(no subject)
I really need to A) learn how to use my camera properly and B) take it with me places. I've spent the weekend walking all over with my sister and Sammy on Saturday, and just my sister today. My feet are tired (the toes of my right foot always get smashed) but I saw so many beautiful things. The weather now is that perfect, cold cloudy gray, where the sky looks as soft as kitten fur. The air is cold but not too cold, it looks just right and the light is just dimmed enough to make all the colors really glow. Nothing is oversaturated, all the reds and yellows just seem to glow right where they all, rustling from the dark branches and the gentle blanket they lay on the hills. Nothing drastic, just the flecks run across a canvas with a brush, highlighting the deep dark green of pines and the bright green and silver of apple and willow.
It's amazing how I can forget how neat it is to live here, and just to be able to walk around and move over a quarter mile or less and find oneself in a totally different environment. I've tromped around bogs, walked through the orchards and the vineyards, under the dappled canopy of redwoods and bay trees, open scrubby fields ringed by wild blackberries and aster. The hills take you up and down, hiding little neighborhoods and microclimates, each with their unique set of houses and gardens, and after a long time of winding around in the far back country when we finally emerged to a place where I could see part of the road right next to my house, I didn't recognize that stand of willow at all and sat there marveling at how beautiful it was. It's amazing how familiarity can hide that from you. When I finally could see around the cottonwood stand and recognized where I was the context of the scene changed, and those set of trees were suddenly ordinary instead of rarely beautiful.
And of course this is apple country, apples everywhere, apples in great heaps around the trees on the ground. I'm used to the mild apple vinegar smell in the orchards this time of year. It's impossible to get them all up, and the groundfalls have good ones mixed in and we eat them as we pass through since they are never used. Even then there are wild apples, grave apples, wild roadside berries and grapes. All season long, even if you don't have your own trees you could pretty much be good, I haven't even figured out how many varieties the graveyard has. Now that my gravs are done I've been using them for eating apples, golden delicious and braeburns I recognize, but there are more, mostly striped.
It's put me in a very tl;dr mood. You have really long thoughts when you spend hours of time walking. Last night I tl;dr'ed for so long while I was drinking my tea I never finished the post. Now, my thoughts are still a little rambly but I'm tired...tired and I still feel like I should do some baking tonight. Probably zucchini bread. I must put zucchini in everything now.
It's amazing how I can forget how neat it is to live here, and just to be able to walk around and move over a quarter mile or less and find oneself in a totally different environment. I've tromped around bogs, walked through the orchards and the vineyards, under the dappled canopy of redwoods and bay trees, open scrubby fields ringed by wild blackberries and aster. The hills take you up and down, hiding little neighborhoods and microclimates, each with their unique set of houses and gardens, and after a long time of winding around in the far back country when we finally emerged to a place where I could see part of the road right next to my house, I didn't recognize that stand of willow at all and sat there marveling at how beautiful it was. It's amazing how familiarity can hide that from you. When I finally could see around the cottonwood stand and recognized where I was the context of the scene changed, and those set of trees were suddenly ordinary instead of rarely beautiful.
And of course this is apple country, apples everywhere, apples in great heaps around the trees on the ground. I'm used to the mild apple vinegar smell in the orchards this time of year. It's impossible to get them all up, and the groundfalls have good ones mixed in and we eat them as we pass through since they are never used. Even then there are wild apples, grave apples, wild roadside berries and grapes. All season long, even if you don't have your own trees you could pretty much be good, I haven't even figured out how many varieties the graveyard has. Now that my gravs are done I've been using them for eating apples, golden delicious and braeburns I recognize, but there are more, mostly striped.
It's put me in a very tl;dr mood. You have really long thoughts when you spend hours of time walking. Last night I tl;dr'ed for so long while I was drinking my tea I never finished the post. Now, my thoughts are still a little rambly but I'm tired...tired and I still feel like I should do some baking tonight. Probably zucchini bread. I must put zucchini in everything now.