First snow

We had snow. I went out into it to buy the ritual Reuben sandwich that the Frenchman and I share at weekends. The wait was so long at The Court Street Grocers that I placed my order and then took home my shopping and flowers and went straight back out again to pick up the sandwich. It still wasn't ready.

It's a good sandwich.

It has not been very cold - temperatures were hovering just above freezing, so very little stuck. But wet snow clings beautifully to branches.

Carroll Gardens - our Brooklyn neighborhood - was well frosted.

Later we went out to buy our tree. The Vermont sellers also have good maple syrup, so we stocked up.

I did not grow up with these winters. So it is still like theatre, to me. Watching people walk home with their trees is very touching. Everybody smiles.

At home the sparrows and their one eccentric all-American sparrow cousin - a fat Eastern towhee, not pictured - bickered over the seed I tossed for them.

In the back garden less snow melted. It is never in the sun at this time of year and the ground must be colder. Inside, we put up the tree, and I baked a savarin and cooked a pot of fragrant borscht.

Everything is falling apart, but some things keep it sticking together.

(Remember - you have one more day to enter the Christmas giveaway - ten very nice gifts.)