What a difference a week makes!

Last week, the view from our front yard looked like this. This week? Well, not only have a lot of leaves finished changing, but with the storm that’s been blowing through since last night, a lot of them are now on the ground.

I have to say, though, that I’m totally in love with the way colors look when the sky is dark gray and yet the sun is shining. In fact, Liz and I were discussing that in the car last weekend and both agree on this point. The colors just have this extra-saturated, vibrant feel to them against the gray . . . or it’s something about the way the light filters past the clouds.

I don’t actually know. I just know that it’s a situation that always makes me sit up and take notice. And smile. It always makes me smile, too. When I was in high school, it would always put me in a good mood, fleeting though the concurrence of events would be, I’d always lift up my head and look around with pleasure, appreciating how different all the familiar things looked. Gray really just sets off so many colors, and throw in some bright sun . . . beautiful.

So, I was sitting in the dining room window with Chappy (our favorite spot, you’ll remember) pretty much all day, while we watched the wind blow and the rain pour. There was a brief, twenty minutes or so of sun around lunch, but then . . . more rain. But then, I glanced up from my second book of the day and . . . had to run outside with my camera to get these shots.

This picture I had taken about ten minutes earlier, out of my bedroom window. Through the screen, nonetheless, which adds a kind of interesting, pixelated-blur effect. The light back there was pretty interesting, too, even though–naturally–it’s not possible to photograph the gusts of wind that were tossing the trees around.

It’s been an interesting weather day. And the wind part is not over yet, and is supposed to continue through tomorrow. I love windy days. Not dangerously windy, like hurricanes or blizzards. And if it’s particularly cold, I’d just as soon be inside and away from that knife-edge that wind turns into on bitter days. But a brisk, windy day? The air is alive. Playful or purposeful. Flirting with leaves, playing with hair, tossing Chappy’s ears back. Maybe it’s just the extra ions–one of the reasons sea and mountain air are considered so healthy is because the air is in constant motion–but whatever the cause, I love windy days. You know, just so long as a tree doesn’t fall on my house or something! (Knock wood.)

But . . . yeah . . . interesting weather. Can I just tell you how glad I am that this wet, windy, changeable combination has been this weekend rather than last weekend?? That would have been one, wet blogger meet-up!

Now, other than the weather–always a fascinating topic (grin)–it’s been a fairly uneventful day. Dad is still fighting off a cold. Mom’s stomach was bothering her all day. Chappy’s been napping. Which left me to do what I almost always do on a lazy, weather-bound kind of day. I baked (cupcakes from a mix–shocking but true). And I read. I’m on my third book of the day.

I had every intention of sitting and knitting this afternoon. And spinning. I was definitely going to spin. But . . . that book thing. You know the scene in the second Harry Potter movie where he opens Tom Riddle’s diary and gets sucked inside? (It happens in the book, too, of course, but the movie had such a great visual of that, I’m referencing that instead.) Well, that’s what books do to me ALL the time. I fall into them and can’t get out.

Although, I DID do some spinning for a little while this afternoon. I put a movie into my DVD player and closed the door . . . mostly because, to hear it over the spinning wheel, I need to crank the volume up, and I didn’t want to disturb Dad if he was napping . . . but then Chappy wasn’t happy. He wanted to be downstairs. Or in the hallway. Or somewhere else. He ended up stretched out right in front of the door, trying to will himself through to the other side, and after half an hour or so, I gave up. And went back to my reading!

• Tags: General, Sky • Permalink:What a Difference //