This is what the garden looked like a year ago today. No, the eyes do not deceive, that is snow. The day before, the high had been in the 50's and the low was 42F. The first frost had not occurred until the morning of the 12th. My garden journal entry for October 12, 2006, states, "I'm looking through the window watching soft fluffy flakes gently blanket the garden & [sic] lawn - aaggh!" It looks worse than it was. Some of the Anemone flowers got frozen, but there were blooms after that. The snow all melted, and the temperatures rebounded to the upper 50's shortly afterward. Normally, the Chicago area does not get measurable snow that sticks until November, and there was no more snow until December 1. Weird weather: just one of the things that makes gardening in the Midwest interesting.