With swirling breezes and temperatures in the seventies, today might have been mistaken for spring.

The pear tree shrugged off its cloak of leaves and stood all day, bare-limbed, in a pool of gold and brown.

Robins and warblers perched on sunlit branches, their restless urge to forage temporarily forgotten.

But today’s weather shouldn’t fool any of us, trapped as we are in winter’s web.

An early dusk approaches, wheeling night behind it. Sleep is creeping through the yard, with months to go before waking.