Just after…just confirming that the moments after sunset are as spectacular as the event itself.  It was colder here than usual today and is expected to be so for the next week.  Somehow the gunmetal sheen of the water’s surface communicates that lack of warmth, and it contrasts with the golden layer of the lower clouds.  Even where the color is reflected in the shallow waters, it is dimmed and diminished in its intensity.

What little sun we had did not lend much warmth today and there was more wind than usual.  I covered my ears during our walk.  It is strange to have cold hands and sometimes even feet, and the wind often makes its way through the sleeves of my fleece jacket.  My core is always warm, though, so I feel that my body contains the same mix of warm and cool as does the sky!

We had little gusts of rain intermittently throughout the day, but not enough to even make puddles, never mind ease our drought conditions.  I’ve not experienced a full day of rain in the two and a half years we’ve been here.  I’ve never been awakened by a storm in the night.  After the extremes of midwestern weather, the rain seems exceptionally tame and miserly.   I don’t miss the storms, but the earth needs the moisture.  Let it pour!