First snow

For me, the first snow always brings mixed feelings.  It is a glimpse of what is to come for the next several months, but on the other hand, it offers a reprieve from the brown and gray world and makes everything look clean and crisp for a few hours.

"Lo! sweeten'd with the summer light,
The full-juiced apple, waxing over mellow,
Drops in a silent autumn night.
All its allotted days
The flower ripens in its place,
Ripens and fades, and falls, and hath no toil,
Fast-rooted in the fruitful soil."

Alfred Lord Tennyson

The Lotus Eaters.