Far From the Home I Love

Two weeks ago we flew to California, and drove north from L.A. to a little town called Solvang in the Santa Ynez Valley. My husband, a California-is-for-Californians kind of guy, who whined about having no snow the entire time we lived in Virginia, has been out to L.A. and San Diego a few times on business, as have I, but our view was mostly of highways and Naval bases (although I was lucky enough to have time to visit the San Diego Zoo, and my husband still talks about getting to play Torrey Pines at the resident/military fee). So, it was rather refreshing to actually spend some time in a section of California that is more similar in character to our own town in rural Connecticut. It was interesting to see the farms, with raised or covered crops and large irrigation systems, and to note the difference in the landscape, which ran in shades of vivid blue, dark green, and various degrees of brown. We both decided that, given a winning Powerball ticket, we'd have no problem living there (because, as I pointed out to my husband, one can always visit snow, which, of course, would be shoveled and plowed by others).

Then we came home. Right into the height of a New England Autumn. Now, I have to admit, I'm liking spring more and more each year. The colors are more subtle, but I like to see how many different shades of green I can see, and then see them develop over the next month, as they mix with the flowering bushes and bulbs that also start appearing around that time. Autumn gives a brief, fiery show and then you get...fall (literally, as I look out at the yard covered with dead leaves that weren't there on Sunday). That said, coming back into it from the more subdued browns and tans of California was invigorating. It's nice to travel and get away from the humdrum of daily life, but sometimes, in quirky little ways, it points out to you what you'd miss if you weren't where you are, right now.

So, it's a week past peak color, but it's still going strong and breathtakingly beautiful. On the drive home from my volunteer job this morning, I was thinking about how gorgeous it is where I live. I'll have to do another post on the view driving into town, because it's picture-postcard perfect. Can you imagine what it really looks like, if it looks this good through my dirty car windows with a cell phone camera?



And that's my silver lining for today.


Note: Here's a (rather blurry--I'll have to get another one on Saturday--he kept jumping around) photo of the costume that resulted from yesterday's turmoil:


Of course, apparently I still have to figure out how he can lower his arms and see to walk. But, hey, it LOOKS good, right?!?!