Mother Nature was not doling out treats today, but instead had a few tricks up her sleeve instead.

The early morning weather forecast was teasing snowflakes and graupel.  Ugh!  I grappled with the idea of graupel wreaking havoc with my morning walk, and those winds gusting to 25 mph sure didn’t sound appealing either.

So, should I stay or should I go?  After all, I’ve made my goal already, and maybe slacking off would not be all that bad.

But, I bucked up and told myself “there will be uglier weather days than this down the road, so just go and get those miles walked.”

To be honest, yesterday’s weather was nothing special either – cold and blustery, and the tail end of my walk ended in rain, so I decided this morning I’d need a scarf and definitely a hat, since the earmuffs didn’t really keep me too warm.

I rooted through the Winter woolens in the cedar closet, something I’ve usually done by mid-October, but we had such a mild October, who was thinking of this ugly weather?

I picked up my favorite hat from the cleaners a few weeks ago.  I’ve had this hat for decades, a hand-knit beret which must be dry cleaned due to the way it is constructed.  I plunked it on my head, and it didn’t feel snug.  Did my head shrink?  The cleaners makes you sign a waiver when they eyeball an item you bring in and they suspect dry cleaning it might be problematic.  But, I’ve signed off on that hat countless times over the years, so I did it once again.  I got dressed  and headed out the door, happy to see no white stuff (ghosts or snow), nor a sleety mix to spoil my walk.

Make no bones about it, the weather was a little frightful, just like this holiday.  I have to admit the trek to the Park was blustery, and going around the trail and battling the wind that was gusting 20-25 mph through all the wide open spaces was mighty tough too.  The wind pushed back while I was walking and threatened to tear my hat off, so I flipped up the hood to my parka to keep my hat from going airborne.  But, one mighty gust came along and the hood flipped back, and there went my freshly cleaned hat, cartwheeling along River Drive, with me in pursuit of it.  I retrieved that hat, but it now must be cleaned again and the elastic band tightened.  At least it did not end up snagged on a branch overlooking the Ecorse Creek like what happened to my red beret a few years ago.

For the second day in a row, the squirrels were missing along the perimeter path – perhaps they chose to stay in their warm nests to snuggle up next to their significant other.

This year I took more photos of harvest décor, rather than the usual Halloween decorations.  I really like the look of those arrangements of scarecrows, hay bales, mums and pumpkins because it makes me want to pull out an old flannel shirt and drink some hot apple cider.

But, when I passed this not-so-friendly face peering over a privacy fence, it reminded me of “Wilson” on the Home Improvement show with Tim Allen back in the ‘90s, so I decided to take a picture and use it today.  It’s just too bad this ghoulish character couldn’t utter the words: “Hi ho, there neighbor!”

And how is your Halloween going so far?