On this 3rd day of NaBloPoMo, I’ve been waiting for it all day. The sky tells me it’s coming. When I step out on to the patio, I feel the bite through my clothes and the crisp air fills my lungs. The birds are quiet today, as are the rabbits and squirrels. They feel the change in the air. Over the past few days, the last of the leaves fell from the ash trees out back and the honey locust tree in the front. The tomato plants, though still full with unripe fruit from our late summer, rest their tired, brown limbs against the cages still staked in the ground. Most of the garden was cleared weeks ago, the last of the winter squash harvested along with the pumpkins, grapes, and peppers. And, today I am ready; ready to say goodbye to the garden until the spring, ready for sweaters and scarves, ready for down quilts, good books, and long evenings. Today, I am ready for the snow and the killing frost that places the rest of the yard into its long slumber, for when the yard slumbers my season of internal excavation begins.