Playing With the New Toy

I've uploaded another picture- a really big one this time. It's a couple of years old, and taken with the crappy Fuji snapshot camera, but I like it anyway. I've got quite a few image files this size, and I could fill up my alloted space pretty fast if I upload very many of them.

This picture was taken south of town, below the line of the ponderosas and the big mountain oaks. Here there is open pasture land, studded with these small oaks and a scattering of digger pines. The landscape is rough, cut by deep gulches filled with manzanita and thorny brush. On clear days, the view over the valley is splendid, but on winter days the fog frequently rolls in by late afternoon and lingers until early the next morning. That's when I like it best.

January Fog These bare oaks were about to be engulfed by the fog rising up the mountain in late afternoon.

Sweating It Out

A haze of thin, curdled cloud is dimming the evening stars. The days are once again heating up, and tonight is unlikely to bring a reprise of last night's pleasantly chilly freshness. Mourning the recent winds, I let the still and sultry air pull me into its lassitude. Breathing it is a chore, so heavy is it with the weedy pollen of the season. My brain is like that air, sluggish and dense, and buzzing with thoughts as monotonous as the katydid's chirr. Tomorrow will be hotter still. The blankets I put on my bed today I will return to the closet. September is a moody month, April's evil twin.