Suddenly Winter and Persimmons

After remarking how winter was so warm - one week ago 3 Dec. high was nearly 80 and low was 67F; suddenly one week later, the temperature has taken a nose dive.. down to 19 last night... same tonight.. daytime highs in the low 30's. I went to the Woods SW entrance at 4:00 to see how they were weathering the sharp change.

About 30 m. in from the gate the trail passes through a group of seven or eight tall persimmons - each with their distinctive gray black pebbly bark. I noticed an orange mushy persimmon on the ground and looking up I saw there were still dozens left on the tree.. so I shook and swayed the tree until a couple more persimmons plummeted to earth. I picked them up and had a bite of each. No bitterness left, just mushy, sweet bland fruit pudding and big brown seeds.. a good dispersal package.

While I stood there two deer trotted off in separate directions. Birds were quiet.. not much stirring. It was cold. I walked on and looped through the Woods enjoying going off trail from the Big Trees back to the West Trail. That area is so thick with fallen green ash stems. I wonder what it will look like a few years from now.. if the majority of down stems will have decomposed. Now with all the leaves down is the best time to find new things.. The thick covering of new fallen leaves there are still crunchy dry.

Returning along the West Trail I counted the stepping stones: 40 in the northern pile, 7 and 8 along the trail south of the sedges, 13 by the old wooden post close to the fence.. 68 total. I could use another 30 along the southern portion before the rains come.