Winter arrived today in Stuttgart, Germany, where I live. I woke up to a snow covered lawn and below freezing temperatures. I guess that's the end of the blooming nasturtiums, roses and morning glories, all of which were just barely hanging on late into fall here.

But not only did winter arrive, it returned from where ever it was on vacation last year so to speak. It's November 10, the day before Veteran's Day, and we have snow. We didn't see any snow at all last season until January 23, when we suddenly got 10 inches. We had a few light snow falls after that, but we had crocuses coming up in February even. All in all, it was a long autumn in 2006, very mild and winter was just a few days long it seemed.  Read more »