I See the Winter, She's Crawling up the Lawn

Seasons here are AMAZING.

One of my very favorite things about Earth is observing the changing of seasons. It's great in Illinois, especially driving down Liberty street, which is lined with trees that blossom, fill out, change color, drop their leaves, and catch snowfall all with each other. And while I like to say that I would be happy to live anywhere on this awesome planet, living without the changing of seasons would probably depress me a little.

I had no idea how beautiful it would be here.

I LOVE mountains and trees and, by virtue of being both a college campus and located in the Rocky Mountains, BYU gets both. When I arrived in August, the mountains were stunning greens and rocky greys (green! I thought Utah didn't like being green!) and the trees that dot campus were all awesome and huge.

Have to admit, I was a little worried about autumn. Things die and tend to get gross-looking, especially bushes and grass, but Utah proved me wrong- the mountains were only yellow for a matter of days before they lit on fire. The campus trees all change at different times and to different shades, the leaves all cover the grass, and those mountains...what stunning contrasts of red, orange, grey, and awesome!

Plus, it rains in autumn. Yes, even here! On days like last Saturday when I'm on campus and no one else is, it feels like a little piece of heaven, or at least a scene in a movie...the quiet, the rain in the puddles, and the awesome trees. And when it's not raining, there are always small children running around collecting leaves, reminding you in case you forgot that it is a dang magical season.

And now the next season change is upon us. Today, most of campus were wearing coats, even a few winter hats and gloves. And the mountain tops are all snow-peaked. Not just Timpanogos, which collects snow like it's its job. Y Mountain and Squaw Peak, which I'm photographing 3x daily for my Atmosphere and Weather class, are as beautiful as I expected they'd be.

Snow! Where I can see it all the time, where it is awesome, where it won't get splashed on by car tracks, and where it won't make us any colder than we already are. Best of all, the weather here loves to fluctuate and it might snow in Provo this week and then we'll all be in T-shirts by the start of November. And still, that snow is going to stay stuck in the mountains! None of that "oh let's snow a lot and then have it all melt as if it never happened" crap that Illinois likes to give.

I cannot wait for it to get even prettier as winter keeps creeping down Y Mountain. I'm yet to be disappointed...so Jack Frost, you can do your worst! We're* ready!

*By "we" I mean "me and everyone else crazy enough to like being frozen as long as the calendar says it's okay"

"Winter is Coming" can be found by Radical Face.
on an unrelated note, I should have asked for iTunes money for my birthday. Youtube is wearing thin when you meet so many new people with awesome taste in music.