(And everywhere else, too)

A skim of frozen rain overlaid by a dusting of snow, and all that on top of remnant ice sheets. Creepers required.

Visitors are scheduled to arrive tomorrow so we have suddenly noticed all the little things about the house that need attention (and we are attending to them). I believe there is a generalization lurking here, something like: "Guests are the best insurance against squalor," or, "An open door clears the cobwebs." Or something like that.

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The World Is Too Much With Us; Late and Soon
--William Wordsworth
The world is too much with us; late and soon
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.—Great God! I’d rather be
a Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on the pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.