These are the months when we islanders assume a blanket of gray may cover the land for quite some time. But the last two days have been dazzlers. You folks out there who see the sun every day don’t realize the giddiness that comes with sunshine when you don’t get it for a week or three and all of a sudden you wake up one morning and it’s blasting warmth and ensuing happiness all through you.
This is what our world looks like when I drop the kids at school and head out for a walk, even on a clear morning. The sun hasn’t yet risen over Mount Constitution, and we’d be hibernating like bears still if we didn’t have things to get up for. Temperatures are now starting to drop, and the land looks khaki-gray.
And then…you round the bend down toward Crescent Beach, and the landscape turns radiant with brilliant color as the sun ascends over the island’s east side. You tend to forget what colors sit untapped in the gray until they are lit with yellow fire.
Clear skies draw attention to the fact that the sun’s arc in wintertime here stays low to the ground. You see below, where it just came up? It won’t go much higher than that all day. It will rise to a height just above where the top of the photo ends, and it will work its way west (right) until it’s hidden behind trees and land again around 4:30.
A perfect, breathless morning. Only one other person on the beach, which baffles me.
I’m like a preposition when I see structures like this. I want to go in, around, on, beside, and through them to see if I can get an interesting photo.
The angle of the sun makes for long shadows all day long.
Another structure…
Not much sound except the occasional car on the road and the tiniest lapping of water. A complete immersion in peacefulness.
Town’s colors jump out as well.
Beautiful and vacant; no one but crows and ravens.
And a sign that reminds me of what I’m gonna have when COVID is in our past.
The only activity is in the Co-op. I go in partly for a persimmon to munch on and mostly for the chance to see some fellow human beings. And a visit to the “disco rack” where produce past its perfection can be bought for 75¢ a pound.
On the way home, the natural beauty surrounding the Emmanual Episcopal Church never disappoints.
Happy December from Orcas Island!
Beautiful pictures – as a Santa Barbara resident, I know what you are talking about inassuming sun all the time. Love seeing the familiar scenes on Orcas with no people! Thank you.
Love this Edee! Beauty is all around you and YOU capture it beautifully!