December 1

We awoke on this first day of December to the first frost of winter, lightly blanching the fields and roadside leaves. The daikon radishes are all harvested and the dark earth is plowed and ready for the next crop.  Here and there in clumps, white and purple button chrysanthemums grow in gangly and confused profusion. On the horizon Fuji is covered with snow down to the foothills. Crows flew across the dawn sky, black on pink.  And then at last the sun broke the tree tops and brought some warmth to the frozen world.

--Julian