luminosity

One thing I miss about California is the weather. I also now know that although the Wizard of Oz was set in the summer, it was likely written in the winter. This is based on the author's liberal use of the word gray to describe the scenery; it matches my view of the mid-winter countryside.

And so, I present today's photo, a lovely view of the green, green hills above Palo Alto, taken approximately one year ago today.

When Dorothy stood in the doorway and looked around, she could see nothing but the great gray prairie on every side. Not a tree nor a house broke the broad sweep of flat country that reached to the edge of the sky in all directions. The sun had baked the plowed land into a gray mass, with little cracks running through it. Even the grass was not green, for the sun had burned the tops of the long blades until they were the same gray color to be seen everywhere. Once the house had been painted, but the sun blistered the paint and the rains washed it away, and now the house was as dull and gray as everything else. -- L. Frank Baum, The Wizard of Oz