tenderly, tenderly please take my breath from me into the fountains and up from the graves.

Every little pine needle expanded and swelled with sympathy and befriended me. Thoreau

_Morning,

I awoke to some snowfall this morning! Perhaps I was a bit hasty in losing hope for anything resembling a promising winter. It's not much, but it's a start. The high yesterday reached 41 degrees. The overnight low was 25 degrees. It was 25 degrees and cloudy at 7am observation. The mountain received .20" of rain yesterday and a dusting of patchy snow.

Eerie clouds at Cliff Tops for sunset.

_I was treated to a spectacular light show over Gatlinburg last night. There was a low hanging storm that caught me by surprise as I was headed for bed. At first, I thought that I was seeing things. The display seemed too dramatic to be lightning and it didn't occur to me that I'd see such an exhibition this late in the year. It was hard to make out the storm clouds at first against the inky, black sky, but I quickly grabbed my down jacket from inside and huddled in a rocker with my sleeping bag. From about 6:30 to 7:30 I was able to see about 25 flashes from above. I'm guessing the Knoxville Airport was diverting flights around the storm, as there were more visible airplanes than I've ever seen up here. I counted 7 planes at one point on the outer edges of the storm. It's also possible that there are always that many planes, I am just usually in bed by 7pm ... the exhausting life of a caretaker!