It’s finally happened. I am still busy with my fall clean-ups of the gardens and Christmas and winter are rapidly approaching. I was dismayed last week to hear about winter storm Cleon dropping three feet of snow on Duluth, Minn. I am still getting used to the naming of winter storms.

The news across the nation has been grim — power outages, flight cancellations and huge pileups on the interstates.

I spent Monday hauling in some wood and was very grateful — first for son Reuben who keeps my supply cut and split and, secondly, I really am happy to have a wood stove and an older gas cooking range. It does not need electricity to start as do some of the newer models. I feel sorry for the folks who have no back-up in this situation. Once a house gets cold it takes forever to bring it back to a reasonable temperature. What’s particularly odd about this weather system is that Texas and other areas of the south are worse off than we are.

I plan to drive around this coming week to appreciate outdoor Christmas decorations. I finally snipped a few greens to tuck into some cement pots around my property. They were looking mighty shabby. They still had debris leftover from summer. What can I say? The cobbler’s children’s feet!

I do love a rainy day when staying inside is the best option. How can dogs and cats get so close to a wood stove? They are actually hot to the touch.

I am resisting the temptation to open a seed catalogue. It would be great to finish one garden year before dreaming of another, for Pete’s sake.

One of my winter plans this year is to go through my parents’ belongings. Following Mom’s death in February, I took apart the family home. We’re talking 60 years in a three-story house.

Being a depression-era child, Mom saved everything. She still had those balls of aluminum that people saved for the war effort in the 1940s.

There is one thing that is practical and adorable that I would like to share and hopefully do myself. She wrote on the bottom of everything — dates, from whom, and what it was and its possible value. I found a divided round table that my Dad made in high school. I had no idea he worked with wood in his past. She never mentioned it. Oh, how I do go on!

Guess there is absolutely nothing to share about garden world. I could beat myself up for neglecting some buckets of dahlia tubers, my failure to plant the amaryllis and paper whites, and ignoring hoses that need draining and coiling. I’m trying to avoid doomsday warnings, but have you noticed the huge numbers of winter moths? I drove through a patch of them just past sunset recently that reminded me of snow flurries.

I’m sure we all remember the damage they did a few years ago. They literally defoliate trees to the point of death. What’s to be done?

Think I’ll have a dish of ice cream, pet the dog and ponder my good life.

That’s all I’ve got this week.