The Mirna valley is white this morning, as I discovered as soon as I opened the shutters. Startled, I took a deep breath. It looks as though it snowed over night, but it is only frost. The fields are white while the woods are quite dark. It is sunny today, and the frost will melt pretty quickly. But my heart immediately went to the yucca about to flower on my terrace. Close to the top of the Motovun hill, it is not as cold around my house as it is in the foothills. I hope it will survive the drop in temperature. But all the plants on the terrace and garden below it will get a clear message at long last: the winter is coming! I can only hope that none of them will be clobbered by yet another bout of cold weather.

Addendum (January 1, 2015)

In the end, the bora that started close to the end of last year put a stop to yucca’s flowering. The buds on top of a long stem rising high above the sharp leaves are limp this morning. After a few days of freezing temperatures, they are lifeless. Alas, the yucca got tricked by many a sign of spring. So far, this is the first such mistake it has made ever since my move to Motovun more than a decade ago. After a few more mistakes like this one, it may well give up the ghost. I can only hope it is resilient enough to survive several more surprises of this ilk. Fingers crossed, as ever.