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WIND CLIPPERS

So a weekend of rain and sudden gusting winds (winds really know how to gust up here in the mountains; we seem to be near gusting headquarters) coming through in the night with their razor-sharp clippers, nipping off all the deciduous leaves and trimming all the dead coniferous twigs, leaving the garden like a million-piece quilt of ruby ivory gold amber patches, the newly bare branches of the cherries and oaks festooned with cedar branch ornaments, all sodden with rain. Like any transition a pretty, yet not pretty, sight. And thanks for the compost.