Seasons Cross

Autumn had barely begun to unfold here, what with the glorious sunshine and warm weather we had enjoyed till last week, in fact several of the trees have yet to shed their leaves and yet to my bewilderment it has started to snow! Daybefore yesterday when I emerged into the winter garden from my room I noticed that the mountain tops were white. The same evening it started to snow in Prien and by morning the rooftops were covered with icing sugar snow. The branches of the trees, look especially charming with a powdery white crust over the brown.

Indoors of course one doesn't feel the cold but temperatures outside have dropped from something like 25 or 27 degrees last week to minus 5. Today the sun was out so of course it was slightly warmer. From Ute, the woman who comes to help with the chores, I heard about the winter last year which began in November and went on till April, so there was no real spring. It's a strange mix of seasons. The weather seems quite confused about which of its faces to show the world at any given point.

Meanwhile it is bedlam at home. With Ariela and Thomas gone to London to drop Lilly off at boarding school, Lulu, Felix and I are looking after the fort with friend Andrea and her two kids to keep us company and boy! What a riot! The older girls, Lulu and Lisa are in the kitchen, tossing pancakes, their culinary skills interspersed with loud shrieks and fancy dance steps. The younger kids are being slowly coaxed towards the bedroom and I am taking a break from the high energy end of the house in my own little retreat down the corridor.

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