Yesterday, I mowed the lawn yet again (!), and this  was surely the final mow of the season. Actually, I enjoyed doing it, partly because the weather was frosty and kept me cool and energized, and partly because I set the mower a couple of notches lower (for the winter height) and I was able to appreciate even more the beauty of a healthy lawn after a mowing. It does look good now, like a lawn that's ready for some soft blankets of snow. 

We've been reading Dickens' A Christmas Carol (a tradition we started about 4 years ago, and it's been fun, as usual, to sit back and follow this heart-warming, very wise, and inspirational story. Each year, we talk about the things we never noticed before -- small but essential details that somehow passed us by in previous readings. I guess this story is, for us, a bottomless mine of beauty and power.