Wasn't meant to last

It was, as they say, not meant to last.
A killer frost did them in,
the deal sealed with a skiff of light snow.

Tiny pink ballerina skirts,
crisp with cold
and capped with a crystalline pouf.

The first snow of the season wasn't even in the forecast. At work last night, someone looked out into the darkness and saw tiny white flakes floating down into the pools of yellow beneath the street lights.

It won't last. The first one almost never does. It'll warm up enough to melt it away. But it is a hint of what's to come... the long cold of prairie winter stalks us stubble jumpers relentlessly.

Pips (aka That Damn Cat) darted out the door after me as I went to take the above photos. I didn't even know she was out until she chirped at me as I stood on the front lawn, snapping away with the camera. She sat on the sidewalk, with her pristine white paws tucked closely together, shivering slightly in the morning's chill. She surveyed the neighbourhood, not wandering off, and was glad to be picked up in warm arms when I finished the photo shoot. Silly thing would never survive outside for long... the temperature is right around the freezing mark and she thinks it's cold already! She has no idea....

Although we first touched base (no, not like that! get your mind out of the gutter) in August, just before I met up with the (Not So) Funny Man, things are very slowly beginning to take on an air of exploration. I'll call him the Long Haul Brit. He's been in Canada for six years, a long haul trucker and is not often in town, but we keep in touch via email and phone calls. He said October would see probably more than 11,000 miles logged... I cannot imagine spending that much time behind the wheel and although he's done it for decades, all over Europe and now North America, he is now looking for something local so he can have a real home and a life. Spending all your time in truck stops and sleeping in a cubby hole is not any kind of a life unless you are content with Me, Myself and I as company. So the search is on for a new line of work. We are both hopeful that will happen relatively soon...