JOY 71/82: Appointment with Spring

While lecturing to a crowded classroom at Harvard, philosopher George Santayana spotted a forsythia in a patch of snow outside the window. Walking to the door he said, "I shall not be able to finish that sentence. I just have discovered that I have an appointment with April."

The rains came early this year and the grass has turned green.  It's my first full year in the foothills so I asked a neighbor if the grass would stay green till spring.  The answer was yes.  California has a long dry season which can last from April through October without a hint of rain  As a matter of fact, if it weren't for the Sierra and other mountain ranges that punctuate the state and practice "catch and release" with the rain, California would be a massive desert.  By May or June when the heat arrives, the hills slowly turn golden ... what some outlanders mistakenly call brown or dead ... until the rains come again.

There is something about the green here.  It's a piercing, innocent green that takes my breath away and on partly cloudy days, the light dances through the clouds and plays across the grass creating colors that cannot be captured.  Living here is like being hugged by nature.