The foggy gloom of fall rains is giving way to the clear, cold skies of approaching winter. The night frosts are coming more often, leaving the lawns and cars dusted with white. I went out one morning this week to see a glittery mist lingering in the air, a sure sign that the fall fogs will soon be gone.

We had some snow flurries mixed with sleet last week as well, the little diamonds of ice stinging my face as I hurried into the store to get some grocery shopping done. People were rushing to get food in case the roads got icy, a more likely occurrence here than snow this early. Still, the snow came almost three weeks before the official start of winter, leaving me scurrying like a tardy squirrel snatching up nuts to bury for the winter.

Steve cast a baleful eye upon the breaded fish portions and holiday eggnog, unconvinced that even the sale price on them was worthy of consideration. It didn't stop him from slurping down his share though, sweetened with a home-made brownie. He made a grumpy boast about how much more he could have gotten for the money and predicted another order from fabric.com was imminent, estimating its value at $647. I was tempted to see what I could find for that sum, considering how low the prices are. I could have a truck-sized stash appear in just days if I had the nerve to splurge that much.

Fabric.com is having a blowout sale this December that has my fingers quivering with the anticipation of sending in another order. Unfortunately, I've been told that any new boxes will have to be stashed in the attic where they will undoubtedly cause a fire or fall through the ceiling waiting to be used. My family has a point about that, but then Mom volunteered me for the knitting class that is tying up my crafting time of late.

My spendthrift ways at Christmas and grocery shopping encouraged my brother to leave me behind when he drove Mom to her church luncheon, so I had a little time to catch up. I've got three pages of notes for the knitting class done and the samples knitted for another page, so that is progressing. Perhaps I'll deserve a treat after I get those class notes finished.

My poor quilts are still waiting for me to get back to them. I've got ideas to finish the flannel quilt and to make several more quilt tops, but there's always something more pressing. For example, I have to get the refrigerator ready for Christmas soon. The Thanksgiving turkey is almost gone and in need of the final stripping of the carcass, turning scraps into overfed cats sleeping on Mom's bed in temporary gratitude for her generosity.

The weather turned spring-like briefly, a reminder of a sad task waiting to be done. I went out to take down the tomato stakes and remove the frozen tomato plants. A few of the stems near the ground were still plump and green, but the blackened leaves left no hope that the plants would revive this season. As I pulled up a plant near the center, I discovered that several of its stems had been buried under drifted leaves and had ripened one last bowl full of Roma tomatoes. There I was, just a few weeks before we celebrate the birth of Christ, having a little "Easter egg" hunt for bright red egg-sized tomatoes among the leaves. It was a little reminder of life among the tatters of death. He has risen! He has risen indeed!

I crunched back to the house through the fallen leaves waiting to be mulched, cradling my little treasures in triumph. We had the ripest of them for supper that night, savoring the sweet flavor all the more for having had a salad of mushy store-bought tomatoes earlier. Now I'm spoiled for garden-grown tomatoes, and I'm impatiently waiting for the day to start a new crop.

I've still got a few greens left to pick before the last of the produce is officially gathered. We have a few months of winter to go before the weather will again warm enough to plant new greens. In the meantime, I'm hoping to coax the Swiss Chard plants into yielding a few leaves occasionally through the winter. They are very cold hardy plants that will often grow slowly over the winter in our climate.

The composting season is pretty much over. The loads in both tumblers are not heating up much anymore. I may try mulching some shredded paper into the mulched leaves to see if it will break down over the winter outside in the bosom of the garden soil. I got lots of compost made this season, but not enough to feed all of the garden beds. Still, the dark, loose soil in the areas that did get compost is very encouraging.