Frozen white stuff, falling from the sky!

We live in Maryland; we really should NOT be having more than the briefest of snow flurries in October.  It's been coming down all afternoon, after a rainy sleety morning, and though accumulation is only about an inch that's significant for this time of year.  I guess it's what we get for having a relatively warm and frost-delayed fall.

Facing snow, gardeners have something of an equivalent to running out to the store for the holy trinity of milk, bread, and toilet paper (in sufficient quantities to survive the apocalypse).  Watching the blogs and listservs before an autumn storm, you see a panicked "but I didn't get my tomatoes in!" response and a lot of last-minute instructions about how to cover artichokes.  I did in fact get my tomatoes in, last week *preens* and I am telling myself firmly that the ground isn't freezing and I don't have to worry about the dahlias or the pomegranate (or the artichokes at the demo garden).  I do hope we get a little more warm weather before winter sets in, to give the roots of the new trees time to connect with the soil (and, um, the roots of the viburnums that I appear to have ordered on sale from Park's and plan to winter over in pots on the deck) and to get some of the remaining outdoor tasks done.  Really I would prefer not to have frozen trashbags of manure spending the winter on the driveway again.

Oh, and this lettuce in the clementine box must shift for itself, but I did cover the salad table with a sheet last night.  That was my total horticultural preparation (I happen to have bought milk, bread, and toilet paper earlier in the week).

The cat has barely moved from the couch all day.  He is disgusted that we have let this happen again.  Nasty white stuff; we will not have it on our paws.