Winter... or not?

Local tales have it that you can look at the behavior of the wooly worms, the height off the ground of the hornets nests or the size of your acorn crop to predict the kind of winter you will have.

 

We don’t know what wooly worms are (although they are deserving of a festival every October). 

Additionally, we find it prudent to keep a good distance from hornets and have a difficult time maintaining our acorn crop with the way that we travel.

So, it is a toss up at this point.  They say, last year was quite a doozy for this area.

   

 

Our first official flurries fell a couple of weeks back.  A bit even managed to stick to the picnic table for a good part of the morning.

 

However, just a few days later it was sixty seven degrees.  And, this past weekend temperatures approached the mid-seventies.

 

Still, folks keep telling us that Kentucky actually has a winter.

When we meet them, locals say things like “Oh, you are from South Dakota (we’re not but our license plates are), it won’t be as bad of a winter as you are used to.” or “Oh, you’re from Florida and Georgia.  And, you came here for the winter?”

 

At least they smile when they say these things.  But in one way or another, they always seem to indicate that this is not where they would go for the winter.

 

 This got us thinking.  Just where are we?

 

 

 Nicole keeps accidentally saying that we are in Tennessee and once she is corrected she follows with “Ooops, I think we went to the wrong state. I thought we were going to TN.”

 

With exception of a few evergreens that keep the illusion going strong, it does appear that the trees have finally completed their preparations for winter.

 

Yesterday, while enjoying our fourth day of T-shirt weather, a snow shovel was delivered to us.  It was somewhat perplexing to look at considering how we were dressed.

As John Steinbeck said though, “What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.”
 
Come on, Kentucky!  We’re ready.

Just not enough to have to use that shovel though...