I’ve been dreading winter this year. But we got a preview on Saturday, when the city was caught off-guard by a snowstorm–the first one to come in October in half a century–and it reminded me how winter can also be sort of thrilling. (And how this place is always full of surprises.)

When we stepped into the subway downtown, it was fall and we were escaping from wind and rain; uptown, we arrived to winter and heavy snowdrifts. Aron’s sister was visiting us from Germany and I kept getting distracted from our conversation at brunch by the snow falling outside the window behind her, in the courtyard of the Whitney, slowly beginning to stick to the leaves.

After eating, we walked into Central Park. It was so quiet and beautiful in the falling snow–until the quiet was interrupted by the crack of tree limbs falling under the weight of the wet snow on their leaves. After three large limbs fell within 100 yards of us (and within 10 feet of where we were planning to, or had been walking) we hurried back out of the park, joining the crowds dripping in the front hall of the Met instead.

Oh… and P.S…. Happy Halloween!