Glittering white flakes floated gently from the sky to join the glinting piles of snow covering the trees and blanketing the forest floor. Except for a few evergreen coniferous trees, most of the flora had shed the last of its fiery leaves to be buried beneath the snow, leaving dead-looking branches and trunks poking out of the white floor.
It was amazing how, in just a span of a month, the landscape turned from fire to ice.
The coop now had a shelter built around it to protect the chickens from freezing to death. Our vegetable plants had gone dormant, giving the appearance of dead plants peeking beneath the blanket of white — just like everything else in the forest — but they'd grow again when winter ended.
Bundling myself up with thick outer garments, I went outside and felt the cold sting on my face. I flinched when I heard Luca's stern voice.
