Burnt

[rejectomorph]

Last night's sunset was fairly red, and extended farther north than I would have expected. I thought it was only the great sweeps of cirrus clouds that caught the light. Several hours after nightfall, I began to smell smoke. What little breeze stirred was from the north. I could see no glow on that horizon, so knew the fire was either quite small or quite distant. This morning, the sunrise is quite lurid. I found out that it was because of this-- a fire ignited by lightning yesterday afternoon near Susanville.

Susanville is a few dozen miles northeast of here (the stagecoach route between the towns once ran quite near where my house now stands), and it took all the afternoon and a good part of the night for the drifting smoke to reach us. Although the fire may be out by now, the smell of it remains strong, and its lingering smoke is what gives the dawn its vivid hue. Fire season is starting early. I'm not looking forward to it.