"And the sun looked over the mountain's rim: / And straight was a path of gold for him"

I walk out at dawn to find scattered puffy clouds under a sky shading from faint yellow through palest and then light blue -- the shadowed undersides darker than the air, the eastern edges lighter, and a few small ones the same saturation so that they all but disappear. And stillness -- complete stillness, not a twig stirring. And underneath it all, the faint scent of moisture, as if dew had considered the possibility of forming before changing its mind.

-=*=-
There are many reasons to not like living in Arizona, but I do appreciate that past mid-November I can still bicycle to work in shirt sleeves. The corporate climate as well is amenable: I'm wearing a Hawaiian shirt at work. A couple times this season it has shaded just a little too chill for short sleeves, at least in the mornings, but even then a cotton long-sleeve shirt still works. For now -- there will be storms, probably soon, with their cold fronts and real rain.

But for now ...

-=*=-
    Though the valley's dark,
the western hills are washed gold
    by early sunlight.
A glint of bright light reflects
from a distant windowpane.

---L.

Subject quote from "Parting at Morning," Robert Browning.