 
 Wrath but denial.
 
 •
 
 Gift-wrapping the air…
 However we reform 
 And remake you
 You are still the mystery
 And surprise —
 This falling of cold white specks
 From an empty sky
 This transformation unbroken
 From far ocean to mountain storm
 To snowpack to spring melt
 This float of crystal sculptures
 Suspended in air
 Enclouding us
 
 I bow 
before the mystery
 …First snow
 

 30 November 2019
 Cedar Wings Cottage, 2680'
 Storm-covered sky

Monday, the 25th was a high wind weather warning day, with the possibility of power shutoffs to guard against wildlife caused by electrical wires. The weeks previous saw no less than 7 power shutoff events, lasting 1 to 4 days, along with numerous small fires and a few catastrophic mega fires that burned homes in both northern and southern California. An unusually persistent high-pressure ridge had sat over Northern California, pushing aside any of the usual rain that typically arrives in the Sierra Nevada foothills after October 31st.

Tuesday, the 26, storms finally broke through, bringing a sudden, dramatic drop in temperatures and by afternoon, snow, first as white specks easily mistaken for ash from a fire, then full flakes ‘enclouding’ us in their free-fall. Day five of this arrival of winter finds us with snow still covering the ground except where the snow plows have cleared streets, with two storms around behind us, a third forecast for tomorrow, and generally cold rain or snow forecast for a full week. On the first day after storm we saw the juncos foraging for last morsels on newly fallen snow and out of sympathy put out bird seed, which they finally found – four days later – a troop of 20 dark-eyed juncos gathering in great activity of hopping, pecking, and wheeling flight as they feasted in the cold.