"A Slash of Blue"

Last Week: 2+ hours yard work (mowing, edging, trimming, cleanup); 45 min walk
Goals: 2x Boot camp, Continue w/yard work

Moving into a new office building a few miles north of our old one means I take a new route to work. Instead of taking the highway west in town, I now go down E.H.'s Main Street and the head North for several miles, then West into the newer part of town. It means taking smaller, two-lane roads north into the valley. The wide open view over mostly unspoiled fields west and north and in between those two points is stunning first thing in the morning, as well as the opposite view coming home at end day. Due to the snowfall this winter, and now the rain (June is supposed to be very wet as well), everything is green.

There's something about that filtered light barely lighting the valley floor and highlighting the mountains, those patches of green, the browns and blues and grays...it makes my breath catch in my throat, my heart seize in my chest. It's in those moments that a little thought flits through my brain, a sense of wonder, "I can't believe I Live Here." What stroke of luck of fortuitous living of sheer happenstance brought me to this place seven years ago?

A slash of Blue —
A sweep of Gray —
Some scarlet patches on the way,
Compose an Evening Sky —

A little purple— slipped between —
Some Ruby Trousers hurried on —
A Wave of Gold —
A Bank of Day —
This just makes out the Morning Sky.

~ Emily Dickinson

The "Alpine Glow"

Sitrep: 3x Thought about Reving, 2x Thought About doing PPU

Driving into work this morning was beautiful. It's starting to get light out now just around the time I get up. By the time I head for work, it's that lovely gray turning white light.

I go West to get to town; the foothills this morning had a coating of white still from all the snow, with the lovely golden brown of the grass peeking through. Like donuts lightly sprinkled with powdered sugar. Behind them loomed the mountains of the Continental Divide. A darker gray with snow, several long, strung-out layers of puffy clouds hovering above. The light from the rising sun coated the clouds and tips of the Continental Divide a glorious pink that faded down into the snow-covered sides of the mountains. They look just like someone has poured freshly melted pink syrup over the peaks and let it dribble down. Streaks of pink looked like they'd been painted across the white-blue sky. I've been told this is called the "Alpine Glow."

Whatever it's called, it's absolutely beautiful to see when it occurs. The light, the colors, the textures, the depth of the sky...Almost made me glad I was up early enough to see it. Almost!