Harbinger of Winter

Our stunning fireweed, with colors ranging from deep pink to purple, has lost the flowers and gone to seed. I confess to a bit of panic on windy days when the fireweed seeds fly – it looks like snowflakes in the wind – and is a harbinger that winter is on the way. Alaska legend says that when the fireweed is done blooming, the first snow is six weeks away. That happened mid-September this year. If the legend holds, we can anticipate our first snow around the beginning of November.