Warmer

Although the day was mostly cloudy again, the clouds were thin enough that faint shadows were cast, and now and then the sun emerged into a patch of blue sky. There was a pleasant rise in the temperature, as well. Oregon's weather may be returning home, at least for a while. The abundant rain has produced an impressive crop of short winter grass in the fields. They are nearly the greenest I have ever seen them, and even under the comparatively wan sun of January, the dense carpet of color under the bare trees is cheering. Even though the greater part of winter lies ahead, the warming has given us a foretaste of spring, and I was able to leave my windows open for several hours. My disposition is much improved by this good fortune.

Lament

It slipped my mind (a common occurrence) that this is the month my photo host, PictureTrail, goes all-pay. The pictures have undoubtedly all vanished from my journal (except for a couple I posted at Citynoise, which is not an actual photo hosting service, but a site run by rhodamine, where he allows anyone to post pictures of, or text about, the places they live, and also allows the photographs to be remote-loaded to LJ.) Ah, well. Unless I pony up some cash for a paid account at PictureTrail or some other paid hosting service, or can find another free server, and the time to upload all my pictures again, my journal will now be almost picture-free. (Most of my pictures aren't suitable for Citynoise, and I wouldn't want to abuse the privilege of posting there.) And the picture of fake birds I posted to found_objects will be gone, too!

Aside from my super-low-budget Internet service, the only thing to do with the Internet that I've ever paid for is my LiveJournal account (beyond a doubt, the best bargain around.) Even my Webshots account is free, and because it's limited to 10 albums with no more than 24 pictures each, is half used up-- and I don't know how long it will be before Webshots goes all-pay, too. Sooner or later, I'm going to have to pry open the wallet if I want to maintain a Web presence anywhere other than just here. Curses! The free lunch has been consumed, and all that's left is the crumbs, and the indigestion.

Heh I love spell check. Look at the suggestions for "correct" spellings of "Webshots", especially the last one:

Web shots, Web-shots, Webs hots, Webs-hots, Websites, Washouts, Websters, Webfoot's, Washout's, Webster's, Wabash's, Wabbits

Watching the Sky

Far to the west, low on the horizon (because of the high elevation here), all afternoon I could see the glow of sunlight over the valley. From there (as I pictured it) the mass of cloud which formed a luminous grey roof for the ridges and canyons of the mountains would be sparkling white. Under bright blue sky, the students returning from winter break would have been basking on the lawns of the university in the warm sunlight. Here, the shadowed streams flowed loud with runoff from the recent rains, the roiled water as dark as the clouds. I imagined it that water tumbling down the arroyos until, at last, it emerged onto the valley floor and kindled in the evening light that flooded green-grown banks and soft-leafed evergreens. I watched at sunset as the band of bright pearl changed to gold, there where birds undoubtedly sang. The forest birds remained silent.